Walter Schneider

Professor of Psychology University of Pittsburgh

Senior Scientist LRDC Faculty Cognitive Program CNBC MRRC, BIRC, WPIC

Address 629 Learning Research and Development Center,3939 O’Hara St, Pittsburgh PA 15260 USA

Current Research Projects Schneider Dept Web Page

Click to see subset of the 250,000 fiber pathways we have mapped in my brain

This was taken with new MRI based diffusion weighted imaging techniques that can

map connectivity throughout the brain.

(U-tube version)

Research Interests: Cognitive neuroscience, brain connectivity, activity, and function, pre-surgical planning, concussion, semantic representation, attention and automaticity, skill acquisition, connectionist/hybrid modeling, brain imaging.

Dr. Schneider investigates dynamic cortical processing in human behavioral and brain imaging studies and computer simulation models. Behavioral and brain imaging studies focus on the understanding of human learning, executive control and attention. Research examines cortical areas involved in learning including frontal, parietal, and cingulate cortex, subcortical structures (e.g., hippocampus) and sensory processing areas (e.g., thalamus and visual cortex). The brain imaging research utilizes functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to produce high 3D spatial resolution (near millimeter) maps identifying the location and relative activation of stages of the visual system and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) to map cortical connectivity. These data provide the basis for detailed tracking of the dynamics of cortical processing. We are developing methods to map human network level cortical processing. Behavioral and brain imaging data details how rapidly and in what forms attention moves and what are the component structures of learning (goal popping, memory retrieval, feedback processing). These methods are applied in pre-surgical planning to minimize damage during surgery.

Review Paper Cognitive Science 2003 Controlled & automatic processing: behavior, theory, and biological mechanisms

Recent Conference Presentations {Related Papers]

November 2008 AAAI conference DC. Reverse Engineering the Brain With a Circuit Diagram Based on a Segmented Connectome and System Dynamics Slides Paper Movies Connectivity of Brain Cognitive Control Net Whole Brain

April, 2008 Cognitive Neuroscience San Francisco CA. (Authors, Titles and main figures)

The Neural Basis of Rapid Instructed Task Learning.

Medial Frontal Cortex Directs Attention along Multiple Pathways to Resolve Perceptual Decision Difficulty

Anatomical and Functional Segmentation of the Cognitive Control Network: Supporting a preliminary cognitive control network connectome

Nov 18 2007 Psychonomics Long Beach CA

The Control And Representation Systems Of The Human Brain And Cognition

July 30 2007 International Conference of Cognitive Modeling Ann Arbor Michigan Keynote Address

The Cognitive Control And Representation Systems Of The Human Brain: Producing the synergy of symbolic and connectionist processing

Research Project Web Site Brain Competition Experience Based Cognition Lab Web Page

Classes: Fall 2008 Attention PSY 2465 Spring 2009 Brain Connection Mapping

Fall 2007 Brain Executive/Emotional Control Systems Spring 2007 Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning P2476

Links of common use Schneider Calendar Digital Lib Research PittLib Scholar SCI

Misc Acuraweather Google Wikipedia

Current Research Projects Dept Web Page

– Brain processing of experience – Attention and workload in skilled performance

– Biological and computational understanding of skill acquisition – Semantic representation in cortex

– Biology of Cortex Control System and Learning Network – Methods development in fMRI and computerized experimentation

– Attentional effects in learning and biology of reading development

Misc Psychology Software Tools Schneider Pond [Slide Version] Family web Sabbatical Pictures