Principal Investigator:

[expand title=”More info on Dr. Woldorff”]My main research interest is in the cognitive neuroscience of attention. At each and every moment of our lives, we are bombarded by a welter of sensory information coming at us from a myriad of directions and through our various sensory modalities — much more than we can fully process. We must continuously select and extract the most important information from this welter of stimulus inputs. How the human brain accomplishes this is one of the core challenges of modern cognitive neuroscience. My lab uses a combination of electrophysiological (ERP, MEG) and functional neuroimaging (fMRI) methods to study the time course, functional neuroanatomy, and mechanisms of attentional processes. This multimethodological approach is directed along several main lines of research: (1) The mechanisms of attentional and cognitive control; (2) The influence of attention on sensory, perceptual, and memory processes; (3) The role of attention across sensory modalities; (4) The influence of training and expertise on attentional speed and capacity; and (5) The relationships between attention, perceptual processing, and conscious awareness. For more information, see my Duke Institute for Brain Science profile.[/expand]

 

Postdoctoral Associates:

[expand title=”More info on Kristina”]Kristina earned a B.A. in Psychology and English from Duke University and went on to earn her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. Kristina studies visual attention and conscious perception as well as how each neurocognitive process impacts how people make causal judgments. She is currently using behavioral, eye tracking, and EEG techniques for a multidimensional view. Kristina also explores how her research interfaces with philosophical concepts regarding responsibility and moral agency.[/expand]

 

Graduate Students:

[expand title=”More info on Matthew”]Matthew is a graduate student through Duke’s Cognitive Neuroscience Admitting Program. He studies how reward-processes interact with and use attentional processes to produce goal-directed behavior. One of his major research goals is to understand how these interactions occur across both vision and audition. Although Matthew is interested in all forms of neuroimaging, currently he is primarily working with electroencephalography (EEG) to study both event-related potentials (ERP) and neural oscillations. Matthew is also co-mentored by Dr. Scott Huettel.

Before coming to Duke, Matthew completed his Psychology degree at Florida State University and managed the Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park. In his free time Matthew likes to camp, rock climb, fish, play video games, and taste wine.[/expand]

 

[expand title=”More info on Ben”]Benjamin Geib graduated from Bucknell University with a B.S. in biomedical engineering. Following two years of translational neuroscience research at UC Davis under Cameron Carter, he is now a PhD student in Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University working with Roberto Cabeza and Marty Woldorff. His research at Duke focuses on how attention modulates memory, the timing of mnemonic reactivation, and network interactions that subserve memory retrieval. In addressing these questions, he has gained expertise in representational similarity analysis, multivariate pattern analysis, and network analysis – custom code and toolboxes associated with these methods is freely available at https://github.com/brg015[/expand]

 

[expand title=”More info on Eva”]Eva Gjorgieva graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 2015 with a B.S. in psychology and minor in neuroscience. At Loyola, she worked at the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab for two years, investigating bilingualism, language brokering, and executive functions using EEG methodology. Following this, she spent two years as a research technician in the Gottfried Lab at Northwestern, investigating olfaction as it relates to learning, memory, and emotion using fMRI and intracranial EEG.

Eva is currently pursuing a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience under the supervision of Drs. Marty Woldorff, Roberto Cabeza, and Tobias Egner. Her research focuses on the ways in which interactions between internally-directed and externally-directed attention are coordinated as a function of intentionality and how this predicts subsequent memory. In addition, Eva is interested in understanding post-error adjustments of attention and cognitive control and their influence on memory.[/expand]

 

[expand title=”More info on Audrey”]Audrey graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2018 with a B.A. in Psychology. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience under the supervision of Drs. Tobias Egner and Marty Woldorff.

