Payton joined the BrainGate team at the Emory site in January 2024. As a Clinical Neurotechnology Research Assistant, she works directly with the BrainGate system, aiding participants in data collection for various projects that contribute to the development of advanced prosthetics, brain-computer interfaces, and assistive speech technologies. Her research in the Systems and Neural Engineering Laboratory at Emory focuses on using the BRAND system and associated methodology for analyzing session data.

Payton received her B.S. in Bioengineering at UCLA. During her undergraduate studies, she was involved in several neuroengineering-focused projects and classes, maintaining a strong interest in their potential applications for restoring mobility and facilitating communication for individuals with limited motor abilities. Notably, her capstone project was in Dr. Speier’s lab, where she concentrated on using EEG motor imagery to identify five distinct regional signals in the brain with the goal of allowing users to type sentences using a combination of these signals.