Background
This material was developed by Ulrich Mayr for Dr. Posners retirement web site at http://hebb.uoregon.edu/posner.html
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Statement of Research
Investigations of the human mind and its relation to the
functions of the brain have been a major focus of scientists during the past
decade, and Michael Posner has been one of the foremost figures in this
endeavor. He has set in motion cognitive approaches to neuroscience that have
resulted in a series of fundamental discoveries about mind and brain and made
him one of the world leaders in this field. This work has relied upon
exciting new neuroimaging technologies (e.g., PET or Positron Emission
Tomography and fMRI or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), but the
research would not have been possible without the corresponding
sophistication of a theory of mind and the methods of analysis developed by
Mike Posner. The central problem in mapping mind to brain has been
decomposing cognition into appropriately sized functions in order to match
the level of computation performed by particular brain regions. Mike Posner
has argued that a complex of mental operations, that when assembled
constitute a task, can be isolated from one another using a method broadly
called the subtractive method. The subtractive method was invented in the
prior century by Donders, but Mike Posner more than anyone else has made the
technique bear fruit. Task performance is examined in two nearly identical
conditions, except for the addition or complication of a hypothesized process
in one condition. By subtracting performance in the two situations, the
hypothesized component can be isolated and studied. Mike Posner has claimed
that brain localization occurs at the level of such isolable elementary
mental operations. Early in his career he demonstrated in several different
domains how this simple idea of subtraction could be exploited to investigate
mental operations themselves. These endeavors were summarized in his book, Chronometric
Explorations of Mind. Later, he interfaced
the same methods with the study of neurological patients to deduce the
function of lesioned brain regions. After completion of this work he showed
how the subtractive technique could be married to PET imaging technology to
localize elementary mental operations to brain regions, a logic now extended
to other neuroimaging techniques. Much of the work from this stage of his
career are summarized in the book Images of Mind (coauthored with Mark Raichle). Mike Posner was
also one of the first to realize that a similar logic could be exploited in
the development of infants. As the brain matures, one is able to match the
emergence of elementary cognitive functions to emerging brain systems. Posner's most enduring focus has been the nature of
attention, and his outstanding research contributions to this and related
areas have been widely recognized. He was appointed at a young age to the
National Academy of Sciences and later to the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. He is a recipient of Psychology's highest award, the American
Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. Maybe the most amazing characteristic of Mike Posner is
his ability to look ahead, to envision the future of psychological science
and how psychological knowledge can be brought to bear to important problems
in society. He has been instrumental in launching countless people and
programs into a fruitful pursuit of the relationship between mind and brain.
Dr. Posner's impact on the field is
evident not only through his own work but also through the work of the large
number of students whom he has mentored and who have gone on themselves to
make major contributions to the field of psychology. In this conference we make a strong attempt to mirror Mike
Posner's forward-looking attitude. As a general theme for this conference we
selected ''Developing Individuality in the Human Brain''. This title reflects Mike Posner's most recent
interest in tracing individual differences (in intellectual and personality
variables) to both genetic and experiential influences on developing
attentional systems (e.g., Fan, Wu, Fossella, & Posner, 2001; Fossella,
Posner, Swanson, & Pfaff, in press). Thus, the speakers invited to this
conference fulfill two criteria: First, they have longstanding personal as
well as either formal or informal work relationships with Mike Posner.
Second, they are actively pursuing groundbreaking work on models of
attentional control, how it is implemented in the brain, how attentional
control develops, or how it relates to individual differences in cognitive
and non-cognitive factors. Thus, we believe that the intended conference
provides a unique integration of developmental psychology, traditional
cognitive neuroscience, and a focus on the origin of individual differences. |