Faculty

Brooklyn College faculty neuroscience research interests fall broadly within the areas of clinical, cognitive, and behavioral. Most faculty members have interests that span several of these areas.

Clinical Neuroscience Focus

Gao Lab

Visit Yu Gao's website

Associate Professor Gao's research is focused on identifying biosocial markers for psychopathic and autistic traits by using psychophysiological approaches (e.g., electrodermal activity and event-related potential), advanced fMRI techniques, and advanced statistical methods (e.g., latent growth curve and multilevel modeling).

Under Gao's mentorship, students might investigate:

emotion and empathy deficits in relation to psychopathic/autistic traits in general population,
autonomic reactivity to rewards or punishment in children with or without conduct problems, and
the effect of prenatal and postnatal adversity on children's temperament and behavioral problems.

Rabin Lab

Visit Laura Rabin's website

Professor Rabin's research is focused on the cognitive and neurophysiological changes associated with preclinical stages of dementia. A current focus is subjective perception of memory loss. Recently, Rabin and her colleagues identified a group of nondepressed, healthy elders with significant cognitive complaints particularly involving memory, despite intact neuropsychological functioning. These individuals, who show structural brain changes intermediate between the changes seen in preclinical dementia (i.e., mild cognitive impairment, "MCI") and normal elders, may represent a "pre-MCI" population.

Rabin was recently awarded a three-year NIH/NIA Pilot Project Award to use novel paradigms to test hypotheses regarding the nature and clinical significance of cognitive complaints in older adults. She will investigate whether these complaints reflect subtle abnormalities not readily detected by conventional tools, and whether tasks developed using paradigms other than traditional episodic memory (e.g., prospective, procedural metamemory) provide more sensitive criteria by which to test the relationship between subjective and objective memory. This project will be carried out at Brooklyn College and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where Rabin holds the position of visiting assistant professor of neurology.

Under Rabin's mentorship, students might investigate:

the relation between cognitive complaints in nondepressed older adults and structural and functional brain changes,
the relative value of self versus informant report of cognitive difficulties in the prediction of incident dementia, and
predictors of cognitive and diagnostic stability or change in older adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.

Reigada Lab

Visit Laura Reigada's website

Associate Professor Reigada’s interests focus on early identification and evidence-based treatment of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents in nontraditional settings (e.g., primary care, pediatric specialty clinics, school). Specific goals are to:

identify youth presenting to their pediatrician with undiagnosed anxiety;
develop empirically supported interventions that are feasible, effective and sustainable within nontraditional settings;
understand mechanisms of treatment change (i.e., cognitive and behavioral outcomes); and
understand psychological and physiological sequelae associated with pediatric medical conditions.

Reigada holds a three-year Career Development Award from the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. She is developing and testing the feasibility and potential efficacy of a cognitive-behavioral intervention for anxious adolescents diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) to reduce psychiatric and IBD symptom severity, as well as improve quality of life, medical management, health service utilization, and school and general functioning. This project has an interdisciplinary team including mental health specialists and medical staff from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NYU School of Medicine, Brooklyn College, and Pittsburgh Medical School.

Under Reigada's mentorship, students might investigate:

the relationship between the disease process (using inflammation biomarkers and physician report) and psychopathology in children and adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease and anxiety following a cognitive-behavioral intervention,
steroid effects on cognitive functioning (i.e., declarative and working memory) in college students with autoimmune disorders, and
mental and medical health benefits of peer support in adults with chronic illness.

Walder Lab

Visit Deborah Walder's website

Professor Walder's research is focused on identification of early neurodevelopmental factors associated with risk for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression, with consideration of sex differences and environmental contributions. Her work incorporates various methodologies such as neurohormone assay (e.g., salivary cortisol), neurocognitive, clinical and behavioral assessment (e.g., psychiatric symptoms, personality traits), genetics, neuroimaging and psychophysiology (e.g., galvanic skin response) to address clinically relevant questions among healthy/non-clinical, at-risk youth, and young adult samples. Walder holds a National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) Young Investigator Award. The NARSAD study uses a genetics-neuroimaging approach to test hypotheses regarding identification of what she and her collaborators propose will be a novel neurobiological marker of risk for depression among adolescents. More specifically, she proposes detection of white matter abnormalities (using diffusion tensor imaging techniques) that reflect convergence of genetic vulnerability with history of stress among non-depressed adolescents. This project will be carried out collaboratively at Brooklyn College, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Yale School of Medicine, along with collaborators at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Emory University, and Baylor College of Medicine.

Under Walder's mentorship, students might investigate:

the relationship of psychiatric symptoms with neurocognition or dermatoglyphics,
the relationship of mood/personality with psychophysiological measures, and
the relationship of psychiatric symptoms with stress.

