Professor Michael Posner FBA

For more than fifty years Michael Posner has studied how mental operations, particularly those related to attention, are carried out by neural networks. He has used cognitive, imaging and genetic methods. He continues these studies as Prof. Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Oregon and Adjunct Prof. at Weill Medical College. His current work examine the mechanisms of changes in white matter resulting from various forms of training. A mouse model together with optogenetic methods is used to examine the general changes with learning and the reason for individual differences in changed connectivity. We are currently testing if individual differences in methylation efficiency can account for the differences in the degree of change in white matter that occur with learning and development.