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The Laboratory of Brain and Cognition is directed by Nathan Spreng, an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ. The lab examines large-scale brain network dynamics and their role in cognition. Currently, we investigate attention, memory, cognitive control, and social cognition, and the interacting brain networks that support them. We are also actively involved in the development and implementation of multivariate and network-based statistical approaches to assess brain structure, connectivity and activity. In doing so, we aim to better understand the properties of brain networks underlying cognitive processes as they change across the lifespan in health and disease.

Selected publications

Schmitz, T.W. & Spreng, R.N. (2016). Basal forebrain degeneration precedes and predicts the cortical spread of Alzheimer’s pathology.ÌýNature Communications, 7, 13249.

Turner, G.R. & Spreng, R.N. (2015). Prefrontal engagement and reduced default network suppression co-occur and are dynamically coupled in older adults: The default – executive coupling hypothesis of aging.ÌýJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27, 2462-2476.

Spreng, R.N., DuPre, E., Selarka, D., Garcia, J., Gojkovic, S., Mildner, J., Luh, W.-M. & Turner, G.R. (2014). Goal-congruent default network activity facilitates cognitive control.ÌýJournal of Neuroscience, 34, 14108-14111.

Andrews-Hanna, J.R., Smallwood, J. & Spreng, R.N. (2014). The default network and self-generated thought: Component processes, dynamic control, and clinical relevance.ÌýAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1316, 29-52.

Spreng, R.N., Sepulcre, J., Turner, G.R., Stevens, W.D. & Schacter, D.L. (2013). Intrinsic architecture underlying the relations among the default, dorsal attention, and frontoparietal control networks of the human brain.ÌýJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 25, 74-86.

Spreng, R.N., Stevens, W.D., Chamberlain, J., Gilmore, A.W. & Schacter, D.L. (2010). Default network activity, coupled with the frontoparietal control network, supports goal-directed cognition.NeuroImage, 53, 303-317.

Spreng, R.N., Mar, R.A. & Kim, A.S.N. (2009). The common neural basis of autobiographical memory, prospection, navigation, theory of mind and the default mode: A quantitative meta-analysis.ÌýJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 489-510.Ìý