Dr. Lars Ross

Current Research Projects

Functions of the anterior temporal lobe

Scientists wonder and argue about the function of this mysterious part of the brain consisting of the anterior- most end of the temporal lobes. When damaged in patients with fronto-temporal dementia, patients exhibit profound deficits in retrieving the name and meaning of items, regardless of modality or task type while other cognitive domains allegedly remain intact. On the other hand, neurosurgeons routinely resect this part of the brain in patients with treatment resistant epilepsy without any or only little consequences for language function. Others have pointed out that damage to the ATLs is often associated with impaired social and emotional functioning in humans and non-human primates. The ATLs are notoriously difficult to image because of distortions due to their proximity to the air-filled cavities of the skull but if they emerge their activity is often associated with tasks involving social content but to a lesser extend with tasks involving semantic memory. Finally, a fair amount of imaging experiments suggest a special role of the ATLs in representing items with unique semantic associations such as famous people or landmarks.
In sum, the evidence for ATL function appears diffuse and there is need for reconciliation of the existing evdidence.  In the Olson lab I conduct experiments that are intended to shed light on the function of the ATLs and to explain their engagement in such diverse tasks. I use functional imaging (fMRI) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in young and older healthy volunteers, to investigate ATL function in different tasks involving social cognition, theory of mind, semantics and person memory.

Past Research

Multisensory Integration
I my former laboratory at the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and the City College of New York I investigated how the brain integrates information from different sensory modalities. I conducted experiments that assessed conditions under which the benefit of seeing a speakers face when trying to understand what the he says is maximal.  I studied multisensory integration in speech perception in healthy individuals, patients with Schizophrenia and autism and over the course of development from childhood into adulthood. I further used intracranial EEG/ERP to investigate the effect of visual articulation on the auditory perception in the famous McGurk effect. Finally, I used EEG/ERP to see how sound can affect the perception of the motion of objects.