UNH Today

Adam Brockett did not grow up thinking that he would become a scientist. In sixth grade, he argued with conviction against the idea, announcing to his parents that history and music would be his focus. Years later, a book, “This Is Your Brain on Music,” shifted the axis.

Now an assistant professor in biological sciences at COLSA, Brockett is exploring how experiences shape the brain — and helping students discover their own “aha” moments along the way. Let’s get to know him a little better.

COLSA: What is the most interesting thing about you?

Adam Brockett: Growing up I hated science. Given my career it’s probably somewhat surprising, but in the sixth grade, I made a very impassioned speech to my parents about how I did not want to be in a science honors program. I wanted to study history or music.

I stuck to it until my first semester of college, when I read this book called This Is Your Brain On Music. I called my mom and said I think I want to be a neuroscientist. And she just laughed. But after that, it clicked. I finally saw why science was so important and how it could be a tool to explain things that we don't know about.

COLSA: Tell us about your current position.

Adam: I am currently an assistant professor in the department of biological sciences. I've been here since August 2024. I teach, and in my lab, we research how experience changes the brain. I'm interested and I hope my students are really interested in this idea that the brain is always adapting.

That’s somewhat controversial in neuroscience. Almost since the field was founded, people thought that most of the brain’s development occurred in utero. There was a little bit of pruning and refinement that was going on after you are born, but by the time you hit puberty, you were basically stuck with whatever brain you had at that point for the rest of your life. We now know that's not true. Even though we know this, the field has been hesitant to recognize the impact that experience has.

I think of the brain as this wildly adaptive organ, and it's really exciting to think about how we can potentially manipulate or tweak it in a way that could for example prevent age-related cognitive decline.

COLSA: What motivates you to do what you do?

Adam: It's two things. I think it's the excitement of learning something. There's just something really cool about looking at a brain under the microscope and trying to figure out how the cells have changed or whether they've changed at all.

The other side of it is the students. I think coming from that perspective where it took me awhile to fully appreciate why science is useful or exciting, I enjoy being in a classroom setting, being in a lab setting, just interacting with them where I can hopefully make that link a little bit clearer, especially to people like me who didn't pick that up until later in life.

COLSA: What is the challenge or question that your research is seeking to solve or answer?

Adam: I think broadly how experiences impact the brain and what is the limit to the brain's ability to adapt. A lot of neuropsychiatric diseases constrain our ability to adapt. Figuring out what those constraints are and if can we change them or alleviate them in some way is one part of it.

It’s also wildly interesting to think about the brain. The history of the neuroscience in general is for so long we focused on neurons as the cell that drives plasticity and behavior. But in more recent years, both my research and other people's research has focused on the supporting cells, the glial cells, a name that comes from the Greek for glue. We now know that these cells play profound roles. It’s exciting figuring out and being at the forefront of the discovery of what are these cells that for so long we've relegated to “glue” are doing.

COLSA: Why is your research important? Why should people outside the scientific or academic community care?

Adam: I think they should care because at the core, every human is a neuroscientist, whether they know it or not. If you've read the news, driven down the road, listened to a TikTok, seen someone do something and thought, “What were they thinking?” — that's the question that neuroscientists ask.

While for most people it stops at that superficial level, going just one step further and saying, “How does the brain changing ultimately change our behavior, the way that we interact with the world?” I think that's the key to what makes this research so important.

There is also the disease side to it. Aging affects all of us. Looking at it from that perspective also tends to get a lot of engagement because if we can make subtle tweaks to our lifestyle, whether it's exercising more, eating some specialized diet, those are things that we can do that might have beneficial effects that shift the onset of some of the more negative aspects of aging on cognitive ability or ability in general.

COLSA: Are the effects of aging on cognition or cognitive decline a particular area of interest for you?

Adam: It’s emerging. Right before I came here, I was wrapping up some studies where I studied rats. We followed rats across their lifespan, which is just about two years. We tested them at multiple points in their life on the same task and usually in neuroscience, especially animal research, it's kind of this one shot and done. You get some old rats and you compare them to young rats and lo and behold, there's differences.

Following the lifespan of a set of rats gave us the opportunity to see when those deficits actually start appearing, at least at a behavioral level. Using that, we now kind of have this window where we know right around 14 to 15 months of age, we start seeing these deficits. So that probably means things that have happened to the physiology and the cells have occurred before that, and that's middle age.

