Professor
M.D., University of Maryland, 1983
Memory and Cognition, Neural Mechanisms

Email: jhart@utdallas.edu
Phone: 972-883-3403
Office: JO 2.204

Research Interests

My research interests have focused on the neural basis of semantic memory in the human brain. My work, spanning several decades, has focused on identifying the organization of semantic memory in the human brain by proposing that there is both a categorical and featural structure to object memory that exists in multiple memory systems in the brain. My laboratory’s recent studies have used functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological investigations to explore the neural mechanisms underlying combining these components of an object together to form an integrated object memory. They recently reported that one neural mechanism by which object recall can occur is via synchronizing gamma brain rhythms that are modulated by the thalamus and proposed the Neural Hybrid Model of Semantic Memory. I am now investigating object memory and word finding deficits in multiple disease states in terms of both diagnosing and designing treatment options based on this model.

Recent Publications

Hart, J. Jr., Rao, S.M., and Nuwer, M. (2007). Clinical functional magnetic resonance imaging. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, Vol 20(3) Sep: 141-144.

Kraut, M., Cherry, B., Pitcock, J., Vestal, L., Henderson, V., and Hart, J. (2006). The Semantic Object Retrieval Test (SORT) in normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 19(4): 177-84.

Kraut, M., Pitcock, J., Calhoun, V., Li, J., Freeman, T., and Hart, J. (2006). Neuroanatomic organization of sound memory in humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(11): 1877-88.