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Back to Research
The faculty listed below share an interest in understanding the workings of the human mind
by studying the intact brain. To this end, a number of research programs in
the Psychology Department focus upon the interrelationships between psychological and physiological aspects of
behavior. Various foci include development, emotion, language, memory, motivation, and psychopathology.
Our department has a long and distinguished history in the area of psychophysiology.
Thus, the department commands extensive technical and human resources.
State-of-the-art laboratory facilities include capabilities for recording CNS,
ANS and somatosensory processes. Neuroimaging facilities include a
state-of-the-art PET scanner (GE ADVANCE), with fullradiochemistry and cyclotron
support and a 1.5 T GE MR scanner equipped with the GE EchoSpeed echoplanar
imaging system for functional MR (fMRI) studies.
Included within the fMRI laboratory
suite is a simulator room with the shell of a GE MR scanner set up to simulate
a real scanner.
Neuroimaging facilities include the Waisman Laboratory for Brain
Imaging and Behavior. This state-of-the-art facility houses a General Electric 3T
Signa VH/I MR system that is optimized for hight-speed echo-planar imaging as
well as diffusion tensor imaging, an fMRI simulator room with a mock scanner for
acclimating subjects to the neuroimaging environment and familiarizing them with
behavioral testing procedures, and a PET scanner (GE ADVANCE) with
fullradiochemistry and cyclotron support.
Additionally, the UW-Madison MRI
Center, located in the same building as the Keck laboratory, features a GE Signa
1.5 MRI scanner that is also optimized for high-speed fMRI.
This resource is especially valuable
for studies involving children or populations that may be difficult to test
in neuroimaging situations. Extensive computer support including approximately
8 SUN or SGI workstations is available for image analysis.
Both the Psychology Department and the Waisman Center employ a number of in-house full-time
electronic, mechanical, and software programming staff. Three
full-time engineers in these shops provide labor without charge to researchers
working in the Psychology Department.
We are especially pleased to announce that in the late Fall of 1999, students will also have
the opportunity of working in the Waisman Laboratory for
Brain Imaging and Behavior. This facility will be located in an interdisciplinary
center on campus that will house research programs broadly
related to development with strong neuroscience and behavioral components.
This laboratory will consist of a new PET scanner, a tandem accelerator
for radiotracer production , and a new 3T MRI scanner devoted
to research. This center will provide increased opportunities
for graduate students in psychology to collaborate with faculty from numerous
departments including psychiatry, radiology, physics, computer science,
communication disorders, and neuroscience.
Related Faculty with Primary Appointments in Psychology
Richard Davidson directs the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience.
The work of this lab focuses on the biological substrates and consequences
of emotion and disorders of emotion. Current studies focus on the role of
the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and other cortical and subcortical circuitry
on different components of affective responding, particularly features of
emotion regulation. The downstream consequences of activation in this
circuitry and the implications of these downstream effects for health are
also of interest. We use a full range of psychophysiological measures
including brain electrical activity, autonomic activity (including impedance
cardiography), and skeletal-muscular activity (including startle). In addition,
we use metabolic and hemodynamic neuroimaging extensively including
positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Some of our work also includes neuroendocrine, immune and sleep
assessments.
Morton Gernsbacher's lab
investigates language comprehension. Their goal is to investigate the general
cognitive processes and mechanisms underlying language comprehension, and comprehension
in general. They do so using a simple framework, the Structure Building Framework,
as a guide. They have recently begun using functional magnetic brain imaging
as a tool to identify these general cognitive processes and mechanisms.
Diane Gooding is particularly interested
in the biological bases of psychotic disorders, as well as individual differences in brain-behavior
relationships. Using psychophysiological techniques, students in her lab
study putative biobehavioral markers of schizophrenia, such as smooth
pursuit eye tracking, saccadic eye movements, and nailfold capillary plexus.
Current work in the Child Emotion Research
Lab, directed by Seth Pollak, is focused upon potential mechanisms
in the development of both typical and atypical emotional development. We are
currently exploring emotion recognition in groups of children at risk for emotional problems, including
maltreated children and those with developmental disabilities. Our lab uses psychophysiological
(e.g., brain electrical activity, event-related potential) and cognitive neuropsychological
techniques to explore putative risk factors in the development of psychopathology.
We are especially interested in the relationship between stress and disorder, and the interplay
of biology and social experience in development. These general issues frame our explorations of
the mechanisms through which affective/cognitive processes become organized
in typical human development and may also contribute to the development of psychopathology.
Brad Postle: My interest in human memory focuses on the cognitive and neural bases of working memory and nondeclarative memory.
Topics motivating recent and current research include: the organization of working memory function in prefrontal cortex;
the differential contributions of prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia to visual working memory; nonmnemonic control
processes that contribute to working memory performance; the mechanisms underlying repetition priming phenomena; and
a novel mechanism that may support spatial working memory performance. Experimental methods employed in my
laboratory include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), behavioral testing of neurological patients and of healthy
young adults, and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).
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