BBTAD Training Faculty
- Andrew Alexander, Ph.D.
- Anthony P. Auger, Ph.D.
- Ruth M. Benca, M.D., Ph.D.
- Craig W. Berridge, Ph.D.
- Christopher L. Coe, Ph.D.
- Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.
- Susan Ellis Weismer, Ph.D.
- Morton Ann Gernsbacher, Ph.D.
- H. Hill Goldsmith, Ph.D.
- Ned H. Kalin, M.D.
- Ann E. Kelley, Ph.D.
- Lewis A. Leavitt, M.D.
- Maryellen C. MacDonald, Ph.D.
- Catherine A. Marler, Ph.D.
- M. Elizabeth Meyerand, Ph.D.
- Seth D. Pollak, Ph.D.
- Timothy T. Rogers, Ph.D.
- Jenny R. Saffran, Ph.D.
- Mary L. Schneider, Ph.D.
- Mark Seidenberg, Ph.D.
- Ei Terasawa, Ph.D.
- Jon A. Wolff, M.D.
Andrew Alexander, Ph.D.
Andrew Alexander, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Medical Physics and Psychiatry and Director of MR Physics Research in the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging & Behavior at the Waisman Center. His research is focused on the development, evaluation, and application of quantitative neuroimaging methods with MRI for biological characterization of the human brain. He is currently applying these methods to measure aspects of typical brain development in early adolescence and atypical brain development in autism from early childhood through early adulthood. The aim of this work is to noninvasively characterize anatomical, structural and functional brain development as it relates to behavioral changes and differences in both typical and atypical children populations.
Dr. Alexander has significant expertise in MRI brain imaging techniques,
including BOLD fMRI, anatomical imaging, and diffusion tensor imaging. His
lab is currently developing new pulse sequences (MRI acquisition methods),
imaging protocols and image analysis techniques for neuroimaging studies
for characterizing biological changes with brain development. His research
is focused on the application of these methods for studying the relationships
between functional and structural substrates of cognition and emotion in
the typically and atypically developing human brain, and comparing these
measurements with behavioral measures.
Anthony P. Auger, Ph.D.
Anthony P. Auger, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Psychology. His research focuses on how steroid receptors influence brain development and have lasting consequences on behavior and physiology in adulthood. Steroid receptor activation in the developing brain defines behavioral and physiological differences between the sexes. Because some disorders occur at higher rates in one sex, such as autism and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorders, it is important to understand how these differences occur during brain development. Dr. Auger's research investigates a novel pathway by which neurotransmitters can activate steroid receptors and have lasting consequences on gene expression and the development of social play behavior. Thus, his research is aimed at understanding how typical and atypical social behavior is regulated by steroid receptors in developing brain.
Dr. Auger's research combines behavioral and molecular biology. Using
rodent model systems, he combines emerging genetic techniques such as gene
knockdown experiments using anti-sense oligodeoxynucleotides, examination
of changes in gene expression using DNA microarrays, and quantitative Real-time
PCR tools.
Ruth M. Benca, M.D., Ph.D.
Ruth M. Benca, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry. Her research employs behavioral, neurophysiological, and neuroanatomical techniques to elucidate mechanisms for sleep abnormalities in psychiatric disorders. Specific projects include identifying neural mechanisms underlying sleep-wakefulness responses to acute lighting changes, analyzing sleep and behavior in migratory birds as a model for bipolar disorder, determining the role of the amygdala in sleep regulation, and describing sleep changes associated with mood disorders in humans. She also studies the effects of sleep deprivation on emotion and behavior in various animal models.
Dr. Benca is Board Certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine and trains
Psychiatry residents, Sleep Medicine fellows and Clinical Psychology interns.
Her basic research studies use animal models to study typical and atypical
sleep responses to various environmental stimuli. Methods used in the laboratory
include sleep electroencephalographic recording and analysis in humans,
non-human primates, rodents and birds; cognitive testing and assessment
of emotional / defensive responses; clinical assessment of patient populations
using research diagnostic criteria; gene expression studies; and behavioral
neuropharmacological studies.