Cognitive Neuroscience Focus

Chua Lab

Visit Elizabeth Chua's website

Associate Professor Chua's research examines the neural and cognitive underpinnings of memory and metamemory (knowledge of one's own memory). Her research has used multiple methods (functional magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial direct current stimulation, eye tracking, and psychophysiology) and paradigms (item memory, source memory, associative memory, judgments-of-learning, feeling-of-knowing, confidence ratings) to understand memory and how we know what we know. She addresses this major question by determining which brain regions support memory and metacognitive thinking, and what kinds of information we use to make judgments about our own memory.

Under Chua's mentorship, students might investigate:

cognitive and neural factors that contribute to confidence-accuracy dissociations in memory using fMRI,
how brain stimulation influences subjective and objective aspects of memory, and
how knowledge about memory influences strategic control of memory.

Crump Lab

• Visit Matthew Crump's website

Associate Professor Crump runs the human cognition and performance lab. Research interests broadly include human learning, memory, attention, and skilled performance, for example, in typewriting and playing such musical instruments as piano and guitar. Research methods range from computerized behavioral tasks and Web-based experimental research to computational modeling of cognitive networks.

Under Crump's mentorship, students will receive training in fundamental research skills such as:

introductory computer programming techniques for experimental design and time-efficient data-analysis, and
scholarship, writing, and quantitative skills for the cognitive neurosciences.

Students may investigate a range of research questions focusing on:

conscious and automatic control over human performance,
implicit and explicit processes in learning, memory, and attention, and
human information processing.

Ghirlanda Lab

Visit Stefano Ghirlanda's website

Professor Ghirlanda develops both theories and experiments to understand the behavior of humans and other animals. His research has focused on the mechanisms of stimulus recognition and generalization (how we behave in new situations based on what we know from similar, familiar situations), on associative learning, and on the organization of behavior in animals in general. In all these areas, he has developed neural network models to investigate how nervous systems accomplish the fantastic feats that enable animals to survive and reproduce in their environment. With a B.Sc. in mathematical physics and a Ph.D. in animal behavior, Ghirlanda has worked to integrate the insights of animal behavior scholars into mathematical models that formulate precise predictions about behavior.

Under Ghirlanda's mentorship, students will be able to engage in either theoretical modeling (including computer simulation of neural networks) or experimental research. Possible topics for experimental research are testing novel predictions about associative learning and stimulus generalization in humans, and investigating the mechanisms of human facial attractiveness.

Kacinik Lab

Visit Natalie Kacinik's website

Associate Professor Kacinik studies the cognitive and neural basis of language processing. One line of research examines the representation and activation of word meanings in semantic memory. The other deals with the comprehension of higher levels of language (i.e., figurative expressions, discourse, and pragmatics). These issues are investigated behaviorally with a variety of psycholinguistic procedures and with methods from cognitive neuroscience like visual half-field presentation, event-related potentials (ERPs), Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), and left versus right hemisphere-injured stroke patients.

Students in Kacinik's lab might investigate:

hemispheric differences and contextual influences for processing irony, metaphors, idioms, and various social situations;
the cognitive and neural processes underlying dyslexia; and
the extent to which perceptual information can be incorporated into and potentially alter representations of word meaning.

Kozbelt Lab

Visit Aaron Kozbelt's website

Professor Kozbelt studies the psychology of creativity and cognition, with the aim of achieving as "scientific" an understanding of the nature of creativity and the creative process as one can. His methodologies cover the spectrum of genres of creativity research, including laboratory studies, cognitive-historical case studies, archival data analyses, and computer-content analyses. These studies are often highly quantitative, using, for example, hierarchical linear modeling of artists at work to identify creative approaches to problem solving. Laboratory studies test complex models of the mechanisms contributing to artists' advantages in perceptual processing and realistic drawing, by comparing experts and novices in perception and drawing tests, the decisions artists and novices make during drawing, and how other artists and non-artists judge the results. Other studies focus on understanding the nature of the creative process and aesthetics and creativity in software development. A collaborative project with Scott Dexter (Department of Computer and Information Science) investigates the development of a model for creativity in software development. This project examines the empirical basis for the claim that creativity has significant, cross-disciplinary aspects and that the study of creativity in programming can profitably draw upon, and contribute to, the study of creativity in other disciplines.

Under Kozbelt's mentorship, students might:

work on designing new tasks to assess visual artists' susceptibility to perceptual illusions;
collect, parse, and analyze verbal protocols from artists creating original drawings or software experts revising poorly written computer code; and
catalogue and statistically model archival data on lifespan or trans-historical trends of various creativity metrics.

