Suzanna Becker

PhD (University of Toronto)

Affiliations: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University (Professor); Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster University (Associate member); Department of Linguistics & Languages, McMaster University (Associate member); School of Computational and Engineering Sciences, McMaster University (Member); Centre for Vision Research, York University (Adjunct member); Canadian Institutes for Advanced Research, Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception Program (Associate member); Spatial Learning Network, Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (member)
Mailing address:: Dept. of Psychology Neuroscience & Behaviour; PC-103 McMaster University; 1280 Main St. W., Hamilton ON, L8S 4K1.
Phone: (905) 525-9140 extension 23020
Departmental FAX : (905) 529-6225
Email:
Schedule for Fall/04

Research interests

Computational and empirical studies of the neural basis of learning and memory. In our lab, we use neural network models, fMRI and behavioural measures to study perceptual and cognitive processes including cortical and hippocampal memory systems, the role of hippocampal neurogenesis in learning and memory, spatial memory and navigation, semantic memory organization, frontal control of memory, dopaminergic role in learning and motivated behaviour, plasticity in cortical systems, and cortical reorganization after perhipheral damage

Collaborations

Spatial cognition: neural circuits involved in spatial memory, imagery and navigation, with Neil Burgess (UCL), Mike Kahana (U Penn).
Hippocampal neurogenesis: contributions to learning and memory, with J. Martin Wojtowicz (Physiology, University of Toronto), Gordon Winocur (Rotman Research Institute), David Smith (Psychology, Cornell University).
Stress, depression, neurogenesis and the hippocampus, with Glenda MacQueen (Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience, McMaster), J. Martin Wojtowicz (Physiology, University of Toronto).
The role of dopamine in learning and motivated behaviour, with Henry Szechtman, McMaster University.
Auditory cortical reorganization after peripheral hearing loss, and rehabilitative strategies for tinnitus, with Larry Roberts (Psychology, McMaster), Ian Bruce (ECE, McMaster), Hugh Wilson (CVR, York University), Lucas Parra (City University of New York).
The Intelligent Hearing Aid Project: neuronal modelling and neural compensation algorithms, with Profs Simon Haykin, Ian Bruce (Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster), Laurel Trainor (Psychology, McMaster), Vitasound Audio.
Media coverage of Vitasound Audio and the NeuroCompensator: Article in ForeverYoungNews.com, article in the Hamilton Spectator, Video clip on the Hamilton Spectator website.

Online lectures

The role of the hippocampus in memory, contextual gating, stress and depression. Inaugural Symposium, Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, UC Berkeley, October 7, 2005. (link to lectures online)

Recent work

Chen, Z., Haykin, S., Eggermont, J. and Becker, S. (2001), Correlative learning. A basis for brain and adaptive systems. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New Jersey. ISBN 978-0-470-04488-9.

Han, X., Byrne, P. Kahana, M. and Becker, S. (submitted), When is an object just an object? How attention and task relevance affect memory for objects and their spatial locations.
Gilbert, C. and Becker, S. (submitted), Is Item Specific Inhibition Required to Explain Retrieval Induced Forgetting? JEP:LMC subm no. 2008-1240
Gilbert, C. and Becker, S. (submitted), A Category Cue Theory of Semantic Strategies. JEP:LMC subm no. 2008-1241
Chrostowski, M., Yang, L., Wilson, H., Bruce, I. and Becker, S. (accepted), Can Homeostatic Plasticity in Deafferented Primary Auditory Cortex Lead to Traveling Waves of Excitation? Journal of Computational Neuroscience
Becker, S., MacQueen, G. and Wojtowicz, J.M. (2009), Computational modeling and empirical studies of hippocampal neurogenesis-dependent memory: Effects of interference, stress and depression. Brain Research 1299:45-52. DOI 10.1016/j.brainres.2009.07.095 Link to online version of article.
Aubie, B., Becker, S. and Faure, P. (2009), Computational models of millisecond level duration tuning in neural circuits. J. Neurosci. 29(29):9255-9270
Becker, S. (2008), Preface to the special issue on computational cognitive neuroscience, Brain Research.
Turnock, M. and Becker, S. (2008) A neural network model of hippocampal-prefrontal interactions in contextual conditioning, Brain Research 1202:87-96, doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2007.06.078, 18(12):2942-2958. pdf (page proofs), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2007.06.078
Becker, S. and Wojtowicz, J.M. (2007), A model of hippocampal neurogenesis in memory and mood disorders. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11(2):70-76.

pdf preprint

doi link

Byrne, P. and Becker, S. (2008), A principle for learning egocentric-allocentric transformations. Neural Computation. 20(3):709-737. pdf
Byrne, P., Becker, S. and Burgess, N. (2007), Remembering the past and imagining the future: a neural model of spatial memory and imagery. Psychological Review 114(2):340-375. pdf
Zorzi, M., Stoianov, I., Becker, S., Umilta, C. and Butterworth, B. (submitted), The numerosity code for the representation of numerical magnitude.