Birthday party — April 2014!
Members of the Woldorff Lab — Spring 2010
Principal Investigator:
More info on Dr. WoldorffMy 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.
Graduate Students:
Matthew Bachman
Duke University
Email: Matthew.Bachman@duke.edu
More info on MatthewMatthew 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.
We navigate through life in complex, dynamic environments, in which the relevance of information around us changes continuously. To efficiently deal with these changes, we use attentional-control processes to select that stimulus information which is most important to us at each moment, resulting in improved task performance on those inputs. I use EEG, fMRI with healthy adults to study these processes. In the longer term, I will look how these selection processes change in the healthy aging person. See more at
berryvdberg.org.
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/brg015I’m interested in the neural basis of consciousness, an admittedly ambiguous term that has two main definitions in a neuroscience context. One definition refers to the continuum between deep sleep and vigilant wakefulness – not a trivial difference as far as our subjective experience is concerned. The other refers to our perceptual awareness of the world around us – sights, sounds, etc. While interested in both aspects, my current focus is on the latter, with a special emphasis on attention as a selection mechanism for what we become aware of.
Eva Gjorgieva
Duke University
Email: eva.gjorieva@duke.edu
More info on EvaEva 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.
Khoi Vo
Duke University
Email: khoi.vo@duke.edu
More info on KhoiKhoi 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.
Peter Whitehead
Duke University
Email: peter.whitehead@duke.edu
More info on PeterPeter 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).
Lab Manager:
More info on KenI 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.
Undergraduate Research Assistants:
Sophia Li, Huang Fellow; Madison Hunter, SNP Fellow; Masha Feingold, Independent Study; Julia Beck, SNP Fellow, and Tala Fakhoury, Pratt Fellow.
Lab Alumni:
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
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
