Michael T Rubens
Research Associate

Address:
University of California, San Francisco
Neurology - Gazzaley Lab Box:2240
600 16th st., Room N474
San Francisco, CA 94158

Email: Michael.Rubens [at] ucsf.edu
Office: (415) 476-2164

Web:

UCSF Academia

Neurotree

ResearchGATE

Scholarly Memberships:

Society for Neuroscience

Curriculum Vitae: [pdf]

Biography:

Michael was born and grew up in San Diego. At a young age he left the wonderful climate of southern California for the frosty winters of northern Michigan. After completing his high school education in the suburbs of Detroit, he found himself longing to return to a warmer, sunnier place. Michael chose to attend Arizona State University in Tempe. He selected psychology as his concentration early in his studies and never looked back. The vast array of disciplines within psychology intrigued Michael and his interest was constantly piqued. Originally considering a career in a clinical domain, his plans changed after enrolling in a physiological psychology course. This incited his passion for investigating the neural correlates of behavior and cognition. After this experience Michael knew he would be content spending his life unraveling the mysteries of the human brain.

While attending ASU, Michael served as a research assistant in the Social Cognition Lab of Dr. Douglas Kenrick. His work there involved utilizing an eye-tracking device to monitor how varied emotional states affect focal attention. After receiving his degree, Michael returned to Michigan to gain some research experience in order to refine his interests and to aid in his eventual admission into a graduate program. He developed his technical skills while working in the neuroscience lab of Dr. Ava J. Senkfor at Wayne State University in Detroit. During an overlapping time period, he also worked in the Chronic Pain & Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It was there where he was first introduced to a little technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Michael sought a lab where he could become an integral contributing member with greater responsibilities and experiential opportunities.  After meeting the members of the Gazzaley lab and becoming familiar with the current research, there is no other place he would rather be. Michael plans to work in the lab until at least 2012, after which he will apply to a Ph.D. program in the field of cognitive neuroscience.

Research Description:

At the moment, Michael is involved with the collection and analysis of fMRI data from several different studies that are currently being conducted in the Gazzaley Lab. These studies are investigating top-down modulation, a neural process that allows us to enhance relevant information and suppress irrelevant information, networks related to attention and memory, as well as neural differences related to short-term and long-term memory processes. His programming skills and knowledge of fMRI have lead to him becoming a primary contributor to the creation and maintenance of analysis tools used througout the lab for this modality. Aside from implementing standard univariate analyses commonly used throughout the field (statistical parametric mapping), he is also surveying multivariate approaches such as Independent Component Analysis, Beta Series Correlation (Rissman et al., 2004), and Multi-Voxel Pattern Analysis.

Until recently, Michael was working on an fMRI-guided Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) study with Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings. The aim of this study is to see if performance on a low-level visual working memory task can be impaired by applying TMS to a frontal control region. His foray into EEG is expanded even further with his current academic endeavor.

Presently, Michael is engaged in establishing a multi-modal imaging technique where EEG and fMRI data are recorded continuously and synchonously. His work involves development, testing, quality assurance, and eventually using the technique to answer complex experimental questions. Aside from assuring that data are collected across the same state/time, the technique allows for data from one modality to inform the analysis of the other. Though this is still a novel, groundbreaking technique, past research has used peak amplitudes and latencies from event related potentials (ERP) to weight regressors in the the general linear model (GLM), which directs multiple linear regression of fMRI data.

Publications:

Bollinger, J., Rubens, M.T., Gazzaley, A. (in revision). Expectation-driven changes in cortical functional connectivity in the service of subsequent memory.

Zanto, T.P., Rubens, M.T., Gazzaley, A. (in press). The inferior frontal junction and top-down modulation of visual feature processing. Neuroimage.

Wais, P.E., Rubens, M.T., Boccanfuso, J., Gazzaley, A. (2010). Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Impact of Visual Distraction on Long-term Memory Retrieval. Journal of Neuroscience. 30(25): pp. 8541-8550. [pdf]

Clapp, W.C., Rubens, M.T., Gazzaley, A. (2010). Mechanisms of Working Memory Disruption by External Interference. Cerebral Cortex. 20(4): pp. 859-72. [pdf]

 
Presentations:

Rubens, M.T., Clapp, W.C., Gazzaley, A. Neural basis of the impact of interruption on working memory performance in older adults. San Diego, CA: Society for Neuroscience, 2010. [abstract]

Wais, P., Boccanfuso, J., Rubens, M.T. & Gazzaley, A. The Neural Correlates of Visual Distraction During Episodic Memory Retrieval. Program No. 279.23.2009 Neuroscience Meeting Planner. Chicago, IL: Society for Neuroscience, 2009. Online. [abstract]

Zanto, T.P., Rubens, M.T., Thangavel, A. & Gazzaley, A. Top-down modulation for visual features: Evidence from functional and causal connectivity. Program No. 701.01.2009 Neuroscience Meeting Planner. Chicago, IL: Society for Neuroscience, 2009. Online.

Wais, P., Boccanfuso, J., Rubens, M.T., Gazzaley, A. The impact of distraction on long-term memory retrieval. San Francisco, CA: Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting. 2009.

Clapp, W.C., Rubens, M.T., Karlsson, J., Zanto, T.P., Gazzaley, A., (2008). Variations in Task Difficulty Dissociate Activity in Prefrontal Cortex and Medial Temporal Lobe During Working Memory Encoding. Organization of Human Brain Mapping, Melbourne, Australia. [ abstract ][ poster ]

Clapp, W.C., Rubens, M.T. & Gazzaley, A. Individual differences in attentional allocation to relevant and irrelevant distraction predicts working memory performance. Program No. 814.07.2008 Neuroscience Meeting Planner. Washington, D.C: Society for Neuroscience, 2008. Online. [abstract][presentation]