Research Interests:

Dr. Schneider investigates dynamic cortical processing in human behavioral
and brain imaging studies and computer simulation models. Behavioral and
brain imaging studies focus on visual processing, identifying the stages and
selective processing of each stage of the visual system, tracking exogenous
(e.g., color, motion) and endogenous (e.g., spatial attentional switching)
processing of each stage. The brain imaging research utilizes functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to produce high 3D spatial resolution
(near millimeter) maps identifying the location and relative activation of
stages of the visual system. High Density Evoked Response Potential
experiments provide millisecond temporal data of activation. These data
provide the basis for detailed tracking of the dynamics of cortical
processing. We are developing methods to map human network level cortical
processing. Behavioral and brain imaging data details how rapidly and in
what forms attention moves (e.g., a jump between active channels as opposed
to analogue scanning) as a function of the complexity of the processing and
position in the visual field.

Trainees in Dr. Schneider's laboratory learn functional Magnetic Brain
Imaging, evoked response potential (64 channels) and behavioral
experimentation methods. Students with modeling interest typically develop
connectionist and differential equation models of sensory and cognitive
processing. Students may collect human brain imaging and behavioral data on
perceptual and cognitive processing. Models of physiological data collected
in other laboratories can also be developed. A variety of computers and
software simulation environments are available for this research.

Recent Publications:

Schneider, W., and Oliver, W. (1991). An instructable connectionist/control
architecture: Using rule- based instructions to accomplish connectionist
learning in a human time scale. In K. Van Lehn (Ed.), Architecture for
intelligence (pp. 113-145). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Schneider, W., Noll, D. C., and Cohen, J. D. (1993). Functional topographic
mapping of the cortical ribbon in human vision with conventional MRI
scanners. Nature, 365, 150-153.

Schneider, W., Casey, B. J., and Noll, D. (1994). Functional MRI mapping of
stimulus rate effects across visual processing states. Human Brain Mapping,
1, 117-133.

Schneider, W., Pimm-Smith, M. and Worden, M. (1994). The neurobiology of
attention and automaticity. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 4, 177-182.

Worden, M., Schneider, (1995) Cognitive task design for FMRI International
Journal of Imaging Science & Technology, 6, 253-270

Schneider, W., and Pimm-Smith, M. (in press) Consciousness as a message
aware control mechanism to modulate cognitive processing in Scientific
Approaches to consciousness: 25th Carnegie Symposium on Cognition. Ed. J.
Cohen and J. Schooler.