Cognitive Neurology Group

Description of Research
The Cognitive Neurology team has research interests in visual attention and action control, impulsivity and decision-making in healthy individuals and patients with stroke and Parkinson’s disease.

We study visual attention in healthy people and patients with visual inattention or hemispatial neglect following stroke. We aim to apply our knowledge from studies in normal individuals to patients, and vice versa. Our research includes studies to assess the effects of drugs on attention and behaviour.

We also investigate the functional role of medial frontal cortex. The focus of this work has been on the role of the supplementary and pre-supplementary motor areas in the control of movement. Functional imaging studies combined with new behavioural paradigms have led to the development of novel theories of medial frontal control mechanisms and their role in the voluntary control of action. Such techniques have also been applied to patients with focal lesions of the medial frontal cortex.

Our studies on attention and action control in focal lesion patients have led us to apply our findings to Parkinson’s disease which may be associated with alterations in cognition and decision making in some individuals.

We are funded by The Wellcome Trust and MRC.

Group Members

Selected reviews & papers:

Nachev P, Kennard C & Husain M (2008) Functional role of supplementary and pre-supplementary motor areas. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9:856-869

Bays PM & Husain M. (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited working memory resources in human vision. Science 321: 851-854.

Coulthard E, Nachev P, Husain M. (2008) Control over conflict during movement preparation: Role of posterior parietal cortex. Neuron 58: 144-157.

Sumner P, Nachev P, Morris P, Peters AM, Jackson SR, Kennard C & Husain M (2007) Human medial frontal cortex mediates unconscious inhibition of voluntary action. Neuron 54: 697-711.

Husain M & Nachev P (2007) Space and the parietal cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11: 30-36.

Malhotra P, Parton A, Greenwood R & Husain M (2006) Noradrenergic modulation of space exploration in visual neglect. Annals of Neurology 59: 186-90.

Nachev P, Rees G, Parton A, Kennard C & Husain M (2005) Volition and conflict in human medial frontal cortex. Current Biology 15: 122-128.

Mannan S, Mort D, Hodgson T, Driver J, Kennard C & Husain M (2005) Revisiting previously searched locations in visual neglect: Role of right parietal and frontal lesions in misjudging old locations as new. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17: 340-354.

Jackson S, Newport R, Mort D & Husain M (2005) Where the eye looks, the hand follows: limb-dependent magnetic misreaching in optic ataxia. Current Biology 15: 42-46.

Parton A, Malhotra & Husain M (2004) Hemispatial neglect. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 75: 13-21.

Bird CM, Castelli F, Malik O, Frith U & Husain (2004) The impact of extensive medial frontal damage on 'Theory of Mind' and cognition. Brain 127: 914-928.

Husain M & Rorden C (2003) Non-spatially lateralized mechanisms in hemispatial neglect. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 4:26-36.

Mort DJ, Malhotra P, Mannan SK, Rorden C, Pambakian A, Kennard C, Husain M. (2003) The anatomy of neglect. Brain 126: 1986-97.

Husain M, Parton A, Hodgson T, Mort D, Rees G (2003) Self-control during response conflict by human supplementary eye field. Nature Neuroscience 6:117-8.

Shapiro K, Hillstrom A, Husain M (2002) Control of visuotemporal attention by inferior parietal and superior temporal cortex. Current Biology 12: 1320-1325.

Husain M, Mattingley J, Driver J, Rorden C and Kennard C (2000) Dissociation of sensory and motor impairments in parietal and frontal neglect. Brain 123: 1643-1659.

Rees G, Wojciulik E, Clarke K, Husain M, Frith C and Driver J (2000) Unconscious activation of visual cortex in the damaged right hemisphere of a parietal patient with extinction. Brain 123: 1624-1633.

Mattingley JB, Husain M, Rorden C, Kennard C and Driver J (1998) Motor role of human inferior parietal lobe revealed in unilateral neglect patients. Nature 392: 179-182.

Wolpert D, Goodbody S and Husain M (1998) Maintaining internal representations: the role of the human superior parietal lobe. Nature Neuroscience 1: 529-533.

Husain M, Shapiro K, Martin, J. and Kennard C (1997) Abnormal temporal dynamics of visual attention in spatial neglect patients. Nature 385: 154-156.

For reprints please e-mail Masud Husain at m.husain@ion.ucl.ac.uk

This page last modified 12 November, 2009 by [ICN Web Team]