| Principal Investigators
Alex Martin, Ph.D. |
![Alex Martin Photo](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20130215055926im_/http://intramural.nimh.nih.gov/images/martin_a.jpg) |
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Dr.
Martin is Chief of the Cognitive
Neuropsychology Section, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition.
He received his B.A. from the City College of New York
and his Ph.D. from the City University of New York. He
did his post-doctoral work at the National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke on the breakdown of
language and memory processes in Alzheimers disease.
In 1985 he joined the faculty of the Uniform Services
University of the Health Sciences where he studied cognitive
dysfunction associated with HIV infection. In 1990 he
moved to the NIMH where he continued his work on cognitive
abnormalities in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.
More recently, his program has used functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural systems mediating
different aspects of memory, language, and perception.
Dr. Martin is an elected Fellow of the American Psychological
Society and of the American Psychological Association.
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Research Interests |
Dr. Martin's Section studies the functional neuroanatomy of memory systems. A major area of concentration is on semantic memory, the part of long-term memory composed of general information, such as facts, ideas and the meaning of objects and words. His group investigates the neural substrate of object category knowledge and the role this information plays in object recognition. How abstract forms of knowledge, such as knowledge of social interactions, are represented is also a major focus. Additional studies concentrate on characterizing changes in neural activity associated with perceptual skill learning to provide a model system for studying cortical plasticity, and on identifying the brain structures supporting implicit and explicit modes of information acquisition and retrieval.
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Representative Selected Recent Publications: |
- Gotts SJ, Milleville SC, Bellgowan PSF, & Martin A:
Broad and narrow conceptual tuning in the human frontal lobes. Cerebral Cortex, 477-491, 2011.
- Wallace GL, Dankner N, Kenworthy L, Giedd JN, & Martin A:
Age-related temporal and parietal cortical thinning in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Brain, 3745-3754, 2010.
- Simmons WK, Reddish M, Bellgowan PSF, & Martin A:
The selectivity and functional connectivity of the anterior temporal lobes. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 813-825, 2010.
- Mahon BZ, Milleville SC, Negri GAL, Rumiati RI, Caramazza A, & Martin A:
Action-related properties shape object representations in the ventral stream. Neuron, 55, 505-520, 2007.
- Simmons WK, Bellgowan PSF, & Martin A.:
Measuring selectivity in fMRI data. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 4-5, 2007.
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Address:
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Section on Cognitive Neuropsychology
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, NIMH
Bldg. 10, Rm. 4C-104
10 Center Drive, MSC 1366
Bethesda, MD 20892-1366 |
Phone: |
301-435-4926 |
Email Dr. Martin |
Fax: |
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Lab Web Site: |
http://lbcnimh.nih.gov |
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