Research Abstract:
My research aims to understand the neural basis of human cognition, in particular vision and attention. We use a variety of techniques in both normal and brain-damaged human observers, including psychophysics, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and surface reconstruction of the cortical mantle to generate flat maps of the brain. In detail, we are studying the contribution of frontal and parietal areas to attentional control, and the relationship between neural activity and visual performance.

A second more clinical line of research focuses on how people recover after brain injury, and what neuronal events underlie such recovery. Patients with stroke and language (aphasia) or attentional deficits (spatial neglect) are followed throughout their recovery with clinical, behavioral, anatomical and functional neuroimaging measures to track changes in performance and in neural activity. In detail, we are studying the role of the right frontal cortex in the recovery of speech after a left frontal stroke, and the reorganization of attentional systems in patients with spatial neglect and various cortical and subcortical lesions. These studies hopefully will elucidate mechanisms of neuronal recovery at the systems level. This knowledge is critical for developing future rehabilitation strategies that are guided by sound neurobiological principles.
Selected Publications:
Baker JT, Patel GH, Corbetta M, Snyder L. Distribution of activity across monkey cerebral cortical surface, thalamus, and midbrain during rapid, visually guided saccades. Cerebral Cortex 2006 42:447-459 (Epub 2005 Jun 15).

Fox MJ, Corbetta M, Snyder AZ, Vincent JL, Raichle ME. Spontaneous neuronal activity distinguishes human dorsal and ventral attention systems. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2006 103:10046-10051 (Epub 2006 Jun 20).

Jack AI, Shulman GL, Snyder AZ, McAvoy M, Corbetta M. Separate modulations of human V1 associated with spatial attention and task structure. Neuron 2006 51:135-147.

Jack AI, Sylvester CM, Corbetta M. Losing our brainless minds: How neuroimaging informs cognition. Cortex 2006 42:418-421; discussion 422-427.

Sapir A, d'Avossa G, McAvoy M, Shulman GL, Corbetta M. Brain signals for spatial attention predict performance in a motion discrimination task. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2005 102:17810-17815.