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People/Faculty
Suzanne Corkin, Ph.D.
Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience

Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Building: 46-5121
Lab: Corkin Lab
Email: corkin@mit.edu

Neural Basis of Memory and Related Cognitive Functions
Suzanne Corkin and her colleagues investigate the cognitive and neural processes that support working memory (online storage and retrieval of information) and long-term memory (offline storage and retrieval of information). The participants in this research are healthy young adults (MIT students), healthy older adults, and patients with neurological diseases (amnesia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases). The research methods include behavioral testing to document memory performance, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to document brain anatomy, and functional MRI to document brain physiology. The lab's current research projects address the following questions:
  • Do different neural circuits support autobiographical memory for recent events compared to remote events? This question is germane to understanding the processes by which information is consolidated (stabilized) in the brain over time.
  • How does aging affect the ability to associate two pieces of information, such as a face and a name?
  • How is emotional memory different from remembering where you parked your car?
  • Are there separate cognitive mechanisms for valence (positive or negative information) and arousal (calming or exciting information)?
  • Are there separate brain mechanisms for valence and arousal?
  • What is the effect of aging and age-related disease on emotional memory?
  • What cognitive and neural abnormalities underlie the long-term memory impairment in Parkinson's disease?

The lab conducts behavioral studies on campus, and neuroimaging studies at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Charlestown. The Martinos Center is a collaboration among MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.

Steinvorth, S., Corkin, S., and Halgren, E. (2006) Ecphory of autobiographical memories: an fMRI study of recent and remote memory retrieval. NeuroImage,
30 , 285-298.

Kensinger, E.A., Krendl, A.C., and Corkin, S.  (2006)  Memories of an emotional and a nonemotional event: Effects of age and delay interval.  Experimental Aging Research, 32 , 23-45.

Salat, D.H., van der Kouwe, A.J.W., Tuch, D.S., Quinn, B.T., Fischl, B., Dale, A.M., and Corkin, S.  (2006)  Neuroimaging H.M.: A 10-year follow-up examination.  Hippocampus, 16, 936-945.


PDFs and Additional Publications