CAN labbies won people choice poster awards at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society which took place in San Francisco, CA from March 28 - 31. Senior undergraduate and Mulcahy and Provost Scholar Eva Gjorgieva’s work (along with graduate student Val Flores (Research Mentoring Program), lab alum Dr. Vanessa Rainey, senior Riley Sticca (Mulcahy and Provost Scholar), and lab co-directors Robert Morrison and Rebecca Silton investigating task switching in bilinguals was also featured on the CNS website. 

Other winners included a poster on how changes in anterior prefrontal cortex during adolescence support the development of fluid intelligence by Professor Morrison, Val Flores, recent lab alum Elise Gagnon (former Johnson Scholar), and current Johnson Scholars senior Sarah Zaza (Johnson Scholar), and junior Amanda Sweis (Johnson Scholar), and work exploring the neural correlates of emotional face processing in habitual violent gamers by senior Rob Palumbo (Mulcahy Scholar and Research Mentoring Program), research associate Laura Stockdale (Research Mentoring Program), senior Kavita Patel (Provost Fellow) and professors Morrison and Silton.  

Senior Makiah Nuutinen's (Provost Scholar) work along with political science graduate student Dane Wendell, professor Rick Matland, and lab director Dr. Morrison on using dual-process theory to understand differences in reasoning with respect to political ideology was also well received.

The CAN lab once again attended the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society this year hosted for the first time in Boston. We enjoyed local delights including Lobsta and Red Socks.  Ryan Brisson, Matt Kmiecik presented the work they have been doing with Dr. Morrison on the time course of verbal analogical reasoning. Laura Stockdale (LUROP Research Mentoring Program) and Rob Palumbo (LUROP Research Mentoring Program, Mulcahy Scholar) presented their work exploring how media violence can change the neural correlates of emotional face processing. Will Beischel (Provost Scholar), Bianca Wells (McNair Scholars Program), Izabelle Rymut (Johnson Scholar) presented their work on how differences in learning strategies impact the neural correlates of face-name memory during retrieval practice. All three of the posters we presented won People's Choice Poster Awards which were given to the 8 outstanding posters from the conference. Travel was supported by the department of psychology, the McNair Scholars Program, the Johnson Scholars Program, and LUROP Travel Awards.

CAN lab lab manager Matt Kmiecik and co-director Dr. Morrison traveled to Berlin, Germany to attend the 35th meeting of the Cognitive Science Society where Matt gave a talk describing their collaboration to understand the time course of verbal analogical reasoning using EEG.  Dr. Morrison also presented collaborative work with Sean McCarthy on the role of incubation in insight problem solving. A great experience was had meeting scientists all over the world.  The work they discussed was funded by generous grants from the Provost and Mulcahy fellowship programs, and travel was supported by Grants from LUROP and the College of Arts and Science's Dean's Office.

Matt and Bob then traveled onto Dijon, France were Dr. Morrison helped to organize the Analogy 2013: The 3rd International Conference on Analogy.  The conference, originally started by the late Boicho Kokinov brought researchers from many different disciplines and countries together to discuss their work on analogy.  Dr. Morrison lead and spoke at a session hosted on brain mechanisms in analogy that was hosted in the Hospices de Beaune, the oldest hospital in Europe.

Dr. Morrison attended the American Federation for Aging Research's (AFAR) annual conference in Santa Barbara, CA for the second time.  Individuals invited to attend the meeting have been selected by the Gilbert, Glazer, Ellison and Glenn private foundations for their innovative approaches to questions involving human aging as well as age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's.  Presentations at the three day meeting are a tour de force of neuroscience demonstrating cutting edge approaches from cell and molecular biology to neuropathology to behavioral and cognitive neuroscience and even public health and epidemiology. Many investigators use multiple approaches in their laboratories. For instance one researcher from Israel is using optigenetics to specifically activate diseased neural circuits in Alzheimer's mice while their brain activity is measured using high magnetic field fMRI. Dr. Morrison presented work from the CAN lab's aging research group using neuroimaging to understand variability in memory and executive function in older adults exhibiting age typical as well as exceptional and pathologic aging.

The CAN lab was out in force at the 2013 LUROP Research symposium. Callie Short gave a talk followed by Poster presentations by Ryan Brisson, Will Beishel, Laura Endris, Elise Gagnon, Matt Kmeiick, Nirav Patel, Izabelle Rymut, and Beccy Shukhman.  The lab also celebrated with Matt Kmeicik as he received the 2013 University Libraries Undergraduate Research Paper Award at the LUROP award ceremony.

The day before the Sujack Award ceremony, Matt, Ryan, Krishna, Natalie and Beccy and I sat at a dark table in San Francisco illuminated by the bright smile of the Vietnamese woman cooking us lunch. A cockroach had been spotted but the food was savory and the coffee strong and sweet. Accomplishment was fresh as we celebrated new friends, future possibilities in graduate and medical school, and successful presentations at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society annual meeting.

Later in the day back at the Chinatown loft we were sharing, we met with a colleague from another university who was trying to find her career path. I reflected on my own improbable path: molecular biology; polymers and sculpture; a string of generous people willing to chance on a long shot; starting an education nonprofit; a post-doctoral fellowship at the last possible moment, followed by a tenure track job the year of the stock market crash; a bright young colleague willing to experiment with co-mentoring a research lab; and brilliant, motivated, students showing up on my door step. This was a winding path populated by so many blessings and occasionally by courage.

I looked at our divining colleague and my students ready to jump towards exciting futures.

Do what you love...the rest, will follow.

I know why I am here.

Thanks to the Sujack family, Anne Figert and the rest of the Sujack Awards committee, my supportive family, friends, mentors and colleagues. 

But most of all, thanks to my student collaborators in learning. Awards are great, but the true reward is being able to do what I love with all of you!

Bob

Thanks to the generosity of LUROP, the Mulcahy's Scholars Program, and the Loyola Department of Psychology, Krishna Bharani, Ryan Brisson, Natalie Mandel, Bob Morrison, and Beccy Shukhman attended the 20th Annual Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference in San Francisco to present some of our recent work on analogy, SuperAging, and memory monitoring.  As usual the poster sessions was rocking.  This year's conference featured many great presentations including ones from developmental cognitive neuroscientist Pat Kuhl and neurologist Bob Knight.  Our digs in a Chinatown loft were sweet...and savory with all of the good food in the neighborhood...can anyone say YUMMY...they miss us!