Research
Up one levelResearch at the Center for Mind and Brain clusters around several areas of special expertise. Learn about the types of research we conduct, our featured research projects, and our notable publications below.
Attention and Visual Cognition
Our research in attention and visual cognition investigates how the human brain focuses on relevant information from the visual environment and uses this information to understand and interact with the world. Our basic research seeks to answer fundamental questions about the nature of visual experience and the architecture of the human mind, and our translational research aims to understand and advance the treatment of attention-related disorders such as ADHD and schizophrenia.
Audio-visual Integration
How do our brains integrate input from from our various senses? Why does music have the power to evoke such strong sense memory? These are the questions we explore in our studies of audio-visual integration and music.
Music
Music shapes our emotions, makes us move, and helps us remember times past. Our research examines how perceptual, cognitive, motoric, and emotional functions of the brain combine to give rise to our musical experiences.
Language and Neurolinguistics
Our capacity for speech is one of the most distinguishing features of the human species--the secret of our evolutionary success. Our research into language and neurolinguistics explores the biological and cognitive processes involved in our ability to speak and understand speech, including non-verbal communication.
Cognitive and Neurocognitive Development
Cognitive and neurocognitive development research examines how the human brain and mind form and grow from infancy through adulthood. Our research explores the development of memory, emotion, cognition and social behavior in infants, children and teens.
Disorders of Mind and Brain
The CMB is committed to combining research on basic mechanisms of cognition in healthy individuals with studies of cognitive dysfunction in individuals with brain disorders. Our findings are laying the foundation for better diagnosis and treatment of many disorders of mind and brain, including autism, fragile X syndrome, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, ADHD, and language disorders.
Short-term and Long-term Memory
Our memory research explores how infants, children, young adults, and older adults store information in memory, maintain that information over time, and retrieve it when needed. Our goal is to understand how the brain's memory systems work in healthy individuals, how these systems develop and decline over the lifespan, and how they fail in people with memory disorders.
Attention and Cognitive Control
Our research in attention and cognitive control investigates how the human brain focuses on relevant information from the environment and uses this information to understand and interact with the world. Our basic research seeks to answer fundamental questions about the nature of visual experience and the architecture of the human mind, and our translational research aims to understand and advance the treatment of attention-related disorders such as ADHD and schizophrenia.
Sound, Speech, and Music
Some of the most important social and cultural information enters the brain through the ears in the form of speech and music. Our research spans the breadth of auditory processing, from the neuroscience of sound perception through the emotional experience of music.