Laboratory of Neuropsychology
Head: Elżbieta SZELĄG
Staff: Weronika Duda (PhD student), Alicja Moczulska (PhD student), Kamila Nowak (PhD student), Anna Oroń (PhD student), Justyna Skolimowska, Aneta Szymaszek, Małgorzata Węsierska
Research profile:
We study the neurophysiology and neuropsychology of cognition in human and animal models in norm and pathology. Human studies are focused on temporal aspects of information processing, learning, language, memory and attention and are aimed at the development of innovative neurorehabilitation methods. Our research involves normal subjects (children and adults), patients suffering from various brain diseases (stroke, focal brain damage, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease), cochlear implant users, as well as children with various speech and/or language disorders, e.g. language – learning – impairment, aphasia, deafness, stuttering, infantile autism. Animal studies are focused on neural substrates of learning, memory and other cognitive processes, like cognitive coordination and flexibility. Mecha- nisms engaged in memory improvement induced by direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the brain are studied in the model of spatial working memory in rats
Methods:
• temporal aspects of information processing in norm and pathology
• innovative methods of neurorehabilitation
• speech therapy in different language disorders: aphasia, stuttering, infantile autism, hearing deficits
• neuropsychology of language restoration
• cognitive deficits in infantile autism
• neuropsychology of normal chronological ageing, longevity and neurodegeneration
• neuropsychological assessment of early stages of Alzheimer’s disease
• neural basis of learning, spatial and recognition memory in rats
• comparative behavioral studies on memory in different strains of rats and other animal species
• neural basis of auditory recognition memory and auditory processing in rats
• neural substrate of cognitive processes in spatial memory model in rat
• efficacy of tDCS brain stimulation on cognitive processes in animal model
Current research activities:
• neuropsychological basis of human and animal cognition
• temporal aspects of information processing, language, hemispheric asymmetry, normal chronological aging, neurodegeneration and neurorehabilitation
• animal studies on the neural basis of memory in different strains of rats
• cognitive abilities in patients with brain damage, aphasia, hearing deficits as well as neurodevelopmental or neurodeg enerative diseases
• the studies are combined with behavioral methods, electrophysiological, fMRI, molecular, pharmacological, neuroanatomical and lesion techniques
Selected publications:
Skolimowska J., Węsierska M., Lewandowska M., Szymaszek A., Szeląg E. (2011) Divergent effects of age on performance in spatial associative learning and real idiothetic memory in humans. Behavioral Brain Research, 218: 87-93.
Szeląg E., Szymaszek A., Aksamit-Ramotowska A., Fink M., Ulbrich P., Wittmann M., Pöppel E. (2011) Cognitive competence, not chronological age determines temporal sequencing ability. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 29: 35-45.
Lewandowska M., Piątkowska-Janko E., Bogorodzki P., Wolak T., Szeląg E. (2010) Changes in fMRI BOLD response to increasing and decreasing task difficulty during auditory perception of temporal order. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory,
94: 382-391.
Dockery C.A., Węsierska M.J. (2010) A spatial paradigm, the allothetic place avoidance alternation task, for testing visuospatial working memory and skill learning in rats. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 191: 215–221.
Szymaszek A., Sereda M., Pöppel E., Szeląg E. (2009) Individual differences in the perception of temporal order: the effect of age and cognition. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 26: 135-147.
