By: American Psychological Association
Monday, January 23, 2012

Anne Berry
University of Michigan

Anne Berry is a third year graduate student in the Neuroscience program at the University of Michigan, where she works with Cindy Lustig and Martin Sarter studying the neural mechanisms of attention in humans and rodent models.

Berry’s research assesses the degree to which neuroscientific evidence about the control of attention gained from rat studies is applicable to humans. She investigates the neural mechanisms of distinct processes of attention (distractor resistance, signal detection, and processing mode shifts) using a task validated for use in both rats and humans. The results indicate strong parallels across species in the pattern of neural activity in prefrontal cortex. Her recent research compared measures of acetylcholine release in rats (microdialysis, electrochemistry) to BOLD fMRI in humans. Her current work focuses on evaluating parallels in electrophysiological correlates of attention across species.