Research Projects

Audiovisual Mnemonic Processing

Our previous work indicates that neurons in the primate ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) are multisensory and respond to combined audio-visual communication stimuli. To further investigate the role of the VLPFC in sensory integration we have recorded prefrontal neuronal activity while animals performed a discrimination task with face-vocalization stimuli as the memoranda.

Learn more about Audiovisual Mnemonic Processing

Connections of Auditory and Visual Ventral Prefrontal Neurons

We hypothesize that although most (and perhaps all) of the VLPFC is multimodal, that there are still tendencies towards dominant responses in the VLPFC with predominantly auditory neurons localized anterior to visual object and face-specific neurons. Though our recent physiology suggests this but it has not been fully tested.

Learn more about Connections of Auditory and Visual Ventral Prefrontal Neurons

Mechanisms Which Underlie Face-vocalization Integration in VLPFC

The perception and integration of congruent communication stimuli is necessary for appropriate evaluation and comprehension of an audio-visual message. Our work and that of others suggests, that the prefrontal cortex, which is essential in the processing and communication information is modulated by incongruent audio-visual (AV) communication stimuli.

Learn more about Mechanisms Which Underlie Face-vocalization Integration in VLPFC

Processing of Complex Sounds by Prefrontal Neurons

Our research has shown that auditory afferents target several specific regions of the prefrontal cortex (Romanski et al., 1999a, 199b). In one of these regions we have demonstrated robust responses to complex acoustic stimuli including species-specific and human vocalizations. In previous studies.

Learn more about Processing of Complex Sounds by Prefrontal Neurons