Craig W. Berridge, Ph.D.
Craig W. Berridge, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry. His research focuses on the biological bases of both typical and atypical behavior, particularly in the context of arousal and state-dependent cognitive processes. A primary area of research is the degree to which catecholamine neurotransmitter systems, norepinephrine and dopamine, participate in the regulation of behavioral state and certain attentional and memory processes. Of particular interest in this research program are the neural correlates of the therapeutic actions of low-stimulants as used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. A long term goal of this research program is to better understand the neurobiology of behavioral state and state-dependent cognitive processes and the neural mechanisms underlying dysregulated behavioral state and cognition associated with a variety of psychiatric/behavioral disorders.
Dr. Berridge has a strong background in both psychological and biological
sciences with particular expertise in behavioral neuroscience. His work
is oriented towards better understanding the neural substrates of behavioral
dysfunction associated with a variety of psychiatric/behavioral disorders.
His laboratory takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the actions
of specific neurotransmitter systems in a variety of behavioral processes.
Methods currently in use in his laboratory include EEG/EMG measures of sleep
and waking, behavioral pharmacological methods, neurochemical measures of
transmitter release, anatomical methods (track tracing, immunohistochemical
visualization of immediate-early genes), and electrophysiological methods
in both anesthetized and unanesthetized animals.
Christopher L. Coe, Ph.D.
Christopher L. Coe, Ph.D., is W.B. Cannon Professor of Psychology and Director of the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology. His research program has several foci germane to typical and atypical development, including the fetal origins of disease. These studies involve nonhuman primate models and have investigated the influence of maternal stress during pregnancy, antenatal corticosteroid treatments, and nutritional challenges, such as iron deficiency, on infant brain and behavioral development. In addition, his research spans several projects with human participants, which investigate the relationship between emotional and immunological health. Currently, these projects are evaluating the influence of several types of atypical rearing, including maltreatment and adoption, on children's ability to contain latent viruses, such as Herpes simplex.
Dr. Coe received his graduate training at Downstate Medical Center, SUNY,
and then completed at postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry
at Stanford University Medical School. He was one of the pioneers of the
field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) and continues to conduct seminal studies
in developmental PNI. He brings a biomedical and interdisciplinary approach
to the investigation of typical and atypical developmental, which spans
psychology, the neurosciences, and immunology. In addition to being able
to directly test immune measures on site in his laboratory, his latest research
is incorporating neuroimaging to facilitate the study of brain-immune interactions.
Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.
Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D., is William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging & Behavior. His research focuses on the neural basis of emotion in typical and atypical populations at all ages throughout the lifespan. Among his current research interests are studies of social and emotional behavior and their underlying neural bases in children with autism and typically developing individuals. The broad goals of this work are to understand the brain mechanisms responsible for variations in emotional and social behavior in typical and atypical populations. He uses a broad array of methods including functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and brain electrical measures.
Dr. Davidson is a leading expert in the neural bases of emotion. He will
bring a wealth of conceptual background to the study of emotional and social
behavior. His laboratory is also extensively involved in neuroendocrine,
immunological and genetic studies as they relate to brain function and behavior.
Susan Ellis Weismer, Ph.D.
Susan Ellis Weismer, Ph.D., is Professor of Communicative Disorders, with a joint appointment in the Department of Educational Psychology. She is Faculty Coordinator (i.e., Chair) of the Communication and Cognitive Processes Unit at the Waisman Center. Her research examines the nature of language disorders in children, with emphasis on cognitive factors impacting typical and atypical language processing and learning. She has studied language abilities of late talkers, children with specific language impairment, adolescents with reading disabilities, and most recently, language profiles on the autism spectrum. Current theoretical issues being addressed in this work include the domain specificity of information processing deficits in 'specific' language impairment and the extent to which language disorders across different populations are best characterized by a distinct category versus dimensional account of language facility.
