Associate Professor
Neurology
Radiology
Email Website Contact Info More Publications
My research focuses on the neural basis of human cognition, in particular vision and attention. Areas of the human brain involved in these processes are visualized in vivo in normal volunteers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Functional MRI records task-related modulation of hemodynamic signals from the brain that are indirectly related to neuronal activity. We have identified two attentional networks in parietal and frontal cortex that control visual information processing. We are beginning to test the function of these networks by studying patients with focal brain lesions, and their homology with primate areas by scanning monkeys with fMRI.
A second more clinical line of research focuses on how people recover after brain injury, and what neuronal events underlie such recovery? Patients who suffered from stroke, and are left with language (aphasia) or attentional deficits (spatial neglect) are followed throughout their recovery with clinical, behavioral, anatomical, and functional neuroimaging measures to track changes in their performance and in the brain. In particular, we are studying the role of the right hemisphere in mediating the recovery of speech after a left hemisphere injury, and whether different cortical areas mediate different attentional deficits in people with right hemisphere injury. These studies hopefully will elucidate mechanisms of neuronal recovery, and facilitate the development of future rehabilitation strategies.
Research Publications
Fox MD, Snyder AZ, Vincent JL, Corbetta M, Van Essen DC, Raichle ME (2005 Jul 5). From The Cover: The human brain is intrinsically organized into dynamic, anticorrelated functional networks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 102 (27): 9673-8. Full Article >
Baker JT, Patel GH, Corbetta M, Snyder LH (2005 Jul 1). Distribution of Activity Across the Monkey Cerebral Cortical Surface, Thalamus and Midbrain during Rapid, Visually Guided Saccades. Cereb Cortex. Full Article >
Kincade JM, Abrams RA, Astafiev SV, Shulman GL, Corbetta M (2005 May 4). An event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study of voluntary and stimulus-driven orienting of attention. J Neurosci. 25 (18): 4593-604. Full Article >
Shimony JS, Snyder AZ, Conturo TE, Corbetta M (2004 Feb). The study of neural connectivity using diffusion tensor tracking. Cortex. 40 (1): 213-5. Full Article >
Astafiev SV, Stanley CM, Shulman GL, Corbetta M (2004 May). Extrastriate body area in human occipital cortex responds to the performance of motor actions. Nat Neurosci. 7 (5): 542-8. Full Article >
Shulman GL, McAvoy MP, Cowan MC, Astafiev SV, Tansy AP, d'Avossa G, Corbetta M (2003 Nov). Quantitative analysis of attention and detection signals during visual search. J Neurophysiol. 90 (5): 3384-97. Full Article >
Contact Info
Maurizio Corbetta, M.D.
Office Location: Rm 2112 East Bldg.
Office Phone: 314- 362-4530
Campus Box: 8111
Fax: 314-362-6110
mau@npg.wustl.edu
http://www.neuro.wustl.edu/sections/braininjury.html
