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


DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS

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.

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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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DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

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