Dr. Ellis Weismer holds a doctoral degree in Communicative Disorders with
a minor in Human Development. She is also a clinically certified speech-language
pathologist, with experience with both pediatric and adult populations.
Research in Dr. Ellis Weismer's lab has investigated aspects of typical
and atypical language development using various behavioral methods including
experimental language and cognitive tasks (accuracy, reaction time, error
analysis), naturalistic sampling of spontaneous speech, and social interaction
and discourse analysis. A recent area of inquiry has included biological
methods utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques
(using the MRI equipment in the Keck Lab).
Morton Ann Gernsbacher, Ph.D.
Morton Ann Gernsbacher, Ph.D., is Vilas Research Professor and Sir Frederic C. Bartlett Professor of Psychology and Core Investigator in the Communication and Cognitive Processes Unit at the Waisman Center. Dr. Gernsbacher's research has, for two decades, explored the general cognitive processes and mechanisms that underlie comprehension. She has approached this exploration using a signature theoretical framework as guide and has tested the framework using a wide assortment of behavioral assays and more recently functional neural imaging. Although during the first decade of Dr. Gernsbacher's academic career she focused on understanding the comprehension processes of typically developing adults, during the second decade she has integrated the study of developmental language ability with that of language disability.
Dr. Gernsbacher's current integration of the study of typical and
atypical language development, approached with both behavioral and neural
functional methodologies will provide a model for BBTAD Trainees who are
interested in furthering their study of language development. In addition,
her recently acquired expertise on autism and its spectrum should be of
interest to Trainees from the fields of child psychiatry, pediatrics, developmental
language disorders, as well as child development.
H. Hill Goldsmith, Ph.D.
H. Hill Goldsmith, Ph.D., is UW Foundation Fluno Bascom Professor and Leona Tyler Professor of Psychology. He is Faculty Coordinator of the Social and Affective Processes Unit of the Waisman Center. As of September 2005, Dr. Goldsmith will also be Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Goldsmith's research focuses on emotional development and childhood behavioral problems. The main content areas are the autism spectrum, childhood internalizing and externalizing, typical emotional development during infancy and toddler-hood, temperament, and emotion regulation. He is particularly interested in mechanisms of risk and resilience, in delineating subtypes and component phenotypes of clinical phenomena, and in understanding gene-environment interactions. The principal research methods are quantitative genetics, behavioral assessment, clinical interviews, and measurement of central (e.g., EEG), peripheral (e.g., cardiac psychophysiology), hormonal, and molecular genetic factors. Much of the research is highly collaborative, with researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and elsewhere. The interface of typical development with borderline clinical problems is a major emphasis across projects.
Dr. Goldsmith's early training was in Biology and Genetics, followed
by graduate work in Human Behavioral Genetics. His postdoctoral training
in Psychiatry focused on Developmental Psychopathology and human infant
behavioral development. Among the specific skills that Trainees can acquire
in Dr. Goldsmith's lab are statistical techniques for longitudinal
and genetic data; psychometrically sound methods for questionnaire construction;
design of behavioral assessment procedures for infants and children; structured
clinical interviewing; facial affect coding; integration of hormonal and
other physiological measures with behavioral data; and rudiments of psychiatric
epidemiology. Among the conceptual issues that Trainees will become familiar
with in Dr. Goldsmith's lab are contextual effects on behavior; the
endophenotype approach to analyzing syndromes; gene-environment interactions
relevant to clinical outcomes; and risk and resilience.
Ned H. Kalin, M.D.
Ned H. Kalin, M.D., is Hedberg Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, and Director of the HealthEmotions Research Institute. Dr. Kalin has chaired the UW-Madison Medical School Department of Psychiatry since 1991 and, together with Dr. Richard Davidson, founded the UW HealthEmotions Research Institute in 1996. The HealthEmotions Research Institute seeks to use state-of-the-art scientific methods developed to study the relationship between positive emotions and health. Understanding how positive states of mind influence the body is part of the next great frontier in brain research. The results will have profound consequences for our understanding of the biology of positive emotion, our concept of health, the prevention of disease and the promotion of resilience. Dr. Kalin's research focuses on the behavioral and biological substrates of emotion and emotion regulation as they relate to psychopathology. This involves studying typical and atypical brain mechanisms in non-human primate animal models and in humans.
