| Bielefeld University > Abteilung für Psychologie > Arbeitseinheiten > Affektive Neuropsychologie > HOMEPAGE > Dreisbach |
In my research I focus on processes of cognitive control. The importance of these processes is obvious: In order to pursue goal directed behavior in a constantly changing environment human beings are confronted with two fundamental challenges: on the one side, we have to maintain current goals and intentions over time in the face of distraction. On the other side, we must be able to flexibly switch between goals and update working memory in response to significant changes.
Here are some of the main topics I am interested in:
So far, we have found evidence that the flexibility to switch to a new task is supported by the activation (preparation) of the upcoming task AND the inhibition of the previous or other possibly interfering tasks (Dreisbach, Haider, & Kluwe, 2002; Huebner, Dreisbach, Haider, & Kluwe, 2003). Moreover, there exists evidence that the amount of preparatory inhibition is dynamically adjusted to the expected task demands (Dreisbach & Haider, 2006), that is, increasing backward inhibition effects with increasing task demands.
Furthermore, I am interested in parameters that modulate the balance between flexible switching on the one side and stable maintenance on the other. We found evidence that positive affect modulates cognitive control processes in that it makes the cognitive system more flexible but at the same time more distractible (Dreisbach & Goschke, 2004; Dreisbach, 2006). Recent studies suggest that these effects of positive affect are mediated by central dopamingeric activity as indicated by spontaneous eye-blink rate and dopamine gene polymorphisms (Dreisbach et al., 2005; Mueller et al., in press; Mueller et al., submitted).
