Sharlene D. Newman

B.E., Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 1993
M.S., University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL, 1996
Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL, 1999
Mini-Residency Program, University of Pittsburgh, 2004

Research Interests

Cortical networks work together seamlessly to perform a myriad of incredibly complex cognitive functions. My research thus far can be described as being concerned with obtaining a clearer perspective of the functional and synergistic activities of these neuro-cognitive networks. Specifically, I have focused on two observed properties of cortical networks: 1) the components of neuro-cognitive networks appear to be extremely collaborative and 2) the involvement of the components appear to be dynamic, meaning that the composition of the network changes with changing computational demands. I have investigated tasks in a number of cognitive domains including problem-solving, language processing, visual and haptic imagery, and semantic categorization.

Representative Publications

Newman, S. D. and Just, M. A.(2005). The neural bases of intelligence: a perspective based on functional neuroimaging. In (R. Sternberg, J. Davidson & J. Pretz, Eds.). Cognition and Intelligence, pp. 88-103, Cambridge University Press: London.

Mitchell, T. M., Hutchinson, R., Niculescu, R. S., Pereira, F., Wang, X., Just, M. and Newman, S. D. (2004). Learning to decode cognitive states from brain images. Machine Learning, 57(1-2): 145-175.

Just, M. A., Newman, S. D., Keller, T. A., McElaney, A., and Carpenter, P. A. (2004). Imagery in sentence comprehension: An fMRI study. NeuroImage, (pdf preprint).

Newman, S., D., Just, M. A., and Mason, R. A. (2003). Understanding text with the right side of the brain: what functional neuroimaging has to say. In (L.M.B. Tomitch & C. Rodrigues, Eds.) Ensaios sobre a linguagem e o cérebro humano: Contribuições multidisciplinares, pp. 71-84.

Newman, S. D., Carpenter, P. A., Varma, S., and Just, M. A. (2003). Frontal and parietal participation in problem-solving in the Tower of London: fMRI and computational modeling of planning and high-level perception. Neuropsychologia, 41(12): 1668-1682.

Newman, S. D., Just, M. A., Keller, T. A., Roth, J. K., and Carpenter, P. A. (2003). The differential effects of syntactic and semantic processing on the two subregions of Broca's area. Cognitive Brain Research, 16/2: 297-307.

Mitchell, T., Hutchinson, R., Just, M., Newman, S., Niculescu, R. S., Periera, F., and Wang, X. (2002). Machine Learning of fMRI Virtual Sensors of Cognitive States. The 16th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, Computational Neuroimaging: Foundations, Concepts & Methods Workshop.

Newman, S. D., Just, M. A., and Carpenter, P. A. (2002). The synchronization of the human cortical working memory network. NeuroImage, 15: 810-822.