Psychology & Neuroscience Colloquium: Mark D’Esposito, University of California Berkeley

Mark D’Esposito, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley
“A neural blueprint for cognitive control”
Thursday January 26, 12:30-1:30pm Howell Hall 205

Abstract:
A fundamental question in cognitive neuroscience is how we are able to flexibly guide our behavior. Cognitive control is mediated by an interaction of top-down and bottom-up processes. Bottom-up processes are those that guide automatic behavior and are determined by the nature of sensory input whereas top-down processes are determined by internal states such as knowledge from previous experience, intentions and goals. In this talk, I will present a series of studies in humans, using a variety of approaches (fMRI, TMS, ECoG), that investigates the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control.

Bio:
Dr. Mark D’Esposito is Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, and Director of the Henry H. Wheeler, Jr. Brain Imaging Center at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also Director of the Neurorehabilitation Unit at the Northern California VA Health Care System and Adjunct Professor of Neurology at UCSF. He received his MD at SUNY Syracuse and completed a neurology residency and fellowship at Boston University. In 1993, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where he remained until his arrival to UC Berkeley in 2000. His lab investigates the role of prefrontal cortex in working memory and cognitive control utilizing different experimental approaches such as functional MRI, transcranial magnetic stimulation, pharmacological interventions and behavioral studies of healthy individuals and those with neurological disorders. Dr. D’Esposito is the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience and has won numerous awards such as the Norman Geschwind Prize in Behavioral Neurology from American Academy of Neurology and the Best Doctors in America. He has trained over 60 post-doctoral fellows and graduate students and is the Principal Investigator on several NIH, private foundation and VA-funded projects. He has author over 275 research publications as well as six books on the topics of behavioral neurology and cognitive neuroscience.