My research centers on how humans exert control over their thoughts and behaviors, a capability termed cognitive control. The concept of cognitive control is central to our notions of consciousness, agency, and will. Higher-level cognitive functions such as attention and short-term or working memory are thought to rely critically on control processes. Conversely, the loss of cognitive control is a major component of many neuropsychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia. As such, I believe elucidating the mechanisms of cognitive control is a fundamental goal for psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. The ultimate goal of my own research program is to contribute to our understanding of how cognitive control emerges in the brain, in terms of the interactions between neural processing elements, and without recourse to "homunculus"-type explanations. Because of this goal, my research approach is both integrative and inter-disciplinary, combining behavioral studies, computational modeling, and cognitive neuroscience methods.
There are several major themes running through my research. A first theme is to determine the specialized functional contributions that different brain systems make to cognitive control, and how these different systems might interact. A second theme is to explore how and why cognitive control functions break down in certain impaired populations, such as older adults and schizophrenia patients. A third theme is to demonstrate and understand the variability in cognitive control strategies that individuals adopt over time and across different task situations. A final theme is to explore individual variation in cognitive control function among healthy young adults, and how these individual differences might interact with putatively “non-cognitive” factors such as emotional states and personality.
Research Photos (Click to Enlarge)
Research Publications
Braver TS, Reynolds JR, Donaldson DI (2003 Aug 14). Neural mechanisms of transient and sustained cognitive control during task switching. Neuron. 39 (4): 713-26. Full Article >
Brown JW, Braver TS (2005 Feb 18). Learned predictions of error likelihood in the anterior cingulate cortex. Science. 307 (5712): 1118-21. Full Article >
Gray JR, Chabris CF, Braver TS (2003 Mar). Neural mechanisms of general fluid intelligence. Nat Neurosci. 6 (3): 316-22. Full Article >
Gray JR, Burgess GC, Schaefer A, Yarkoni T, Larsen RJ, Braver TS (2005 Jun). Affective personality differences in neural processing efficiency confirmed using fMRI. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 5 (2): 182-90. Full Article >
Rougier NP, Noelle DC, Braver TS, Cohen JD, O'Reilly RC (2005 May 17). Prefrontal cortex and flexible cognitive control: rules without symbols. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 102 (20): 7338-43. Full Article >
Braver TS, Satpute AB, Rush BK, Racine CA, Barch DM (2005 Mar). Context processing and context maintenance in healthy aging and early stage dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Psychol Aging. 20 (1): 33-46. Full Article >
Contact Info
Todd Braver, Ph.D.
Office Location: 341B Psychology Bldg.
Office Phone: 314-935-4153
Lab Phone: 314-935-8547
Other Phone: 314-935-8459
Campus Box: 1125
Fax: 314-935-8790
tbraver@artsci.wustl.edu
http://iac.wustl.edu/~ccpweb/