Lipke Lab

Visit Peter Lipke's website

Our interests include structure and function of cell adhesion proteins that mediate pathogen-host interactions and biofilm formation. We have recently discovered that formation of protein amyloids is a critical step in these processes. Together with our collaborators in biophysics and medicine, our work highlights these functional amyloids: formation of 2-D amyloid patches on the cell surface actually ACTIVATES cell adhesion. Subsequently, these amyloids modulate immune responses in host-pathogen interactions. We use molecular biology, protein chemistry, spectroscopy, and bioinformatics to study domain structure and activity. We also study biogenesis and evolution of fungal cell walls and their role in disease. These studies in genomics and bioinformatics aim to identify specific genes as potential targets for antifungal drugs.

Cognitive and Developmental Focus

Drake Lab

Visit Jennifer Drake's website

Assistant Professor Drake's research program focuses on the psychology of the arts. In one line of research, she examines the immediate mood benefits of a one-time drawing session for children and adults. She has found that drawing improves mood when used as a form of expression rather than as a form of escape. In a second line of research, she studies the cognitive and perceptual processes underlying graphic representation skill in artistically gifted children in order to understand the development of superior perceptual abilities. She has found that realistic drawing talent is unrelated to IQ, and that children gifted in graphic representation exhibit perceptual strengths also seen in individuals with autism. She also studies children’s and adult’s conceptions about what counts as art. Her studies are both cross-sectional and longitudinal and focus on clinical and non-clinical populations. Her studies incorporate a variety of methods including behavioral assessment, analysis of drawings, and Web-based experimental research.

Under Drake's mentorship, students might investigate:

the emotional, cognitive, or behavioral benefits of drawing;
the perceptual abilities underlying drawing realism in artists and non-artists; and
children's and adults' conception of what counts as art.

Behavioral Neuroscience Focus

Basil Lab

Visit Jennifer Basil's website

Professor Basil's research focuses on changes in learning and memory capabilities over the course of invertebrate evolution and the origin and function of supporting neural and sensory systems in basal species. A critical component of her research is to determine how the environment and evolution have shaped the learning and memory capabilities of animals that primarily rely upon nonvisual information to make navigation decisions. Her two model systems are the Chambered Nautilus (for the sense of smell) and the freshwater crayfish, Procambarus clarkii (for the sense of touch). She focuses on what kinds of sensory information animals collect from their environment, what they remember of that information and for how long, and how they then use such information to make important orientation decisions. Professor Basil pursues three interrelated lines of research: first, the Basil Lab investigates learning and memory capabilities in nautilids, a monophyletic group in the cephalopod molluscs which have retained many pleisiomorphic features (understanding their complex behavior may contribute to understanding the evolution of neural and behavioral complexity in the entire class); secondly, the Basil Lab has recently initiated neuroethological studies aimed at identifying the sites of learning and memory in the nautilus CNS; and finally, the Basil Lab also uses crayfishes as a model for the haptic sense, or guided tactile behavior. Here classical conditioning is paired with open-field methods to measure haptic contributions to learning and memory of the environment in a relatively "simple" neuroanatomical model.

Under Basil's mentorship, students may investigate:

evolutionary biology studies of the Chambered Nautilus (e.g., behavioral and neural correlates of learning and memory, chemosensory biology, classical conditioning, spatial memory processing, and cellular and anatomical properties of learning in Nautilus);
tactile learning and memory in crustaceans (e.g., metric versus topological coding of space, duration and structure of memory for tactile information, timing of and neural contributions to memory consolidation in crayfish; and
comparative spatial learning in Cephalopods.

Carmichael Lab

Visit Cheryl Carmichael's website

Assistant Professor Carmichael's research examines the links between relationship processes, emotion, health and well-being. Using behavioral observation, physiological assessment and daily experience sampling methods (e.g., diary reports) with college and community samples of couples, this research attempts to refine our understanding of how personal characteristics (e.g., attachment orientation) and emotional experiences (e.g., ambivalence) shape dyadic processes (e.g., disclosure, support provision, and responsive care giving) that have a meaningful impact on relationship quality, and the psychological and physiological outcomes that contribute to long-term health well-being, and longevity. These processes are investigated in both positive contexts (e.g., when something good happens in the relationship), and negative contexts (e.g., when partners experience intra-dyadic conflict or extra-dyadic stress).

Under Carmichael's mentorship, students might investigate:

the types of behaviors that relationship partners engage in to demonstrate that they understand, validate and care for each other in both positive and negative relationship contexts;
how those processes unfold in a relatively naturalist setting on a daily basis in the couple's relationship; and
how those behaviors impact physiology (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure), and neuroendocrine activity (e.g., stress hormone production).

Delamater Lab

Visit Andrew Delamater's website

Professor Delamater runs a behavioral neuroscience laboratory (research techniques include brain lesion, targeted drug infusion, histology), and his main focus is on an analysis of the basic mechanisms of associative learning processes in a rodent model. Specific projects concern:

an understanding at both psychological and neural systems levels of basic cognitive and motivational processes as revealed through simple Pavlovian and instrumental learning paradigms, and
an assessment of the effects of chronic heroin exposure on cognition and motivation for natural and alternative drug rewards.

