Biography

Alayna earned her B.S. in Biology from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2018, where she conducted research with Dr. Allen Mensinger. As an undergraduate, she studied how anthropogenic (i.e., human-made) sounds affect the calling behavior of oyster toadfish (Opsanus tau). She went on to complete her PhD in 2025 with Dr. Ken Lohmann at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill through the Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Behavior program in the Department of Biology. There, she investigated the mechanisms and neural processing of magnetic sensing in vertebrates. Alayna joined the Sisneros lab at the University of Washington in February 2026.

 

Research

Alayna is broadly interested in the behavioral, physiological, and neural mechanisms that underlie the processing and use of sensory cues in animal behavior. In particular, she is interested in understanding how fishes, specifically the plainfin midshipman (Porichthys notatus), detect substrate-borne vibrations.