Julie Fiez, Ph.D.
- Professor Psychology, Neuroscience
Research Summary:
My lab relies upon a broad-based and interdisciplinary cognitive neuroscience approach to address questions that fall within two predominant strands of research. One strand is focused on the neural basis of language processing. Topics of interest include the articulatory and phonological codes involved in verbal working memory, and the ways in which different writing systems influence the representation and processing of orthographic information. A second strand is focused on basic learning systems in the human brain. We are especially interested in how cognition may be optimized by reinforcement learning signals mediated by the basal ganglia and error-correction signals mediated by the cerebellum.
Education & Training
- Ph.D. Washington University (1992)
Representative Publications
Chein, J.M. and Fiez, J.A. Evaluating models of working memory through the effects of concurrent irrelevant information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2009, in press.
Nelson, J.R., Liu, Y., Fiez, J. and Perfetti, C.A. Assimilation and accommodation patterns in ventral occipitotemporal cortex in learning a second writing system. Human Brain Mapping, 30: 810-20, 2009.
Strick, P.L., Dum, R.P. and Fiez, J.A. Cerebellum and Non-Motor Function. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 32: 413-24, 2009.
Ben-Yehudah, G. and Fiez, J.A. Impact of cerebellar lesions on reading and phonological processing. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1145: 260-74, 2008.
Tricomi, E. and Fiez, J.A. Feedback signals in the caudate reflect goal achievement on a declarative memory task. Neuroimage, 41: 1154-67, 2008.