Dr. Kalin trained as a resident in Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of
Neuropharmacology at the National Institute of Mental Health. In 1981, he
returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has since developed
an international reputation as an expert in research related to the biology
of stress and emotion and their relation to the development of anxiety and
depressive disorders. Dr. Kalin's expertise and experience will be
of particular relevance to the postdoctoral M.D. Trainees in the BBTAD Training
Program.
Ann E. Kelley, Ph.D.
Ann E. Kelley, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Chair of the Neuroscience Training Program. Dr. Kelley's research focuses on the neural and bio-behavioral basis of motivation and goal-directed behavior. There are several areas of inquiry with special emphasis, all in the rat model. First, the neural and molecular mechanisms underlying plasticity and change in learning and development are investigated. Second, the neurobiological basis of ingestive behavior, appetite, and food reward is explored. A third area includes the long-term effects of additive drugs on the brain and behavior, and a fourth area includes neural and genomic changes that occur with typical adolescent development, with a focus on understanding the causes of risk-taking and drug use in adolescence.
Dr. Kelley holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, and is also trained
in Neuroanatomy and Molecular Biology. The conceptual framework underlying
all of Dr. Kelley's experiments is integrative, combining knowledge,
theories, and methodological approaches from Psychology, Animal Behavior,
Genetics, and Neuroscience. Dr. Kelley and her research team bring a wide
array of different behavioral and biological methodologies to the questions
underlying motivation, learning, addiction, and development. Technologies
operational in the laboratory include animal behavioral analysis, analysis
of gene activity via in situ hybridization, northern and western blot acitvity,
immunohistochemistry, and DNA microarray analysis.
Lewis A. Leavitt, M.D.
Lewis A. Leavitt, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Director at the Waisman Center. His research for many years has focused on the development of communication between parents and their infants or young children. His work has used physiological measures, such as heart rate, skin conductance, and non-nutritive sucking, as well as behavioral observation. His early work investigated infant speech perception and the impact of prematurity on infant development. His current work investigates the role of maternal sensitivity to infant signals in the development of mother-infant communication and behavioral interaction. A primary focus of this work is the implication of early parent-child interaction in determining trajectories of child development for both typically and atypically developing children.
Dr. Leavitt's early training was in mathematics, and his medical
degree is from Columbia University. Dr. Leavitt has a long history of contributing
medical expertise to behavioral research projects, and he will be able to
play this role for Trainees. In his Mother-Infant Interaction Laboratory,
Trainees can learn techniques to capture the second-by-second intricacies
of social and emotional signaling. In his role as Medical Director of the
Waisman Center and head of the Developmental Disabilities Clinic, Dr. Leavitt
offers Trainees the opportunity to become familiar with childhood disorders,
such as Fragile X and autism. Trainees can gain expertise in diagnosis and
screening for a wide variety of developmental disabilities.
Maryellen C. MacDonald, Ph.D.
Maryellen C. MacDonald, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology and a Core Investigator in the Communication and Cognitive Processes Unit of the Waisman Center. Her research addresses language comprehension and production processes and the role of working memory in language abilities. She uses behavioral methods to investigate individual differences within the range of behaviors encompassing typical performance in adulthood and emphasizes the role of experience, such as the amount a person reads, in accounting for variation in working memory and language skills. The work takes a lifespan developmental perspective and includes investigations of cognitive aging and language performance in typical (healthy elderly adults) and atypical populations (patients with probable Alzheimer's disease).
