CONTACT INFORMATIONCREDENTIALSAWARDSPUBLICATIONSLizabeth Romanski, Ph.D.Contact InformationResearch LabsVisit Lab WebsiteLocationsUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterSchool of Medicine and Dentistry601 Elmwood Ave, Box 603Rochester, NY 14642Faculty AppointmentsAssociate Professor - Department of Neuroscience (SMD) Associate Professor - Center for Visual Science A&S (RC) - JointAssociate Professor - Department of Biomedical Engineering (RC) - JointBiographyResearchWhile auditory and visual information are combined in many sites of the human brain, the combining of face and vocal information for effective communication has been shown to occur in specialized regions of the temporal and frontal lobes. Work in my laboratory is focused on how the ventral prefrontal cortex represents high level auditory information and the neuronal mechanisms which underlie integration of complex auditory and visual information, primarily face and vocal information during communication. Studies in our laboratory have shown that neurons within specific regions of the ventral prefrontal cortex are robustly responsive to complex sounds including species-specific vocalizations, while previous studies have shown that adjacent ventral prefrontal regions are selectively responsive to faces. We have shown that neurons within ventral prefrontal cortex are multisensory and respond to both faces and to the corresponding vocalizations. We are also interested in the factors that affect the integration of dynamic faces and vocalizations in the frontal lobe including temporal coincidence, stimulus congruence, as well as the emotional expression conveyed in the face-vocalization and the identity of the speaker. Collaborations with University of Rochester faculty are aimed at characterizing sensory integration deficits in children with autism and the role the frontal lobe may play in autism spectrum disorders. Further analysis of the neural mechanisms which support face and voice integration in non-human primates may help us to understand the mechanisms underlying social communication and social cognition.CredentialsEducation1984BA | Rutgers State UniversityPsychology1992PhD | Cornell Univ Medical CollegeNeurobiologyPost-doctoral Training & Residency1992 - 1999Post-doctoral Fellow (Mentor: Dr. Patricia Goldman-Rakic), Yale University, New Haven, CT.Awards2006Excellence in Medical Research Incentive AwardSponsor: University of Rochester2000Whitehall Foundation Research Award.1998 - 2000Cure Autism Now Young Investigator Award.1993 - 1996McDonnell-Pew Postdoctoral Training Grant in Cognitive Neuroscience.1992Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience,Sponsor: (The Grass Foundation/Society for Neuroscience).1991Vincent DiVigneau PrizeSponsor: Cornell University Medical College, New York.1990Vincent DiVigneau PrizeSponsor: Cornell University Medical College, New York.1984Henry Rutgers Academic Excellence Undergraduate Research Award1980 - 1984Henry Rutgers Academic ScholarshipVIEW ALL expand_morePublicationsJournal Articles9/25/2023Romanski LM, Sharma KK. "Multisensory interactions of face and vocal information during perception and memory in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex." Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.. 2023 Sep 25; 378(1886):20220343. Epub 2023 Aug 07. 5/30/2022Diehl MM, Plakke B, Albuquerque E, Romanski LM. "Representation of expression and identity by ventral prefrontal neurons." Neuroscience.. 2022 May 30; Epub 2022 May 30. 2/18/2021Khandhadia AP, Murphy AP, Romanski LM, Bizley JK, Leopold DA. "Audiovisual integration in macaque face patch neurons." Current biology : CB.. 2021 Feb 18; Epub 2021 Feb 18. Books & Chapters2004 Chapter Title: Domain Specificity in Cognitive Systems Book Title: The Cognitive Neurosciences Author List: Davachi, L.; L. M. Romanski; M.V. Chafee; P. S. Goldman-Rakic Edited By: M. Gazzaniga Published By: MIT Press 20042002 Chapter Title: Anatomy and Physiology of Auditory-Prefrontal Interactions in Non-human Book Title: Primate Audition: Behavior & Neurobiology Author List: Romanski, L.M. Edited By: Asif A. Ghazanfar Published By: CRC 20022000 Chapter Title: Neurofunctional Models of Autistic Disorder and Asperger Syndrome Book Title: Asperger Syndrome Author List: Schultz, R.T.; L.M. Romanski; K.D. Tsatsanis Edited By: A. Klin; F.R. Volkmar; S.S. Sparrow, Published By: Guilford Press 2000 in New YorkVIEW ALL PUBLICATIONS