Audrey is interested in control parameters that underlie our ability to mediate the tradeoff between cognitive flexibility and stability, and how we adapt cognitive states to learned environmental demands. She plans to investigate these questions through behavioral, EEG, and fMRI designs.[/expand]

 

[expand title=”More info on Khoi”]Khoi is a PhD student in the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience program in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. He is interested in utilizing interdisciplinary approaches to study the processes and mechanisms underlying human decision making. Specifically, Khoi is interested in understanding the interplay of reward and attention and their influence on choices and behavior. Khoi is proficient with various research methodologies, including self-reports, eye tracking, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), eye tracking, biometrics (skin conductance, heart rate variability), and electroencephalography (EEG).

Prior to joining the Woldorff Lab, Khoi was a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Neural Decision Making at Fox School of Business and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In his free time, Khoi likes to explore the local food scene for delicious and cheap eats. Connect with Khoi through his LinkedIn and track his research through his Google Scholar profile.[/expand]

 

[expand title=”More info on Peter”]Peter received a B.Mus in Orchestral Performance – Bassoon and a B.S. in Psychology from Arizona State University in 2016. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience in the Egner lab and Woldorff lab.

Peter is interested in how working memory influences attention and actions, and how control processes can modulate these influences. He plans to investigate these topics using various methodologies (behavior, EEG, and modeling).[/expand]

 

Lab Manager:

[expand title=”More info on Ken”]I am very interested in applying emerging methodological techniques to investigate the neural basis of cognitive processes. My work in the lab has involved the integration of fMRI and electophysiological data to leverage the complementary strengths of each and has involved as well the development of novel imaging technologies in collaboration with Duke’s Brain Imaging and Analysis Center.[/expand]

 

Undergraduate Research Assistants:

Kaya Scheman, Hongyi Zhang

 

Collaborators:

 

Lab Alumni:

Sophia Li, Huang Fellow; Madison Hunter, SNP Fellow; Masha Feingold, Independent Study; Julia Beck, SNP Fellow, and Tala Fakhoury, Pratt Fellow.

Congratulations to our 2018 Graduates with Distinction!  Patrick Cardel, ’18; Mathilde Ooi, ’18; Dr. Marty Woldorff; Saikiran Gudla, ’18; and Sade Abiodun, ’18.

Zaynah Alam

Daniela De Albuquerque

Mudit Dutta

Jacob Gardner

Brittany Glassberg

Frank Lee

Sharon Peng

April Ratliff

Eshita Singh

Christian Song

Laura Busse, Ph.D.
Faculty, University of Tuebingen

Daniel Weissman, Ph.D.
Faculty, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Daniel Senkowski, Ph.D.
Faculty, University Medicine Berlin

Heleen Slagter, Ph.D.
Faculty, University of Amsterdam

Psyche Loui, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Wesleyan University

Durk Talsma, Ph.D.
Faculty, University of Ghent

Wayne Khoe, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, University of California, San Diego

Tracy Doty, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Aberdeen Proving Ground

C.-T. Vince Wu, Ph.D.
Faculty, National University of Taiwan

Karen Meyerhoff, MD, MPH
Resident Physician, University of Washington

Lindsay Warner, D.V.M.
Veterinarian, Apex, NC

L. Gregory Appelbaum, Ph.D.
Faculty, Duke University School of Medicine

Melissa Libertus, Ph.D.
Faculty, University of Pittsburgh

C. Nico Boehler, Ph.D.
Faculty, University of Ghent

Tineke Grent-‘t-Jong, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate, University of Glasgow, Scotland

Sirawaj Itthipanyanan
Graduate Student, University of California, San Diego

Ruth Krebs, Ph.D.
Faculty, University of Ghent

Ulrike Zimmer, Ph.D.
Faculty, University of Graz

Jessica Green, Ph.D.
Faculty, University of South Carolina

Sarah E. Donohue, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral researcher, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg / Leibinz Institutute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg, Germany

Joseph A. Harris, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral researcher, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg / Leibinz Institutute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg, Germany

Kait Clark, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral research associate, Cardiff University in Wales

Francesco Marini, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral associate, University of California, San Diego

René San Martín, Ph.D.
Faculty, Universidad Diego Portales in Chile