THE DIVISION OF COGNITIVE NEUROLOGY/NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
Department of Neurology
The overarching mission of the Division of Cognitive Neurology and Neuropsychology is to identify ways to improve the functions of the mind and brain in individuals with acquired or developmental disorders. The Division studies adults with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as severe autism, as well as typically developing individuals. Affiliated groups also study children as well as individuals who have suffered strokes.
The Division’s work is informed not just by behavioral (cognitive) neurology, but by all potentially relevant fields, including cognitive neuroscience, educational psychology, and evolutionary psychology. This broad approach is possible thanks to diverse funding and collaborations.
The Division’s focus has been on speech, language (including the conceptual abilities required for thought), executive functions, and learning and memory. Current major interests are: optimizing explicit and implicit ways of guiding and teaching behaviors and motor functions (in part through real-time feedback); leveraging learning in social situations; and investigating the nature and implications of hyperfocus. Immediate efforts include behavioral (educational) therapies, informed by real-time performance and biometric data. Short-term efforts are in such areas as speech production and reading out loud with long-term efforts focused on radically different approaches than those currently considered.
The Division employs minimal- to low-risk methods with a strong emphasis on application in the next five to 10 years for young adults. These methods have included: neuropsychological assessments (both clinical and research) as well as more specialized behavioral tasks; pupillometry; eye-movement recording; event-related potentials; computational modeling; and transcranial direct current stimulation (TCDS).
| CAREER OPPORTUNITIES |
| If you are interested in pursuing a position with the Division, click here |
| OF NOTE |
| Barry Gordon appears on NPR’s “The Diane Rehm Show” in a discussion on autism (click here) A Scientist’s Saga: Give Son the Gift of speech (click here) |