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Postgraduate research: Executive Processes
A number of key areas are represented in this research, including:
1. Frontal lobe function and cognitive control, including neuroimaging and patient studies of attention, problem solving, learning and intelligence.
2. Attentional competition and focus, including studies of selective, divided and sustained attention in visual and auditory modalities.
3. Processes of visual and verbal working memory, and their basis in frontal and parietal lobe functions.
4. Clinical applications, including: awareness in anaesthesia, vegetative state and other disorders of consciousness; spatial neglect and other attentional disorders; executive disorders; cognitive rehabilitation after brain damage.
Individual areas of research:
John Duncan
The study of attention and control is especially well suited to the interdisciplinary approach of modern cognitive neuroscience. We use methods of experimental cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, functional brain imaging and electrophysiology to investigate attentional functions of the frontal and parietal cortex, and their role in cognitive problems from visual and auditory stimulus recognition to new task learning and intelligence. Key theoretical constructs include competition for representation in multiple brain systems, top-down bias by relevance to current behavioural concerns, and sequential control of complex mental programs. For more information please see my personal pages or our group page.
Susan Gathercole
My interests are in the cognitive processes of memory, attention, language, and learning. Much of my research focuses on children with developmental disorders in these areas of cognition, and investigates both
i) the nature of the underlying cognitive deficits, and
ii) how these deficits can be ameliorated with either cognitive or educational interventions.
For more information please see my personal pages or our group page.
Tom Manly
Brain injury often results in difficulties in attention, awareness and executive functions. These can range from striking deficits in noticing information from one side of space (unilateral spatial neglect) through to 'executive' problems in maintaining goal directed behaviour, planning, and inhibition . The sometimes very selective damage to such capacities has raised questions about how these complex functions develop, are manifested in the healthy brain, and how they may act to influence the function of more basic perceptual and output systems. The CBU has a long history of innovations in these areas (from the early work of Broadbent, Macworth etc on attention and vigilance through to the work of, for example, Alan Baddeley, Tim Shallice, Paul Burgess, Tony Marcel and John Duncan on executive functions and awareness). The Unit now has a thriving cross-disciplinary programme, including the use of fMRI and (from November) MEG functional imaging, as well as work with patients and healthy volunteers, directed at understanding these higher level capacities. One of the main aims of our part of the programme lies in applying these developments to neuropsychological rehabilitation and, in turn, using the result from our work with patients to further illuminate/constrain models of normal function. Given that attention and executive abilities may have a particular role in facilitating adaptive recovery, developments in clinical applications in this area hold great potential to improve outcomes for patients. In this work we enjoy have excellent links with the Oliver Zangwill Centre (a leading international unit for rehabilitation after brain injury based in Ely) and with stroke and other neurological services at Addenbrooke's Hospital. Cambridge is also ideally placed for increased liaison with developmental and adult psychiatry services for specific projects. In addition, the Unit has excellent facilities and methods support for functional imaging studies and access to a large group of healthy volunteers. Although the broad themes of the programme relate to how attention/executive functions are best assessed and facilitated through targeted intervention (and indeed their role in recovery and outcome more generally) - the details and methods used in studies varies considerably. In this respect we welcome innovative proposals that could range from work with clinical groups through to functional imaging/behavioural work with healthy volunteers. Typically, PhD projects would combine aspects of each - which is often of benefit in providing the broadest possible experience to students. As an illustration, the following topics have been addressed in recent PhD projects:
- Spatial function and alertness: Work with patients showing unilateral neglect has suggested that the debilitating spatial biases may be significantly reduced by increased alertness. In attempting to understand this effect (and as a basis for a more general model for the impact of frontal function on recovery), two substantial projects have considered whether children with low levels of alertness may experience a form of developmental unilateral neglect and whether modulations of alertness in the healthy population show similar patterns. These projects have included studies with healthy adults and children, children with the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, sleep deprivation studies and pharmacological interventions.
- Variability in executive deficits: Many neuropsychological deficits are neither absolute or entirely stable (the residual abilities of patients vary from one time to another). An important aim in rehabilitation research - and in understanding basic function - is to look at factors that are reliably associated with improved levels of performance. A series of studies have examined the effect of content free cueing (automated reminders for patients to engage in 'executive reviews') from simple laboratory paradigms through complex multiple-demand tests, to real-life activities. The positive effects, as well as having a potentially direct therapeutic benefit, are valuable in understanding the level at which these common deficits may be operating.
Work with patient groups can be challenging and it would be expected that successful candidates have skills in working with people who may be unwell, distressed or disinhibited and in developing relationships with clinical and other services.
For more information please see my personal pages or our group page.
James Rowe
Characterisation and optimisation of prefrontal cortical functions in health and disease.
Why do you think, act and speak in the way you do? You may have some particular rewards in mind: money, leisure time, winning etc. There may be 'rules' or constraints on your behaviour because of where you are or who you are with. Genetics and personality traits may also influence your responses to these rules and rewards. Based on these factors, your response can still be very variable. It may be to recall some memory to mind, to choose to speak or move in a particular way, or to engage in a specific mental process considering what you see and hear or remember. The functions of the prefrontal cortex remain controversial yet it is critical to the interactions between such rewards, rules and behaviours. I believe that the functions of the prefrontal cortex can best be understood in terms of its interactions with other brain regions, including those regions that affect our sensory perceptions, and those regions that effect our responses like speech and movement. To understand these interactions, one can use special methods to measure 'effective connectivity' and 'functional connectivity' in brain networks. These methods are largely based on neuroimaging techniques like fMRI and MEG (in our group) or PET and TMS. We have shown recently for example that following damage to the frontal lobes, the surviving brain regions may be as active as normal during particular tasks (measured by fMRI) but that their activity is no longer well coordinated in a regulated network (poor inter-regional connectivity).
We have been using these methods to understand how rewards affect our choice of behaviours; how we choose a particular set of rules or actions; and how we choose between alternative actions when there are no obvious differences in the outcomes. These processes are of interest to understand normal human behaviour, but they are directly relevant to understanding the difficulties faced by patients with neurodegenerative diseases (Frontal lobe dementias, Parkinson's disease and PSP) or with structural lesions (tumours/stroke) and to develop rational treatments for these illnesses. Specific projects would be considered in relation to your specific interests and skills, and other ongoing projects in the group.
For more information please see my personal pages or our group page.
Tristan Bekinschtein
Non-classical approaches to the study of physiology and cognition of consciousness.
For more information please see my personal pages or our group page.
Duncan Astle - coming soon to CBU
My research uses EEG and MEG to explore the neural and cognitive mechanisms of top-down attentional control. These methods have a 'real-time' resolution that is ideal for studying rapid neural processes, such as short-term memory and attention. In particular I am focussed upon how these executive mechanisms develop through childhood, and the impact of this development upon educational outcome. In the future I am interested in exploring how the developing brain mediates the effect of the environment (for instance cognitive or educational intervention) and the child's genetic background (for instance genes that code for variation in cortical and subcortical dopamine levels).