Jacob Bollinger, Ph.D

Address:
University of California, San Francisco
Mission Bay - Genentech Hall MC2240
600 16th St., Room N474
San Francisco, CA 94158

email: jacob.gazzlab@gmail.com
lab: (415) 476-2164
fax: (415) 514-4451
Cirriculum Vitae: (.pdf)

Biography: Jacob was born and raised in Northern California. In 1999, he received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego. While at UCSD, he worked in collaboration with Sascha du Lac and Bryce Vissel in the development of a transgenic mouse line with GFP-labeled Purkinje cells. This line was used in a series of electrophysioloical experiments examining mechanisms of the vesibulo-occular reflex. Jacob was also the captain of the varsity soccer team. In 2006, Jacob received his Ph.D in neurscience from the University of California, San Francisco. There he studied the influence of the locus coeruleus on cortical plasticity with one of the world's leaders in neural plasticity, Michael Merzenich. In 2007, Jacob joined the Gazzaley lab to focus on experiments designed to examine neural mechanisms of expectation and memory in the context of cognitive aging.

Research description: Expectations of future events allow us to dynamically optimize allocation of our limited cognitive resources. It is well established that attention-directing cues regarding the spatial location, features or object category of ensuing stimuli enable more effective processing of sensory information. Accordingly, predictive category cueing has been shown to enhance the speed and accuracy by which stimuli are detected and discriminated (Esterman & Yantis, 2009; Puri & Wojciulik, 2008; Puri, et al., 2009). Extending these findings into the memory domain, we have recently demonstrated that predictive category cueing can also result in improved working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM) performance (Bollinger et al., 2010). Thus, extensive evidence suggests that expectations act as an attentional filter to facilitate the extraction of goal-directed information, resulting in performance benefits across multiple domains.

Normal aging has been associated with cognitive decline across a wide variety of domains, including those abilities aided by expectation in younger adults, such as perception, WM, and LTM (Bennett, Golob, & Starr, 2004; Curran, Hills, Patterson, & Strauss, 2001; Friedman; Nielsen-Bohlman & Knight, 1995; Pelosi & Blumhardt, 1999). Studies directed at exploring the underlying neural basis of cognitive aging have revealed age-associated deficits in top-down modulation of visual cortical activity when stimuli are present, which have been shown to contribute to memory impairment (Gazzaley, Cooney, McEvoy, Knight, & D'Esposito, 2005; Gazzaley et al., 2008). Additionally, alterations in the fronto-parietal attention network have been documented in older adults (O'Sullivan et al., 2001; Andrews-Hanna, Snyder, Vincent, Lustig, Head, Raichle & Buckner, 2007; Madden, Costello, Dennis, Davis, Shepler, Saniol, Bucur & Cabeza, 2010; Grady, Protzner, Kovacevic, Strother, Afshin-Pour, Wojtowicz, Anderson, Churchill & McIntosh, 2009).    Thus, an age-related loss in the benefits that expectations have on subsequent memory may result from an inability of older adults to modulate pre-stimulus activity in response to predictive cues, perhaps as a consequence of deficient top-down control networks.

The focus of Jacob's work is to understand how processes underlying memory benefits engendered by effective cue utilization are altered during normal cognitive aging.

Selected Research Abstracts and Publications

1.         Sekirnjak C, Vissel B, Bollinger J, Faulstich M, & du Lac S (2003) Purkinje cell synapses target physiologically unique brainstem neurons. Journal of Neuroscience 23:6392-6398. (.pdf)

2.         Bollinger J & Gazzaley A (2008) Pre-stimulus alpha power reflects anticipation of both stimulus category for complex objects and task goals. Society For Neuroscience, Washington, DC. (.pdf)

3.         Bollinger J & Gazzaley A (2008) Pre-stimulus alpha synchronization reflects anticipation of stimulus category for complex objects. Bay Area Memory Meeting, University of California, San Francisco.

4.         Bollinger J & Gazzaley A (2009) Age differences in N170 amplitude modulation by selective attention and working memory load. Society for Neuroscience, Chicago, IL. (.pdf)

5.         Bollinger J, Rubens MT, Masangkay E, & Gazzaley A (2010) Deficits in expectation-driven functional connectivity underlie memory impairments in normal aging. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA. (.pdf)

6.         Pa J, Bollinger J, Johnson, JK, & Gazzaley A (2010) Functional MRI BOLD Modulation in Attention and Memory Systems in MCI. International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease, Honolulu, HI.

7.         Bollinger J, Rubens MT, Masangkay E, & Gazzaley A (2010) Deficits in expectation-driven functional connectivity underlie memory impairments in normal aging. Bay Area Memory Meeting, Stanford University.

8.         Zanto TP, Rubens MT, Bollinger J, & Gazzaley A (2010) Top down modulation of visual feature processing: The role of the inferior frontal junction. Neuroimage 53: 736-745.

9.         Bollinger J, Rubens MT, Zanto TP, & Gazzaley A (2010) Expectation-driven changes in cortical functional connectivity influence working memory and long-term memory performance. Journal of Neuroscience 30:14399-14410.(.pdf) 

10.       Bollinger J, Rubens MT, Masangkay E, Kalkstein J, & Gazzaley A (2011) An expectation-based memory deficit in aging. Neuropsychologia 49:1466-1475. (.pdf)

11.       Zanto TP, Pan P, Liu H, Bollinger J, Nobre AC & Gazzaley A (2011) Age-related changes in orienting attention in time. Journal of Neuroscience (in review).

12.       Kalkstein J, Checksfield K, Bollinger J, & Gazzaley A (2011) Diminished top-down control underlies a visual imagery deficit in normal aging. Journal of Neuroscience (in review).

13.       Bollinger J, Gazzaley A. (2011) An expectation-based memory deficit in cognitive aging. Bay Area Aging Meeting, University of California, Berkeley.

14.       Bollinger J, Gazzaley A. (2011) An expectation-based memory impairment in cognitive aging: the role of alpha oscillations. Aging and Cognition Conference, University of Texas, Dallas.

15.       Bollinger J, Masangkay E, Zanto TP & Gazzaley A (2011) Working memory load effects on top-down control in youth and aging (in progress).

16.       Bollinger J, Hough M, & Gazzaley A (2011) Large-scale alpha networks underlie expectation-based memory improvements (in progress).

17.       Bollinger J & Gazzaley A (2011) Deficient alpha networks underlie expectation-based memory impairments in cognitive aging (in progress).