Current Directions

Our research into the cognitive neuroscience of memory aims to advance understanding of the complex cognitive and neural events that support memory, including interactions between cognitive control and memory and among multiple memory systems. Our initial investigations set the stage for the lab’s current efforts, which include (a) high-resolution functional imaging of human MTL [Preston et al., in prep], (b) computational specification of PFC cognitive control operations and their role in resolving proactive interference during task switching [Badre & Wagner, in prep-a] and in eliciting forgetting due to mnemonic filtering at retrieval [Kuhl et al., in prep], and (c) examination of putative interactions between PFC, MTL, and striatal systems during episodic and incremental learning [Shohamy et al., in prep]. We have also begun to extend our research to explore (a) neurocognitive aging, examining age-related deficits in mnemonic filtering of MTL retrieval processes [Badre & Wagner, in prep-b], and (b) functional changes in MTL substructures that accompany schizophrenia [Preston et al., 2005; Tamminga et al., in prep]. Collectively, we anticipate that these lines of research will further illuminate how the mind and brain give rise to the phenomenal cognitive abilities that we refer to as ‘memory’, as well as an understanding of how aging and disease-related processes impact these abilities.