Post-doc Section Brain Function and Plasticity
Department of Psychiatry
mail
e.j.aarnoutse@umcutrecht.nltel +31-30-253 1869
Supervisors Nick Ramsey, Richard van Wezel
Title
The neural basis of automatization of cognitive functions
Summary With practise, performance on a task will increase and doing a simultaneous second task becomes easier. In schizophrenic patients a lesser amount of this automatization takes place, which may contribute to the cognitive deficits from which they suffer. Often they have problems with memory and executive functions, functions attributed to the working memory. On a neurophysiological level the neural activity in brain regions related to working memory (mostly prefrontal cortex) decreases with practise, but in schizophrenic patients neural activity remains high.
In collaboration with the Dept of Functional Neurobiology of the Utrecht University automatization is explored in all levels of neurophysiology, from single cells to EEG and fMRI.