Cognitive Neurophysiology Lab - Rochester

🌟 Calls for Papers! 🌟

✍️ EJN - The European Journal of Neuroscience is welcoming submissions for two upcoming special issues spotlighting important topics in !

🗓️ Deadlines:
🔹 Freezing of Gait: A Tribute to Nir Giladi | 30 April 2026
🔹 Understanding pain: Mechanistic insights and therapeutic pathways | 31 July 2026

Each issue welcomes innovative research that can drive the field forward. 🧠

👉 Find out more and submit your paper here: https://buff.ly/pjDJP5V

🚨 Rethinking one of neuroscience’s core assumptions: is attention really symmetric?

A new preprint from our teams at the University of Rochester and Albert Einstein College of Medicine suggests the answer is no—and the implications are profound.

In this study, led by Megan Darrell, Theo Vanneau, Chloe Brittenham, Johnny Foxe and Sophie Molholm, we show that human spatial attention is governed by fundamentally different neural control systems depending on direction of attention.

Using EEG and pupillometry in adolescents, we demonstrate:

• Leftward attention engages a classic oscillatory control architecture—slow frontal theta coordinating posterior alpha/beta to gate sensory processing

• Rightward attention relies on a distinct mechanism—faster theta directly modulating early sensory gain (P1), without coordinated alpha dynamics

• These differences are task-evoked, not baseline, and strengthen with development

Perhaps most strikingly, this work challenges the long-standing assumption that attentional control is implemented symmetrically across hemispheres.

Instead, attention appears to be:

✔ Rhythmic

✔ Phase-dependent

❗ Fundamentally asymmetric

This opens up new avenues for understanding developmental trajectories of attention—and may have important implications for clinical populations where attentional control is disrupted.

🙏 Supported by the Simons Foundation and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

📄 Read the full preprint here:

Just a moment...

🧠 Are we on the verge of treating neurodevelopmental disorders? 🧠

Dr. Xinyu Zhao from the University of Wisconsin–Madison joins Dr. John Foxe to discuss how brain organoids—tiny, 3D models of human brain tissue grown from stem cells—are revolutionizing research into autism, Fragile X, and Rett syndrome.

From understanding developmental milestones in a dish to the future of personalized stem cell therapy, this conversation explores the cutting edge of neuroscience. 💡

Watch the full episode to learn how these breakthroughs are shaping the future of medicine!

👇 Watch Here 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY7Xy72t09Q

www.youtube.com

The effect of unilateral cortical blindness on lane position and gaze behavior in a virtual reality steering task - Scientific Reports Adults with cortically-induced blindness (CB) affecting a quarter to a half of their visual field show greater variability in lane positioning when steering compared to those with intact vision. Because humans rely on visual information from optic flow to control steering, we hypothesized that these...

For years, scientists thought the brain learned by simplifying information from the world around us. But new research from the University of Rochester suggests learning may actually depend on something more sophisticated: neurons constantly combining what the brain sees with what it expects.

“It’s a bit like a group of people solving a problem,” says Professor Adam Snyder. “Instead of everyone working in isolation as efficiently as possible, learning makes them communicate more. That shared information makes each individual better informed and potentially makes the group more flexible and adaptive.”

These findings from graduate student Shizhao Liu and professors Snyder and Ralf Haefner are challenging long-standing neuroscience theory and could reshape how scientists think about perception, learning disorders, and artificial intelligence.

| https://uofr.us/47BnDaC

Learning makes brain cells work together, not apart A new University of Rochester study could reshape how scientists think about perception, learning disorders, and artificial intelligence.

🧠 What happens in the brain when you have to ignore distractions?

Imagine sitting in a classroom trying to focus on your teacher while other students are whispering, papers are shuffling, and chairs are scraping across the floor. Your brain has to constantly filter out irrelevant information and focus on what matters.

For most of us, this happens automatically.

But for people living with cystinosis—a rare genetic disorder best known for its effects on the kidneys—the brain may need to work harder to accomplish this everyday task.

In our new study, we asked a simple question:
How does the brain monitor and resolve conflict when distractions compete for attention? Using high-density EEG, we recorded brain activity while participants performed a classic “flanker task”—a test where distracting arrows surround a target arrow and participants must respond to the direction of the center one while ignoring the others.

What we found was fascinating.

People with cystinosis could monitor conflict just as effectively as their peers. But their brains appeared to work more effortfully to do it.

• They responded **more slowly**
• They made **more errors overall**
• Their brains showed **larger neural signals associated with conflict detection and decision-making** (the N2 and P3 responses)

In other words, the system works—but it requires extra cognitive effort.

These findings help explain why some individuals with cystinosis experience challenges in school or other complex environments where filtering distractions is essential. Understanding the neural mechanisms behind these difficulties is the first step toward developing **better supports and targeted interventions**.

Most importantly, we are deeply grateful to the individuals with cystinosis and their families who traveled across the country to participate in this research. Their commitment is helping us understand the brain in rare diseases—and how we can better support those living with them.



Sophie Molholm Dept of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester Cystinosis Foundation

Frontiers | A behavioral and electrophysiological investigation of conflict monitoring in cystinosis (CTNS gene mutations) using the flanker paradigm Cystinosis, a rare lysosomal storage disease, is characterized by cystine crystallization and accumulation within tissues and organs, including the kidneys a...

What the Developing Brain Could Reveal About Autism In this episode of Neuroscience Perspectives, we speak with Dr. Shafali Jeste, an internationally recognized child neurologist whose research has advanced th...

🧠 New Special Issue from

🗞️ EJN - The European Journal of Neuroscience – The European has released a new special issue: The Neuronal Basis of Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and Its Clinical Applications.

This collection brings together cutting-edge insights on MMN and highlights recent advances in the field. 🔬

💭 Curious to learn more?
👉 Explore the special issue:
https://buff.ly/SQMHseM

Limbic‐Visual Disintegration and Salience‐Control Specialization Characterize Tinnitus Network Topology Multimodal MRI reveals selective network reorganization in subjective tinnitus, with reduced medial temporal/visual–limbic integration and increased local specialization in salience, frontal, and cer...

NEW LAB COLLABORATION PAPER OUT TODAY 🧠🤝

A decade of insights from the ABCD Study reveals how **brain development, environment, genetics, and context interact** to shape adolescent mental health. This large-scale, longitudinal synthesis highlights why risk and resilience are **multivariate, nonlinear, and developmentally dynamic**—and how this knowledge can guide prevention and intervention. 📊🌱

Proud collaboration across institutions advancing developmental neuroscience and mental health science.
Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester
University of Rochester
Johnny Foxe

www.sciencedirect.com