Sharon Thompson-Schill | University of Pennsylvania Department of Psychology

Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology; Director, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

Department:

Psychology

Education:

BA, Psychology, Davidson College; Ph.D. Cognitive Psychology, Stanford University

Address:

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Goddard Labs, 3710 Hamilton Walk, Room 507

Phone:

215-573-3533; 215-898-5663

Email:

sschill@psych.upenn.edu; dus@psych.upenn.edu

Lab Page

Research Themes:

Behavioral Neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience

Language and Communication

Memory and Learning

Sensation and Perception

Specific Research Areas:

Neural basis of human memory and language with an emphasis on semantic memory and frontal lobe function

Research Synopsis:

We study the biological bases of human cognitive systems – perception, memory, language, thought, cognitive control – and the interrelations among these systems, with a particular emphasis on the characterization of typical and atypical variation across individuals.

Recent projects emphasize (1) functions of the frontal lobe in the regulation of thought and behavior, especially in relation to language and memory processes; and (2) the organization and neural substrates of concept knowledge (especially knowledge of visual attributes) and the relation between conceptual information and perception and language.

We answer these questions by developing and implementing a wide array of behavioral and neuroscientific methods with both typical and atypical populations, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), lesion-deficit mapping of neurological patients, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), genotypic analysis of typical variation, on-line eye-tracking, & so on.

Representative Courses:

PSYC 149 Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
PSYC 200 Undergraduate Honors Seminar
PSYC 630 Cognitive Neuroscience of Memeory

Appointments:

Psychology Graduate Group; Neuroscience Graduate Group

Advisees:

Christine Boylan [Psychology Graduate Student]
Marc Coutanche [Psychology Graduate Student]]
Nicholas Hindy [Psychology Graduate Student]
Nina Hsu [Neuroscience Graduate Student]
David Kraemer [Post-doc]
Jared Minkel [Post-doc]
Nazbanou Nozari [Post-doc]
Matt Weber [Post-doc]

Representative Publications:

Thompson-Schill, S. L., D'Esposito, M., Aguirre, G. K., & Farah, M. J. (1997). Role of left prefrontal cortex in retrieval of semantic knowledge: A re-evaluation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 94, 14792-14797. PMID: 9405692

Thompson-Schill, S. L., Swick, D., Farah, M. J., D'Esposito, M., Kan, I. P., & Knight, R. T. (1998). Verb generation in patients with focal frontal lesions: A neuropsychological test of neuroimaging findings. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 95, 15855-15860. PMID: 986106019.

Baron, S., G., Thompson-Schill, S. L., Weber, M., & Osherson, D. (2010). An early stage of conceptual combination: Superimposition of constituent concepts in left anterolateral temporal lobe. Cognitive Neuroscience, 1, 44-51.

Weber, M. J. & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2010). Functional neuroimaging can underwrite causal claims about brain function. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 2415-2416. PMID: 20201629

Coutanche, M., Thompson-Schill, S. L., & Schultz, R. T. (2011). Multi-voxel pattern analysis of fMRI data predicts clinical symptom severity. Neuroimage, 57, 113-123.

Yee, E., Huffstetler, S., & Thompson-Schill, S. L., (2011). Function follows form: Activation of shape and function features during object identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140, 348-363. PMID: 21417543

Lupyan, G. & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2012). The evocative power of words: Activation of concepts by verbal and nonverbal means. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 170-186. PMID: 21928923

Yee, E., Ahmed, S., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (in press). Colorless green ideas (can) prime furiously. Psychological Science. PMID: 22374271

Coutanche, M. & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (in press). Reversal without remapping: What we can (and cannot) conclude about learned associations from training—induced behavior changes. Perspectives in Psychological Science.

Hindy, N., Altmann, G., Kalenik, E., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (in press). The effect of object state-changes on event processing: Do objects compete with themselves? Journal of Neuroscience.