Research in Braver and Ching labs could boost thinking, focus

Todd Braver, PhD, professor of psychological and brain sciences, and ShiNung Ching, PhD, associate professor of electrical and systems engineering, have received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for more than $400,000 to investigate a new way to improve thinking and focus — work that could one day help restore short-term memory in older […]

Modeling personalized medicine for neurocritical illness

Precision medicine, which considers the unique characteristics of individuals to provide the most effective treatment, has been a goal of health care providers for decades. Now, it is a goal for those with critical neurological illnesses, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury and spine trauma, to track and predict secondary injury, such as seizures, and […]

McKelvey Engineering faculty lead MURI to study brain dynamics, reinforcement learning

Over the past half century, artificial intelligence has gone from a concept to everyday life, with electronic payments, facial recognition and social media becoming the norm. But the dynamic mechanisms in the brain on which artificial intelligence is based, which are more efficient, reliable and flexible, remain unclear to scientists, leading to a disconnect between […]

An emerging understanding of smell

How does the brain detect smells? To find out, you could rely on biological sciences, using high tech imaging methods, or studying anatomical diagrams. You could even get philosophical and ask, “What is smell, anyway?” Or, you could turn to engineering. Ching That’s what ShiNung Ching, an associate professor in the McKelvey School of Engineering at […]

Where’s my car? WashU researchers to study short-term working memory

When we drive to a place and park the car, most of us walk away without giving any thought about how to find the car when we want to leave. A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis plans to study how and where the brain stores this type of information so that […]

Board of Trustees grants faculty appointments, promotions

At the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees meeting March 1, the following faculty were appointed with tenure, promoted with tenure or granted tenure, effective July 1 unless otherwise noted. Appointment with tenure Kevin Michael Bennett as associate professor of radiology at the School of Medicine (tenure effective March 1); and Neal Patwari as professor […]

Diving in to how our brains process information

Engineering, ArtSci researchers will use fMRI and twins to better understand cognitive control From the WashU Newsroom… How our brains process information is intimately tied to the kinds of goals we have or the tasks we need to perform. For example, when showed the word “yellow,” our brains process it differently depending on whether we […]