Dr. Cohen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Cohen studies how functional brain networks interact and reconfigure when confronted with changing cognitive demands, when experiencing transformations across development, and when facing disruptions in healthy functioning due to disease.

Presentation Title: Functional Brain Network Organization and Dynamics in Health and Disease

Abstract:

The brain’s ability to adaptively engage different functional networks in the face of a changing environment is an important characteristic that enables a wide variety of behaviors. The goal of my research program is to understand how distinct brain networks interact with each other and flexibly reconfigure when confronted with a dynamic environment, as well as how network integration contributes to individual differences in behavior in both health and disease. In my talk, I will first discuss adaptive reconfiguration of functional brain network organization in response to changes in cognitive demands, followed by a depiction of situations in which stable brain network organization is adaptive. I will end by describing how dysfunctional brain network organization in ADHD underlies symptoms and cognitive deficits. Together, this research provides evidence that the healthy brain systematically reconfigures to adapt to current demands, and that dysfunction in this dynamic network behavior underlies ADHD.