Over the next several years he expects that his research will develop in a few specific directions. First, he will further explore the basic mechanisms of a phenomenon called "extinction" in Pavlovian learning because this phenomenon is central to our understanding of associative learning and has important clinical implications. Second, Delamater and colleagues will explore through lesion studies (targeting amygdala and striatum) potential dissociations among different forms of learning based on reward quality and time (so-called what and when learning). Third, Delamater will further explore the psychological mechanisms by which chronic heroin influences natural reward processing.

Under Delamater’s mentorship, students may investigate:

conditions under which non-reinforcement results in permanent versus transient loss of information in Pavlovian conditioning with rats,
psychological and neural dissociations between learning to expect specific reward types and to time their arrival, and
the psychological consequences of heroin sensitization upon appetitive learning.

Forlano Lab

Visit Paul Forlano's website

Using fish as model systems, Associate Professor Forlano employs a combination of evolutionary/systems neuroscience with a molecular and cellular approach to identify the mechanisms underlying steroid-induced neural plasticity and sex differences in brain and behavior. These studies focus on vocal, auditory, and neuroendocrine circuits that are conserved across all vertebrates. Forlano's behavioral experiments are being conducted with collaborators from the University of Washington and the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab. In addition, Forlano's lab currently has a collaborative NSF grant to investigate Mechanisms of sound source localization underlying an ancestral mode of vertebrate hearing.

Students in his lab might investigate:

seasonal and steroid hormone regulation of dopamine and serotonin in a vocal fish, comparing monoamine content in the brain between and within sexes, across reproductive and behavioral states and after experimental hormone treatment;
neurochemical characterization of neurons activated during behavioral response to acoustic social signals, using double label immunofluorescence to identify the neurochemical phenotype of neurons showing immediate early gene induction during a directed behavioral response; and
neuroanatomical and brain activational mechanisms underlying sound localization in fish

Grasso Lab

Visit Frank Grasso's website

Associate Professor Grasso's research is dedicated to discovering mechanisms that control and coordinate behavior. He uses biomimetic robots and computer simulations in parallel with animal behavior studies to validate theories of behavior. Using a comparative approach, neural, evolutionary and ecological constraints on behavior are central to his work, which holds that a complete understanding of a behavior must include these constraints. Research models for these studies are typically advanced marine invertebrates such as crustaceans (spiny, slipper and clawed lobsters) and cephalopods (octopuses and cuttlefishes) and lower vertebrates such as fish (catfish) and amphibians (axolotls). The overarching aim of parallel behavioral and robotic studies is to achieve an understanding of the organism’s behavior through sequential hypotheses tests that eliminate unlikely operations of the entire nervous system. His research avoids functionally irrelevant biological details and takes the computational perspective that simulation and robot models must embody a cogent theoretical formulation.

Under Grasso's mentorship, students may investigate:

mobile robot studies of exploratory and orientation behavior using artificial neural network control—such studies parallel the searching and orientation behaviors of crustaceans,
investigation of dexterous control and manipulation by cephalopods such as octopus and cuttlefish and exploration of space by crustaceans such as freshwater crayfish and lobsters, and
field observation and recording of nesting behavior of a nativized population of Argentinean monk parakeets (on the Brooklyn College campus), which possess exceptional building skills and complex social structures.

Kurylo Lab

Visit Daniel Kurylo's website

Associate Professor Kurylo investigates how groups of neurons work together to produce unified functions. Fundamental to such systems are the connections in the brain that integrate neurons across the cortical surface. Understanding the principles by which cross-cortical connections operate is critical to understanding how the brain mediates cognitive functions. This topic is addressed by studying systems that mediate perceptual grouping. In brief, rats are trained to discriminate visual patterns constructed from fragmented elements. In order to discriminate patterns, the visual system needs to identify regularities in the stimulus, and then bind elements that are contained in single objects. Models for how the brain accomplishes this can be tested by systematically altering the stimulus, and measuring changes in performance. Using this approach, this lab has identified distinct visual channels (analogous to parvocellular versus magnocellular), as well as evidence of noncontiguous topography (salt-and-pepper organization) in rodents at a perceptual level. Currently, research is under way that examines change in performance across reaction-time distributions, which shows the time course of cortical integration. Member of the lab gain experience in techniques used to measure perceptual abilities, the use of these techniques in animal models, and physiological intervention of neurochemical systems that mediate these functions.

Under Kurylo's mentorship, students might investigate:

characteristics of visual perceptual organization with regard to the spatial and temporal context in which stimuli are presented,
changes to perceptual thresholds in rats that result from neurochemical blockers, and
alterations of perceptual abilities that result from disruption of neural processing at early, intermediate and high-order cortical areas.