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 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.

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.

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.

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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.

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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 dy namic 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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PSYCHOLOGY

MICHAEL HASSELMO
Professor; DPhil, Oxford University

Research Interests: 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.

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

Research Interests: 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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