Dr. Cohen’s laboratory focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive control and their disturbance in brain and behavior disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. Cognitive control is the ability to guide attention, thought and action in accord with goals or intentions. Dr. Cohen and his colleagues are working to develop and test explicit hypotheses that will explain how these mechanisms of cognitive control work. The mechanisms of cognitive control influence attentional effects in sensory processing and goal-directed sequencing of motor output. Cognitive control’s influence on the brain structures upon which these functions depend, such as the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, basal ganglia and brain-stem neuromodulatory dopamine and norepinephrine systems, are still poorly understood.

Before joining Princeton University in 1998, Dr. Cohen worked at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.