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Kisley, Michael A., PhDTitle: Assistant ProfessorDepartment: Department of Psychology Institution: University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) Mailing Address: 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway, PO Box 7150, Colorado Springs CO, 80933-7150 Phone: (719) 262-4177 Website: http://www.uccs.edu/~mkisley/ Research InterestsDr. Kisley researches how the person (and their brain) prioritizes sensory stimuli for processing, age-related changes in both bottom-up and top-down stimulus prioritization processes, and the role that emotional factors play in stimulus prioritization in older adults. To study these phenomena, he employs non- invasive electrophysiological measures of brain activity, often referred to as event-related brain potentials (ERPs), in addition to behavioral research methods.SPD Research SummaryNeurophysiological Correlates of Sensory Over-Responding in Adults Scalp-recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) provide non-invasive estimates of neuron population activity with excellent temporal resolution (milliseconds). Consequently these neurophysiological measures can be used to assess when, in the course of central nervous system processing of a stimulus, abnormalities might arise. The goal of research conducted in my laboratory has been to investigate whether behavioral sensory over-responding in individuals without potentially confounding clinical disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, traumatic brain damage) is associated with impaired sensory gating as assessed by ERPs evoked during paired-stimulus paradigms. We have documented sensory over-responding with a number of instruments including the Sensory Gating Inventory and the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile. To investigate multiple stages and sensory modalities of central nervous system processing, we have studied several ERP components (all within about 125 ms of stimulus- onset) in response to both paired auditory and somatosensory stimuli. The most robust finding from our lab has been an inverse relation between self- reported functional behaviors related to sensory sensitivity/avoidance and the suppression of auditory ERP components P50 and N100 in a paired click paradigm: individuals that endorsed higher rates of sensory over-responding exhibited less efficient Òsensory gating.Ó This is consistent with the hypothesis that sensitive individuals particularly over-process stimuli of low salience, even within the first 100 ms of neural processing. Based on previous studies regarding the neural basis of the ERP components we measure, our results are consistent with the interpretation that sensory over-responders process stimuli differently than typical individuals at association cortex processing stages. This should not be taken as an argument that abnormal neural processing of stimuli in particularly sensitivity individuals first arises at higher cortical areas. Futures studies should be targeted at neural processing at lower brain levels, from the receptor neuron through the brainstem and thalamus to the primary cortical area. Such studies should employ multiple measures including complimentary methodologies (e.g., fMRI) in order to more effectively localize, both temporally and spatially, the point of neural processing at which sensory over-responders first exhibit significant differences from typically developing individuals.Back to SPD-SWG Participants Mail this page to a friend | |
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