Faculty are listed by Department within their Research Areas,
with descriptions of their active projects.

ANATOMY AND NEUROBIOLOGY

Mark Moss
Chairman and Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology; PhD,
Northeastern University

Research Interests:Research efforts are aimed at the investigation of the neurobiological basis of memory in humans and nonhuman primates. Studies include behavioral, neurohistochemical, and neuroanatomical assessment of the effects of basal forebrain and selected brain stem and limbic system lesions in the monkey as a working model of Alzheimer's disease and other neurologic disorders. Parallel behavioral and neuropathological studies are conducted in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

ALAN PETERS
Waterhouse Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology; PhD,
University of Bristol, England

Research Interests:Research interests are on (1) the organization, connections, and characteristics of neurons in the cerebral cortex, and (2) the effects of normal aging on the primate cerebral cortex. The techniques used include light and electron microscopy, immunocytochemistry, confocal microscopy, and stereology.

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DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

LUCIA M. VAINA
Professor, Biomedical Engineering; Research Professor of Neurology,
School of Medicine; Brain and Vision Research Laboratory;
MS, U. Timisoara and Urbino (Italy); PhD, Mathematical Logic,
Sorbonne (France); MD, PhD (Neurologie), Human and Computational
Vision, Institut National Politechnique de Toulouse (France)

Research Interests: The adult brain constantly adapts to changes in stimuli, and this plasticity is manifest not only as learning and memory but also as dynamic changes in information transmission and processing. The goal of research in my laboratory is to understand the mechanisms mediating human visual perception in healthy and damaged human brain,  long-term plasticity and short-term dynamics in networks of the  adult normal and damaged (from stroke) cortex by using interactively multimodal imaging (fMRI, MEG, DTI), psychophysics, and biologically constraint computational modeling. An additional facet of our research is translational,  conducted hand in hand with several neurologists and physiatrists clinicians, investigates multisensory processing for facilitating behavior and recovery in stroke patients.

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DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS

DANIEL H. BULLOCK
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and
Psychology; PhD, Stanford University

Research Interests: Integrated neural network models of sensory-motor learning, planning and control. These neural network models encompass circuits in cortex, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and the spinal cord. Our studies focus on step-by-step reconstruction of known brain and CNS circuits within the context of a quantitative functional theory of adaptive behavior and cognition. Concepts and hypotheses are rigorously assessed by comprehensive computer simulations of neural circuits that are specified as systems of ordinary differential equations.

GAIL A. CARPENTER
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and
Mathematics; PhD, University of Wisconsin

Research Interests:Development of neural network models for self-organizing category learning and pattern recognition; neural mechanisms of synaptic transmission and adaptation; and systems that incorporate these models into neural networks architectures for incremental supervised learning and prediction. Also: Neural models of vision, nerve impulse generation (Hodgkin-Huxley equations), transmitter dynamics, and biological rhythms.

MICHAEL A. COHEN
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Computer Science; PhD, Harvard University

Research Interests:Neural network models of speech and language processing. Stability and instability of dynamical systems underlying neural networks. Models of memory, language comprehension, and auditory psychoacoustics, statistical neural network models of depression, and cardiovascular control.

STEPHEN GROSSBERG
Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems,
Professor of Mathematics, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering;
Director, Center for Adaptive Systems; Chairman, Department of
Cognitive and Neural Systems; PhD, Rockefeller University

Research Interests:Development of neural models of learning, recognition, memory, vision, audition, speech, cognition, reinforcement, attention, adaptive sensory-motor control, and biological rhythms. Systematic analysis and prediction of behavioral and brain data in both normal and clinical patients. Applications to outstanding technological problems.

FRANK GUENTHER
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems; PhD,
Boston University

Research Interests:Areas of research include speech production, speech perception, and functional brain imaging. These areas are studied with an approach that combines computational and neural modeling with experimental investigations that test model performance and guide model development. Modeling efforts emphasize skill acquisition and flexible performance under a variety of environmental conditions.

ENNIO MINGOLLA
Chair and Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Psychology;Co-Director, Center for Excellence in Learning in Education, Science, and Technology. PhD, University of Connecticut.

Research Interests:Theoretical research includes design of neural network architectures for visual perception, including segmentation, completion, and grouping of static and moving boundaries, textures, and shaded regions. Empirical research includes psychophysical studies of human perception of visual motion, visual search, surface perception, and object recognition.

ERIC L. SCHWARTZ
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Electrical and
Computer Systems Engineering, and Anatomy and Neurobiology;
PhD, Columbia University

Research Interests:Computational neuroscience, space-variant vision, modeling of cortical map and column systems, spatial representation, computer-aided neuroanatomy, robotics, and VLSI.

BARBARA G. SHINN-CUNNINGHAM
Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and
Biomedical Engineering; PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research Interests:My research focuses on modeling auditory perception, with a special emphasis on binaural and spatial hearing, learning and plasticity in spatial perception, and multi-sensory interactions. The goal of this work is to develop physiologically-based, computational models that describe human and animal behavior. Perceptual experiments are used to test and refine these models.

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SCIENCES

HELEN BARBAS
Professor; PhD, McGill University.

