Jessica Hughes
BA magna cum laude, Psychology, University of Delaware - (2007)
MA, University of Toronto (in progress) Collaborative Program in Neuroscience (Psychology)
I worked as a research specialist in Dr. Jonathan Cohen's neuroscience of cognitive control laboratory at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University (2007-2009). My involvement included data collection and analysis of behavioral, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) experiments. One of those experiments focused on the effects of meditation on cognitive and emotional processes in Tibetan Buddhist monks, and another experiment implemented a computational model that assessed how people adopt strategies that minimize speed-accuracy trade-offs in highly uncertain environments.
Neurochemistry of Emotion and Cognition
My general interests concern the dynamic relationship between emotion and cognition. I am interested in elucidating how emotion informs cognition and how cognition can modulate emotion as well as the neurochemistry of this bidirectional influence. How this reciprocal relationship changes over the lifespan will be a focus of future experimental research. I am currently exploring the mechanisms of impaired selective attention in older adults and the contributive role of environmental uncertainty in that impairment. The role of acetylcholine has been implicated as a seminal factor in the degree of efficacy in the successful attentional filtering of irrelevant information. My dissertation work will address the influence of acetylcholine on selective attention and how acetylcholine may be impoverished in older adults and ultimately responsible for their impaired attentional filtering compared to younger adults.
- Balci, F., Simen, P., Niyogi, R., Saxe, A., Hughes, J.A., Holmes, P., and Cohen, J.D. (2011) Acquisition of decision-making criteria: Reward rate ultimately beats accuracy. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 73(2): 640-657.