Using that as a guide, what I'd like my lab to start doing is looking back and asking, “What's happening to the cells at 13 months or 12 months? How is aging affected by variables like exercise and social isolation?”

These are things that happen as we get older: We lose our social ties, we become a little bit more isolated. How does that change the brain? We know in younger animals that doesn't have significant effects. But what about older ones? And looking at exercise at all parts of the lifespan, but definitely with an eye toward exercise later in life. Can we intervene? Can we push off these age-related cognitive declines?

COLSA: What do you like most about the work you do?

Adam: For me, that opportunity to be on the microscope looking at cells is the thing that I love doing. Looking through a microscope is like watching reality TV. You're peering into this world that you can't see with the naked eye, but there's so much going on there.

I also love thinking about what people are thinking. Just kind of like looking through a microscope, but in a different way. You're peering into what's driving them, what's motivating them, why did they do that weird thing?

I study cognitive control, which is our ability to inhibit one kind of response in favor of another response or switch from one goal or strategy to the next. For example, if I noticed my pen was falling while talking to you, I could pretty easily move my pen but not really lose the conversation. That's cognitive control that drives everything we do. So I think there's that part, too — figuring out what are those processes that are driving how you’re responding to what you're seeing.

COLSA: What are the goals you most want to accomplish in your work? Not so much the goals related to your job description.

Adam: Personally, I want to inspire my students and be a mentor to them. I want to see my students be successful and provide them with the opportunity to ask questions that are meaningful to them and give them the tools to find those answers. And I think if I could mentor a few students that went on to grad school and became a professor one day, that would be the dream.

COLSA: Do you have any mentors or people who deeply influenced who you are, what you believe in, and what you're committed to in your work and life?

Adam: I'd say my parents, who did a great job of showing me that it's important to put family first, to be there for one another and care for one another.

They also really instilled in me an interest in exploring. My family would take these day trips, throughout Maryland, and I remember that my friends never seemed to do that with their parents, and at first, admittedly, I didn't always love doing it. But now, one of my favorite things to do is to just take my camera, jump in the car and I'll go up to Kennebunkport or Ogunquit or wherever and walk around for a little bit taking pictures.

The other two big influences was my grad school advisor, Liz, at Princeton and my postdoc advisor, Matt, at the University of Maryland. Liz is endlessly curious and that's really shaped the way I think about science. And if I could be a fraction as good as Matt is as an advisor, like I feel like I'd be a great professor because he's always there for his students.

COLSA: What do you do in your spare time? What are your hobbies or outside interests?

Adam: I play a little soccer, and I watch a lot of soccer. I run. My wife is not a morning person, but she will get up with me, and we’ll drive around at sunrise and take photos. Photography I find is one of those things where I can kind of silence my brain and be present in the moment.

COLSA: What's your favorite book?

Adam: I really like the book “Do Hard Things” by Steve Magnus. I think he lays out an interesting approach to life that's also very scientifically informed and resonates with me. It’s a good reminder that it's not a bad thing to face challenges.

COLSA: If you could have dinner with five famous people, living or dead, who would they be?

Adam: I would like to have dinner with Marian Diamond. She wrote the book called Enriching Heredity. Unfortunately, she recently passed away. Kelly Lambert is another neuroscientist that I think is just an amazing scientist. She writes tons of books. She's a great teacher. She's alive. I recently met her, but I'd love to have dinner with her. I think that's it. I have a lot of food allergies, so I'm not a fun dinner guest.

COLSA: What's one thing about you that few people know and yet you would be okay in this interview?

Adam: Well, I struggle to wink. I can't do it at all with my left eye.

COLSA: What has been the happiest day of your life?

Adam: When I got married, my wife and I had been dating for almost eight years. I think we always knew that we were going to get married or that we'd be together, but when I decided to come here, we made the decision to get married. Our parents had met, but our extended families hadn’t. We were a little nervous about that, but it was great. We had a dinner the day before our wedding, and both our families socialized so naturally. Seeing that not only were we a good fit, but that our families interacted so well, just made me happy. It was one of our last days in Maryland. We moved here three days after getting married. It was a good culmination of things before moving to New Hampshire.