Research Interests: Organization of the prefrontal cortex in primates. Research involves the use of tracers to map neural circuits associated with cognitive, mnemonic, and emotional processes. Combined histochemical, immunocytochemical, and molecular approaches are used to characterize specific receptors and intracellular markers in neurons involved in these circuits.

SWATHI KIRAN
Associate Professor and Director, Aphasia Research Laboratory; Ph.D.Northwestern University.
Research Interests: Dr Kiran's Aphasia Research Laboratory is interested in understanding language processing and language recovery mechanisms in normal individuals and patients with brain damage. A variety of methodological approaches are used that include rehabilitation experiments, functional neuroimaging and computational modeling. Research topics include aphasia rehabilitation, functional neuroimaging of language recovery in monolingual and bilingual individuals with aphasia, and bilingual aphasia rehabilitation.

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DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

NANCY KOPELL
Professor; PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Research Interests: I'm interested in the origin and functional uses of dynamics in the nervous system, especially dynamics involving rhythms. My main current focus is rhythms in the hippocampus, thalamus and neocortex, especially rhythms associated with memory, learning, attention and awareness. The research aims to understand first how the intrinsic and synaptic membrane properties of classes of neurons lead networks of such neurons to exhibit rhythmic behavior, and how modulations lead to different dynamic behavior (e.g., different rhythms). This knowledge is the basis for investigation of how subnetworks of the nervous system affect the dynamics of other subnetworks, how they coordinate their firing (e.g., create dispersed cell assemblies), and why different rhythms appear in different behavioral contexts. Other interests include the dynamics of central pattern generators.

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DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

HOWARD EICHENBAUM
University Professor and Director of Center for Neuroscience and the Center for Memory and Brain; PhD, University of Michigan.

My research involves explorations of the neural circuitry that mediates our capacities for cognition and memory. In particular, work in my lab focuses on the contributions of a system of brain structures including the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. Our approach to understanding this system entails a combination of neuropsychological testing to analyze how memory breaks down after selective damage to components of this system and electrophysiological recording to characterize how experiences are encoded by the activity patterns of neurons in these brain structures.

MICHAEL HASSELMO
Professor of Psychology; DPhil, Oxford University

Research in the Hasselmo laboratory focuses on physiological and computational analysis of the mechanisms of memory function in mammalian cortical circuits, including the role of activation in muscarinic acetylcholine receptors and GABAB receptors, and the role of oscillatory dynamics in the olfactory cortex and hippocampus. Students in the laboratory have the opportunity to learn a wide range of neuroscience research techniques, including electrophysiological recording from brain slice preparations of the hippocampus and piriform cortex, recordings of evoked potentials and unit activity in anesthetized and chronic preparations, detailed compartmental biophysical simulations of cortical circuits, and behavioral studies of cholinergic modulation in olfactory behavior. Articles from this laboratory have been co-authored by numerous trainees, many of whom have performed both computational modeling work and physiological research while working in the laboratory.

JACQUELINE A. LIEDERMAN
Associate Professor; PhD, University of Rochester

Mechanisms underlying interhemispheric collaboration during information processing; endocrinological and immunological mechanisms underlying male prevalence for neurodevelopmental disorders and lefthandedness; the effects of environmental estrogens on the developing brain.

HENRY MARCUCELLA
Professor; PhD, Boston University

Conditioning and learning; behavioral pharmacology; drugs as reinforcers with particular interest in alcohol self-administration.

DAVID SOMERS
Assistant Professor; PhD, Boston University

My research investigates the neural mechanisms of visual perception and attention. These investigations take place at three levels of analysis: investigating perceptual function; mapping perceptual function onto brain structures; and studying the computational architecture of the underlying neural mechanisms. In pursuing these goals, three primary techniques are employed: traditional human visual psychophysics; functional magnetic resonance imaging of human brain activity during visual perceptual and attentional tasks; and computational modeling of visual cortical circuitry. Current specific topics of interest include visual spatial attention, visual motion perception, lightness perception, and neural computations in primary visual cortex.

CHANTAL E. STERN
Professor of Psychology; DPhil, Oxford University

Research in the Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory at Boston University is focused on using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study memory and cognition. The long-term objective of the laboratory is to elucidate the neural substrates underlying memory processing in the normal human brain, and to extend these finding to study changes in memory functioning in normal aging, Alzheimer's disease, and AIDS-related dementia. An additional goal is to integrate the fMRI studies of human memory processing with knowledge from animal models and computational modeling (Eichenbaum and Hasselmo laboratories). Recent work includes fMRI studies of prefrontal and medial temporal lobe interactions in picture and word encoding, examining the role of prefrontal and medial temporal lobe contributions to working memory for spatial, non-spatial, and complex visual stimuli, and studies combining cognitive, physiological and morphometric methods to examine changes associated with aging. Imaging is carried out at the Massachusetts General Hospital-NMR Center. Students and postdoctoral fellows are provided with training in cognitive neuroscience, neuroanatomy, block design and event-related fMRI, cortical inflation and flattening techniques, and cortical parcellation techniques. In 1999, installation of MEG facilities at the MGH-NMR Center further enhanced available research opportunities.

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