Michael C. Anderson

Contact: email, CBU homepage

phone: +44 (0)1223 273695

Michael C. Anderson received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1994, under the mentorship of Robert and Elizabeth Bjork. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship in cognitive neuroscience with Art Shimamura at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the Psychology faculty at the University of Oregon, where he was rose to Full Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience. In 2007, Anderson moved the Memory Control Lab to the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, where he accepted a Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience, before finally moving to the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, England in the Autumn of 2009. Dr. Anderson has been a visiting scholar in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University with John Gabrieli, is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and is on the governing board of the Psychonomics Society. Dr. Anderson's research on memory control has been featured in Newsweek, US News and World Report, the New York times, CNN, BBC World News, and the New Scientist (see Press section).

Pierre Gagnepain

Contact: email, CBU homepage

phone: +44 (0)1223 355294

The primary goal of my research is to understand the neural implementation of memory using both fMRI and MEG/EEG methods. I am particularly interested in understanding how cognitive functions linked to memory processes map onto the pattern of functional connectivity. My current research also focuses on the cognitive and neural underpinning of motivated and retrieval-induced forgetting, notably of daily life autobiographical experiences. In addition, I have a long-standing interest in understanding how spoken words are represented in the auditory cortex using paradigms like priming or novel word learning.

Maria Wimber

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phone: +44 (0)1223 273619

I am interested in the cognitive and neural processes underlying episodic memory, that is, long-term memory for past events. My main focus is on the processes that are engaged during the retrieval of past episodes. How does the brain manage to selectively reactivate the sought-after information, given the enormous amount of information that accumulates in memory across a lifetime? I have used functional neuroimaging (fMRI) and electrophysiological (EEG), and also imaging genetics methods to elucidate the nature of the brain processes supporting selective remembering. More recently, I have also investigated the brain processes associated with the formation of durable memory traces (encoding), and especially the question how our ongoing cognitive and neural processing determines which aspects of an experience get stored into memory, and which don't.

Roland Benoit

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phone: +44 (0)1223 355294

I am interested in the cognitive neuroscience of executive functions with a focus on memory control. During my PhD at University College London, I have investigated the functional organisation of rostral prefrontal cortex (BA 10). In my current work, I have sought to understand the different neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the ability to suppress unwanted memories, taking advantage of dynamic causal modelling to make inferences about the causal role of prefrontal cortex in memory control. I use behavioural, functional neuroimaging, and electrophysiological approaches.

Chelan Weaver

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phone: +44 (0)1223 355294

I study cognitive control under the supervision of Michael Anderson and James Rowe. Cognitive control is a cluster of complex mental processes that enable flexible responding to dynamic environments, goals, and situations. Individual performance on cognitive control tasks varies tremendously, and individual differences have been associated with differences in real-world outcomes such as psychopathology, academic achievement, and health. My work has focused on gaining a better understanding of one aspect of cognitive control: response inhibition. Response inhibition refers to the ability to stop unwanted thoughts and actions. In the brain, the prefrontal cortex is known to be particularly important for successful response inhibition, but the specificity of functions (and their localizations) remains controversial. Moreover, an understanding of how the prefrontal cortex interacts with other brain regions to forestall responses is still emerging. While pursuing my Ph.D., I have developed a novel behavioral measure to assess whether motor control utilizes the same cognitive processes as are involved in mnemonic control. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, I have been investigating to what extent different types of stopping rely on common brain regions. I am also exploring whether individual differences in ability to prevent unwanted actions is related to differing brain structure or connectivity.

Justin HulbertV

Contact: email, CBU homepage

phone: +44 (0)1223 355294

Memories guide our lives, but how do we sift through the vast array of memories we've accumulated over the years to find the one that's relevant to the current situation while pushing aside unwanted thoughts that distract us? My Cambridge University PhD research, supervised by Professor Michael C. Anderson at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, explores the role of cognitive control, generally, and inhibitory processes, specifically, in these tasks. Combining cognitive, neuroimaging (fMRI), and electrophysiological (ERP/iEEG) methods to explore the impact of inhibition on the human hippocampus, I aim to elucidate the neurological basis of memory formation, consolidation, and forgetting.

Ean Huddleston

Contact: email, CBU homepage

phone: +44 (0)1223 355294

Sometimes people don't want to think of memories they're reminded of. In my current research with Dr. Michael Anderson at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, I'm looking to further characterize the brain systems underlying this ability that people have to exert control over their memory retrieval processes-- that is, to intentionally stop memory retrieval. In my research I have utilized behavioral, electrophysiological (EEG), and neuroimaging (fMRI) techniques.

Post Doc with Anthony Wagner, Stanford Memory Laboratory, Stanford University