Post-Doctoral Fellows

Erika Nyhus
Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Email: erika.nyhus(at)colorado.edu; curriculum vitae
Website:  http://research.clps.brown.edu/enyhus/

Research Interests: I study the neural processes involved in higher-level cognition, including executive functioning and episodic memory. Specifically, my research has examined (1) the neural processes supporting executive functions, (2) the neural processes supporting episodic retrieval, and (3) how neural processes interact for top-down control of episodic retrieval. My research has addressed these topics through behavioral and neuroimaging (electroencephalography (EEG), event-related potential (ERP), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)) methods.  In the Badrelab I have been involved in setting up a new MR-compatible EEG system, which allows us to simultaneously record EEG and fMRI.  The combination of these methods has great potential to deepen our understanding of the neural underpinnings of human cognition.  This research has shown how multiple brain systems process information and interact to perform rich cognitive abilities.  

I received my B.A. in Psychology and Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003, and my M.A. and Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience, and Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2010.

Chris Chatham
Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Email: chathach(at)gmail.com; curriculum vitae

Research Interests: My research utilizes a combination of behavioral, computational, developmental, and neuroimaging measures to examine the temporal dynamics of cognitive control across multiple time scales.  In my initial research conducted for my PhD (under the direction of Yuko Munakata, at the University of Colorado, Boulder) we found that cognitive control is utilized on an "as-needed" or reactive basis by young children, whereas older children exert cognitive control in a more adult-like proactive fashion.  Subsequent work examined the interactions of reactive and proactive control in adults within the domain of response inhibition, such that reactive inhibitory processes may be supported by more proactive and sustained mechanisms utilized for monitoring the environment.  More recently, I have investigated both the developmental and the computational characteristics of working memory updating, putatively subserved by striatal gating mechanisms, which operate at the nexus of reactive and proactive control, and which may constitute a "developmental bottleneck" in the expression of proactive control.  One of my planned projects in the Badre Lab includes an examination of the temporal dynamics of these gating mechanisms in the adult, and their selectivity; a second project is focused on how behavioral responses may be progressively constrained, moment-by-moment, as a result of the representations undergoing such gating.

Theresa Desrochers

Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Email: Theresa_Desrochers(at)brown.edu; curriculum vitae
Website:  http://research.clps.brown.edu/tmd/

Research Interests: I am interested in sequences and sequence learning. I completed my PhD in Neuroscience at MIT studying habit formation using multi-electrode recording techniques in the non-human primate. I am joining the Badre lab to learn human imaging techniques and study the interaction between frontal cortical and subcortical brain areas during the proceduralization of tasks.

Graduate Students

Jennifer Barredo
Position: Graduate Student (Neuroscience)
Email: jennifer_barredo(at)brown.edu; curriculum vitae

Research Interests: One means by which the prefrontal cortex (PFC) might control memory is through top-down biasing or modulation of ongoing memory processing in medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures. However, the pathways and dynamics by which PFC might influence MTL are understudied. My research combines functional and anatomical MRI scanning with causal analysis methods to explore the dynamics of PFC-MTL interactions during controlled memory processing.

Jason Scimeca
Position: Graduate Student (Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences)
Email: jason_scimeca(at)brown.edu; curriculum vitae
Website: http://scimeca.net

Research Interests: I am interested in executive function, cognitive control of memory, and the frontal lobes. I am currently studying the role that striatum plays in the cognitive control of declarative memory, with a focus on frontal-striatal interactions. Ongoing projects in the Badre Lab are investigating how striatal signals contribute to mnemonic control processes, such as the development of effective retrieval strategies in semantic memory and the adjustment of decision criteria in recognition memory.

Patti Shih
Position: Graduate Student (Neuroscience)
Email: patricia_shih(at)brown.edu; curriculum vitae

Lab Manager

Chris Gagne
Position: Lab Manager
Email: christopher_gagne(at)brown.edu; curriculum vitae

Carolyn Ranti
Position: Undergraduate Research Assistant
Email: carolyn_ranti(at)brown.edu

Perri Katzman
Position: Undergraduate Research Assistant
Email: perri_katzman(at)brown.edu

Kieran Alessi
Position: Undergraduate Research Assistant
Email: mary_grace_alessi(at)brown.edu