The Banich lab members
Postdoctoral Researchers
Greg Burgess: My research interests involve understanding how people control their behavior toward internally-held goals, and away from alternative conflicting behaviors. More specifically, how do individuals overcome the cognitive influences of prepotent responses, irrelevant information, and immediately rewarding but distracting opportunities? My research is based upon the hypothesis that the cognitive effects of interference can be controlled in two major ways: 1) preventing interference by actively maintaining top-down, goal-directed representations in working memory; and 2) resolving interference as it occurs by initiating, retrieving, or reactivating mechanisms to refocus attention on goal-relevant processes and information (Braver, Gray, & Burgess, in press). I believe that these interference control mechanisms may be important sources of variance in individual differences (i.e., fluid intelligence, working memory span, and personality traits such as extraversion and impulsivity), group differences (e.g., clinical disorders such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder - ADHD), and intra-individual variation (i.e., strategic, situational, and emotional influences on executive control processes).
Graduate Students
Brendan Depue: My interests lie in the interface of Cognition and Emotion. Specifically the brain regions and neural substrates that support emotional memory and an individual's control of such memories. Furthermore, specific interactions of the amygdala and hippocampus and their bidirectional connectivity with ventral and other PFC areas. These pursuits underlie a hope to gain insight into specific clinical disorders that give rise or are central to PTSD and OCD. Further interests include the "mysterious frontopolar" (BA10) region of anterior PFC and its hypothesized modulatory influence on other PFC areas. Personal interests include enjoying Boulder's lifestyle: backpacking, skiing, hiking, etc.
Eric Claus: Eric completed his undergraduate education at the University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign where he received a B.S. in psychology. He also completed two years of graduate work in clinical psychology at IUPUI. His research focuses on understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying 1) decision making and 2) addiction. More specifically, he is interested in understanding how individuals make decisions based on previous learning from positive and negative feedback in the environment. In addition, he has been collaborating with Dr. Kent Hutchison and his lab investigating craving in alcohol disorders. In the future, he hopes to integrate these two lines of research to better understand decision making processes in addiction.
Anson Whitmer: Anson did his undergraduate education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he received a B.S. in psychology and a B.A. in Spanish. Anson is currently in his fourth year of graduate school. Anson's primary line of study focuses on the cognitive mechanisms involved in rumination (i.e. repetitive lines of thought). He recently obtained evidence suggesting individuals who tend to ruminate when depressed have difficulties inhibiting previously relevant thoughts but not switching attention away to new thoughts. On the other hand, individuals with tendencies to angrily ruminate or intellectually reflect have difficulties switching attentional focus to new thoughts but not inhibiting previously important thoughts. His ongoing research is focused on continuing to elucidate the exact cognitive and neurocognitive mechanisms driving various forms of rumination. Additionally, Anson is currently using fMRI and a cued Stroop paradigm to differentiate the function of mid and posterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
Kristen Mackiewicz
Amanda Hutchinson: Amanda completed her undergraduate education and her training in clinical psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Her previous work explored executive function in Parkinson's disease and neuropsychological assessment of Alzheimer's disease and Frontotemporal dementia. She is currently an international research scholar from the University of Adelaide working on interhemispheric interaction in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults.
Lee Altamirano: Lee received her B.A. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently in her first year of graduate school. In previous work, she has examined the coupling between neural activity and tissue oxygenation. She has also explored the effects of dopaminergic medications on reversal learning in Parkinson’s disease and in individuals chosen on the basis of impulsivity. Most recently, she investigated opioid regulation of impulsive responding under the influence of alcohol. Her current research interests lie in exploring the mechanisms underlying individual differences in impulsivity.
Professional Research Assistants
Blaine Ames: Blaine completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California @ Berkeley with a BA in Cognitive Neuroscience. He is currently a PRA in the Banich Lab as the primary fMRI data analyst and computer aficionado (kinda). The main focus of his work in the lab more recently has been the examination of Neuroanatomical differences between individuals with ADHD and normals using VBM and DTI methodologies. He will be attending graduate school in the Fall of '07 somewhere in the United States of America (or maybe Canada). He is more generally interested in pursuing interactions between Attentional/Cognitive Control processes and emotion through the use of neuroimaging.
Undergraduate Students
Nicole Fulton
Victoria Tait: Vicky is finishing her last year as an undergraduate at CU. She is a psychology major with an emphasis in neuroscience and is interested in a potential career in neuropsychology. She plans on attending graduate school in the fall of ’07, although the location is yet to be determined. She is currently looking at the neural correlation between working memory and attentional control.
Interested in joining?
Interested in learning more about the field of pscyhology? Working in a research lab is a wonderful way to gain valuable experience and learn more about the science of human behavior. Computer skills and statistical knowledge are a plus.
Undergraduate requirements: minimum of 3.0 GPA, commitment of 3-4 specific hours/week for at least 2 semesters, an interested in pursuing a field related to psychology (e.g., biology, anthropology, computer science), will accept interest from freshmen and sophomore students (junior or senior standing not required).
Lab positions available
None at this time
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