Dr. MacDonald provides expertise on a wide variety of behavioral measures
of language use appropriate for studies with children, young adults, and
the elderly, including head-mounted eye-tracking during scene viewing and
speech comprehension, measures of reading speed and comprehension accuracy,
and picture and word-based language production measures. Dr. MacDonald's
work on the role of language experience in language and working memory has
included extensive investigations of language use in text corpora, providing
assessments of the nature of key language patterns in an individual's
environment. Her research on working memory has closely examined the soundness
of working memory capacity as a theoretical construct, the skills that various
working memory tasks assess, and the role of individual differences in theorizing
in language and cognition.
Catherine A. Marler, Ph.D.
Catherine A. Marler, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology and Zoology. Her research focuses on biobehavioral plasticity during both development and adulthood. Her developmental studies examine how paternal behavior can alter offspring behavior resulting in both typical and atypical changes in adult aggressive behaviors in the California mouse, Peromyscus californicus. The current goal is to determine the physiological and neuroendocrine mechanisms through which this occurs and what behavioral and neuroendocrine mechanisms allow these behaviors to be passed on to future generations. Her research during adulthood focuses on how winning competitive encounters influences future aggression and ability to win. Furthermore Dr. Marler's research examines the biological mechanisms through which this behavioral plasticity can occur. Her research is aimed at understanding the role of social experience during development and adulthood in shaping aggressive and paternal behaviors.
Dr. Marler specializes in animal behavior and neuroendocrinology. Her developmental
neuroendocrine perspective centers around the premise that an animal model
system is critical for identifying the neuroendocrine mechanisms that underlie
plasticity in aggressive and paternal behaviors and how these behaviors
can impact future generations. Studies in Dr. Marler's laboratory
begin by evaluating a behavioral paradigm for examining plasticity in behavior
in response to variation in social conditions and then identifying the mechanisms
underlying this behavioral plasticity. Methods include behavioral assays
for aggressive and paternal behaviors, brain injections, immunocytochemistry
for neuropeptides and c-fos, steroid hormone assays, and hormone manipulations.
M. Elizabeth Meyerand, Ph.D.
M. Elizabeth Meyerand, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Medical Physics. Her research focuses on the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the human brain. Her goal is the development and application of new MR methods to visualize the structure and function of the brain and to translate these methods to the hospital for clinical diagnosis. One of the areas upon which she concentrates her research is functional MRI (fMRI). FMRI allows us to visualize both the temporal and spatial patterns of brain activity in response to different stimuli. Dr. Meyerand is particularly interested in the development of new analysis methods to improve our understanding of brain function.
Dr. Meyerand has been in the field of medical imaging for over 15 years.
She has appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Radiology,
and Neuroscience. She has a broad background in the development of MRI techniques
for use in many different patient populations.
Seth D. Pollak, Ph.D.
Seth D. Pollak, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Pediatrics and an Investigator at the Social and Affective Processes Unit of the Waisman Center. His research focuses on biobehavioral plasticity, with particular emphasis on the role of early emotional experiences in the development of typical and atypical behaviors. Dr. Pollak's primary research area is the development of children's ability to understand and regulate emotions, with special emphasis on the effects of aberrations in the species-expectant environment, such as child abuse and neglect. This work is aimed at understanding the roles of nature and nurture in typical and atypical human development. His research has emphasized the importance of biological constraints on, and specializations for, learning as a way to understand the emergence of behavioral problems in children.
Dr. Pollak holds dual degrees in both Child Clinical Psychology and Brain
and Cognitive Sciences and completed clinical training in Pediatric Neuropsychology.
His developmental affective neuroscience perspective is oriented around
the premise that knowledge about the neural mechanisms through which adverse
(and positive) experiences exert lasting impact upon an individual's
long-term functioning is of central importance for understanding both typical
and atypical human development. Studies in Dr. Pollak's lab begin
by evaluating typical developmental changes in emotion processing and then
are extended to atypical populations of children. Trainees are encouraged
to pursue multiple methods to address theoretical questions. Methods now
used in the lab include cognitive and perceptual behavioral tasks, cognitive
psychophysiology, use of hormonal and neuroimmune markers of stress, brain
imaging, clinical interviewing, physical/neurological examinations, genotype
screening, and neuropsychological testing.
