Dr. Taraz Lee, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, will present Motivation-cognition interactions and their effect on skilled action.

Abstract: Most day-to-day activities clearly benefit from goal-directed cognitive control and enhanced motivation.  However, many people have the intuition that exerting too much control over our actions can be harmful, especially when under pressure to perform. How does enhanced motivation affect cognitive control processes?  How do these processes in turn affect skilled motor performance? What are the mechanisms by which enhanced motivation both supports and potentially hampers the activity of neural systems needed for successful performance?  These questions are explored in a variety of studies using functional neuroimaging, non-invasive brain stimulation, behavioral studies, and computational modeling.

Biography:  Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and the director of the Cognition, Control, and Action (CoCoA) lab.  His work is fundamentally interested in the interaction between 'high level' cognitive processes such as attention, working memory, and cognitive control and 'lower level' sensory and motor processes to promote learning and performance in a variety of contexts.  The CoCoA lab employs a variety of techniques including behavioral studies, computational modeling, functional neuroimaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and studies with neurological patients. 

B.S. in Symbolic Systems (neuroscience concentration) from Stanford University

Ph.D. in Psychology (cognition, brain, and behavior) from UC Berkeley (advisor: Mark D'Esposito)

Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychological and Brain Sciences at UC Santa Barbara (advisor: Scott Grafton)