CURRENT LAB PROJECTS:

–Characterize the cortical processes of inhibition believed to be captured by the interference effect in the Hayling Sentence Completion Task (HSCT).

Inhibitory control is emerging as a common deficit across many neurological disorders such as attentional disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Parkinson’s Disease. A commonly used clinical measure of inhibitory control is The Hayling Sentence Completion Task (HSCT). In separate blocks, the HSCT requires participants to complete a sentence with a word that is either semantically congruent or incongruent with the sentence. Incongruent responses are reliably slower compared to when the sentence is to be completed in a congruent sensible way. It is theorized that the delay is due to the need to restrain access to a strongly elicited, but goal-incorrect, congruent response. Despite its prolific use in cognitive screening and neurological diagnosis, little is known about the brain mechanisms that support this behavioral effect. This project seeks to identify cortical mechanisms of inhibitory control implicated in the HSCT using known electroencephalographic markers of suppression. Illumination of the neural correlates of the HSCT will impact its use in clinical screening, diagnosis, and the development of treatment programs.

–Exploring the frontal and posterior neural dynamics of taboo interference.

People chatting loudly nearby create a distraction while you’re trying to work. Now, imagine the conversation is full of curse words. The first example demonstrates the capture of attention by low-level sensory characteristics such as onset and amplitude. The second scenario demonstrates how attention can also be captured by stimulus meaning, a phenomenon more closely related to higher-order cognitive processes. For example, taboo interference is defined by reliable delays in response times that socially inappropriate words cause even in simple tasks such as picture-naming or color-naming. This delay is often attributed to an arousal-based capture of attention and the subsequent recruitment of an inhibitory blocking mechanism. It remains unknown how this inhibitory function is achieved and whether taboo interference is explained by a pre-lexical inhibitory mechanism, or a post-lexical scrutinization of the verbal self-monitor, or both. The overarching goal of this project is to bridge gaps in understanding the neural processes underlying behavioral delays related to meaningful distraction.

–Investigating Inhibitory control of the inner voice.

–Training selective visual and auditory attention.