Timothy T. Rogers, Ph.D.
Timothy T. Rogers, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Psychology. His research focuses on the biological and cognitive mechanisms that support human behavior in conceptual tasks such as language comprehension, induction and inference, object-recognition, and categorization. Dr. Rogers uses biologically-inspired computer models to investigate how domain-general learning processes interact with pre-specified architectural constraints to support conceptual knowledge acquisition and processing in typical and atypical populations. Because such models encompass cognitive and neural levels of explanation, they allow Dr. Rogers to link empirical data from behavioral experiments to patterns of functional activation in typical populations and patterns of neuropathology in atypical populations.
Dr. Rogers received extensive training in computational modeling methods
while completing his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology. He also gained experience
conducting empirical research with neuropathological populations during
four years as a Research Scientist at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences
Unit in Cambridge, UK. His approach seeks to provide a mechanistic understanding
of mature conceptual abilities by studying special populations, including
children (whose conceptual knowledge is progressively developing) and adults
with fronto-temporal dementia (whose conceptual knowledge is progressively
deteriorating). Empirical work in Dr. Rogers' lab involves detailed
behavioral studies of healthy adults, patient populations, and children.
Methods include cognitive and behavioral tasks, functional brain imaging,
eye-tracking, and neuropsychological testing. The empirical work is motivated
with reference to a theoretical framework which in turn is developed through
computer simulations with neural-network models; about a third of the work
in the lab involves the development and testing of these models.
Jenny R. Saffran, Ph.D.
Jenny R. Saffran, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology and a Core Investigator in the Communication and Cognitive Processes Unit at the Waisman Center. Her research focuses on the learning processes underlying first language acquisition, with a particular emphasis on infancy. Dr. Saffran's studies have demonstrated the extraordinary learning capacities that even young infants possess, which assist learners in numerous language acquisition tasks from discovering which sounds correspond to words to determining how words pattern together in grammar. Recent research avenues include comparative studies of human infants and non-human primates, and studies of children diagnosed with Specific Language Impairment and late-talking infants. By pairing studies of typically-developing infants with studies of other populations, Dr. Saffran's research is poised to uncover important developmental and evolutionary processes that subserve the acquisition of human language.
Dr. Saffran will provide training in experimental methodologies for use
with human infants, for studies of linguistic and cognitive development.
These tasks can be used with infants who are developing typically or atypically,
and can also be used to predict atypical outcomes in a longitudinal design.
Mary L. Schneider, Ph.D.
Mary L. Schneider, Ph.D., is Professor of Kinesiology and Psychology and an Investigator and Research Affiliate at the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology and the Wisconsin Regional Primate Center. She is a recognized authority on typical and atypical neurobehavioral development of rhesus monkeys. She is particularly well known for her recent landmark finding on the neurobehavioral effects of moderate alcohol exposure in utero and prenatal stress. She also utilizes neuroimaging techniques and prepulse inhibition to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of fetal alcohol effects, prenatal stress-induced impairments, and sensory regulation disorder. Her focus is on the roles of dopaminergic and serotoninertic systems in these disorders.
Dr. Schneider holds degrees in Developmental Psychology and Occupational
Therapy. Her work combines behavioral observations with PET measures of
neurotransmitter function. The behavioral methods she uses include assessment
of neonatal neurobehavior of typical and atypical monkeys, biological assessment
of hormones associated with the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis function
at baseline and in response to stressful events, and cognitive tests, such
as non-match-to-sample, concurrent object discrimination, reversal learning,
and executive function assessment. She also assesses sensorimotor gating
in a test of prepulse inhibition using an apparatus that her research team
recently developed for rhesus monkeys. In addition to her studies with primate
models, Dr. Schneider also has extensive experience as a clinical occupational
therapist, providing consultation, assessment, and direct treatment to children
and their families with attention deficit disorders, learning disabilities,
fetal alcohol syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorders.
