Emily Przysinda

University of Rochester Medical Center | URMC · Department of Neuroscience

Individuals with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) have difficulties with social information processing, including mental state attribution, or “theory of mind” (ToM). Prior work has shown that these difficulties are related to disruption to the neural network subserving ToM. However, few such studies utilize naturalistic stimuli that are mor...

Background music is widely used to sustain attention, but little is known about what musical properties aid attention. This may be due to inter-individual variability in neural responses to music. Here we find that music with amplitude modulations added at specific rates can sustain attention differentially for those with varying levels of attentio...

Individuals with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) have difficulties with social information processing, including mental state attribution, or “theory of mind” (ToM). Prior work has shown that these difficulties are related to disruption to the neural network subserving ToM. However, few such studies utilize naturalistic stimuli that are mor...

Background: People with schizophrenia have subtle differences in auditory and language processing that may be related to social communication deficits. These differences are often studied using paradigms involving isolated aspects of auditory and language processing. However, more naturalistic paradigms involving continuous speech may better speak...

One often overlooked symptom of schizophrenia is marked and persistent difficulties with social information processing. Since social interactions hinge upon understanding our external environment, it’s possible that known language deficits in schizophrenia could contribute to social difficulties. Here, we aim to better understand the neural process...

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a debilitating and complex disorder. One often overlooked symptom is marked and persistent difficulties with social information processing. Increasing work has shown that these deficits can be attributed to abnormalities in the network of brain regions supporting mental state attribution, known as the theory of mind (ToM) netw...

Background music is widely used to sustain attention, but little is known about what musical properties aid attention. This may be due to inter-individual variability in neural responses to music. We test the hypothesis that music can sustain attention by affecting oscillations via acoustic amplitude modulation, differentially for those with varyin...

Background music is widely used to sustain attention, but little is known about what musical properties aid attention. This may be due to inter-individual variability in neural responses to music. We test the hypothesis that music can sustain attention by affecting oscillations via acoustic amplitude modulation, differentially for those with varyin...

Main finding: In Schizophrenia, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex is under-recruited when processing social moments; Poster for Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference: A28 (5/2: 1:30-4:30PM)

Jazz improvisation offers a model for creative cognition, as it involves the real-time creation of a novel, information-rich product. Previous research has shown that when musicians improvise, they recruit regions in the Default Mode Network (DMN) and Executive Control Network (ECN). Here, we ask whether these findings from task-fMRI studies might...

Jazz improvisation offers a model for creative cognition, as it involves the real-time creation of a novel, information-rich product. Previous research has shown that when musicians improvise, they recruit regions in the Default Mode Network (DMN) and Executive Control Network (ECN). Here, we ask whether these findings from task-fMRI studies might...

Creativity has been defined as requiring both novelty and effectiveness, but little is known about how this standard definition applies in music. Here, we present results from a pilot study in which we combine behavioral testing in musical improvisation and structural neuroimaging to relate brain structure to performance in a creative musical impro...

Creativity is the ability to produce work that is novel, high in quality, and appropriate to an audience. One domain of creativity comes from musical improvisation, in which individuals spontaneously create novel auditory-motor sequences that are aesthetically rewarding. Here we test the hypothesis that individual differences in creative behavior a...

Creativity has been defined as the ability to produce work that is novel, high in quality, and appropriate to an audience. While the nature of the creative process is under debate, many believe that creativity relies on real-time combinations of known neural and cognitive processes. One useful model of creativity comes from musical improvisation, s...

Recent theoretical advances in the evolution of music posit that affective communication is an evolutionary function of music through which the mind and brain are transformed. A rigorous test of this view should entail examining the neuroanatomical mechanisms for affective communication of music, specifically by comparing individual differences in...