Cookson, S. L.*, Hazeltine, E., Schumacher, E. H. (2019) Psychological Research :: Does cognitive control operate globally (across task sets) or locally (within a task set)? Recently, two of the current co-authors (Hazeltine and Schumacher 2016; Schumacher and Hazeltine 2016) proposed that humans represent tasks as task files: hierarchically structured, compartmentalized subsets of our current […]
investigating the regions and networks of complex behavior
Author: Savannah
Dual-task processing with identical stimulus and response sets: Assessing the importance of task representation in dual-task interference
Schumacher, E. H., Cookson, S. L.*, Smith, D. M., Nguyen, T. V. N., Sultan, Z., Reuben, K. E., Hazeltine, E. (2018). Frontiers in Psychology :: Limitations in our ability to produce two responses at the same time – that is, dual-task interference – are typically measured by comparing performance when two stimuli are presented and […]
Letting networks overlap to reveal the roles of different regions in behavior
Brain regions have a rich tapestry of connections that allow them to form functional networks to coordinate their activity in service of behavior. Assigning regions to single networks obscures the connections that allow regions to associate dynamically and flexibly. I use overlapping network assignment techniques to better capture these connections and to better understand how […]
Neural representation of stimulus-response associations during task preparation
Cookson, S. L.*, Hazeltine, E., Schumacher, E. H. (2016). Brain Research :: A partially informative cue presented before a stimulus can facilitate the production of the response. Prior information about an upcoming target can increase brain activity in both stimulus (c.f., Desimone and Duncan, 1995) and response (c.f., Leuthold et al., 1996) processing regions; however, […]
Teasing apart the distinct regions and contributions of prefrontal cortex
The prefrontal cortex shows activity during a huge variety of tasks, especially those that require complex synthesis and manipulation of information. Research in several areas of behavior have demonstrated that different regions within the prefrontal cortex have distinct functions and connectivity, but we still lack a unified theory of the role of prefrontal cortex and […]
Investigating how the brain organizes complex tasks
The human brain is uniquely capable of planning and executing tasks that entail multiple complex steps that unfold over long periods of time. These complex tasks can be described at multiple levels of abstraction – that is, with varying levels of detail. Individual actions are linked together into task sets, which can then be engaged […]