Mark Seidenberg, Ph.D.
Mark Seidenberg, Ph.D., is Donald O. Hebb Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience and a Core Investigator in the Communication and Cognitive Processes Unit at the Waisman Center. His research focuses on questions concerning normal and atypical reading and language, using converging evidence from behavioral, computational, and neuroimaging methods. He is well known for applications of connectionist models to questions about reading and language acquisition, skilled performance, and the bases of developmental and acquired impairments. His current work focuses on linking computational models of reading to evidence concerning their brain bases and using similar principles to understand language acquisition and critical period effects.
Dr. Seidenberg's research involves several of the main converging
methodologies used in Cognitive Neuroscience. He began his career conducting
well known behavioral studies of typical and atypical reading and language
and then moved to using computational (connectionist) models in innovative
ways to study how reading and language skills are acquired, typically and
atypically. His current research links computational models to the brain
circuitry that support reading, the brain bases of dyslexia, and the effectiveness
of different types of interventions. Dr. Seidenberg provides training in
the use of computational modeling, and his work demonstrates how behavioral,
computational, and neuroscience methods can be integrated.
Ei Terasawa, Ph.D.
Ei Terasawa, Ph.D., is Professor of Pediatrics and Senior Scientist at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. Her research focuses on the development and function of the neuroendocrine hypothalamus in non-human primates as a model for humans. One of Dr. Terasawa's primary research areas is to understand the hypothalamic mechanism of the onset of puberty and development of the luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) neuronal system. Her studies indicate that disinhibition of LHRH neurons from γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) neurons triggers the onset of puberty in primates. Recently, this finding has received attention, because abnormal GABA levels in children with autism have been reported. Our knowledge on the hypothalamic mechanism of puberty will help to increase understanding brain maturation during adolescence and underlying causes of diseases associated with puberty, such as schizophrenia.
Dr. Terasawa uses in vivo and in vitro approaches in her primate studies
of hypothalamic maturation. In in vivo studies neurochemical changes (amino
acid as well as peptidergic neurotransmitters) of a specific, confined part
of the brain can be monitored during development, concomitant with measurements
of circulating hormone levels, during maturation. In in vitro studies cellular
and molecular methods, such as in situ hybridization, RT-PCR, immunocytochemistry,
calcium imaging, and electrophysiological recording, are assessed. Her weekly
lab meeting is set up to discuss the latest findings in the field, as well
as the progress in research by post and predoctoral Trainees and undergraduate
students.
Jon A. Wolff, M.D.
Jon A. Wolff, M.D., is Professor of Medical Genetics and Pediatrics and a Core Investigator in the Molecular and Genetic Sciences Unit at the Waisman Center. He heads both the Biochemical Genetics Program at the Waisman Center and the Clinical Genetics Division within his departments. His research focuses on developing new therapies for inborn error metabolism, encompassing both conventional therapeutic approaches, such as dietary therapy, and gene therapy. He is specifically interested in evaluating new dietary therapies, which could alleviate the developmental and cognitive deficits often accompanying inborn error of metabolism. He is currently evaluating the use of a new protein source (deficient in phenylalanine) to aid the dietary treatment of patients with phenylketonuria (PKU). He is also actively involved in Newborn Screening Programs and conducts studies to evaluate the recent introduction of tandem MS techniques. His gene therapy research has been focused on developing non-viral gene transfer methods for delivering nucleic acids to liver and muscle cells. This animal research has progressed far enough that he is developing a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy based upon the intravascular delivery of naked DNA to limb muscles.
Dr. Wolff brings a rich and broad swath of experience to the training program.
He is at the nexus of both basic and translation genetics research, and
therefore he brings expertise in basic molecular and cellular biology, as
well as clinical genetics disorders that cause mental retardation and developmental
delays. He is Chairman of the Metabolic Committee that oversees the Wisconsin
newborn screening program for biochemical genetic disorders. He is Board
Certified in Pediatrics, Biochemical Genetics, Clinical Genetics and Molecular
Genetics.