Eve De Rosa, Ph.D

Associate Professor of Psychology


derosa @ psych.utoronto.ca
416 978 3401

I grew up in Bermuda and ultimately HAD to leave for University. Thankfully, my family still lives there. I attended Vassar College for my undergraduate studies and Harvard University for my graduate studies. I was trained in animal neuroscience at Harvard and then received training in human neuroscience as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine. I enjoy bringing both of these approaches together in my lab at the University of Toronto.

Comparative Cognitive Neuroscience


Thus far, the field of cognitive neuroscience has primarily focused on the neuroanatomy of attention and learning. Here we also consider the neurochemistry of these cognitive processes. Specifically, we examine the contributions of the cholinergic basal forebrain, the major source of the neurochemical acetylcholine to the hippocampus and cerebral cortex, to normal cognition. In rats, we employ pharmacological and cholinergic immunotoxic lesioning techniques. And in humans, we employ behavioural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques in populations associated with cholinergic deficiency.

 

  • Botly, L.C.P., De Rosa, E., (2011) Impaired Visual Search in Rats Reveals Cholinergic Contributions to Feature Binding in Visuospatial Attention. Cerebal Cortex.[view pdf]
  • Schmitz, TW,Cheng, FH & De Rosa, E (2010)Failing to ignore: paradoxical neural effects of perceptual load on early attentional selection in normal aging. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 14750-8[view pdf]
  • Dixon, M.L.*, Zelazo, PD & De Rosa, E. (2009) Evidence for Intact Memory-guided Attention in School-Aged Children. Developmental Science.[view pdf]
  • Botly, L.C.P.* & De Rosa, E. (2009) Cholinergic Deafferentation of the Neocortex Using 192 IgG-Saporin Impairs Feature Binding In Rats. Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 4120–4130. [view pdf]
  • Dixon, M.L.*, Ruppel, J.* Pratt, J. & De Rosa, E. (2009) Learning to ignore: Acquisition of sustained attentional suppression. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 16, 418-423. [view pdf]
  • Schmitz, T.W., De Rosa, E., & Anderson, A.K. (2009) Opposing influences of affective state valence on visual cortical encoding. Journal of Neuroscience,29:7199-7207. [view pdf]
  • Botly, L.C. & De Rosa, E. (2008) A cross-speciesinvestigation of acetylcholine, attention, and feature binding. Psychological Science, 19, 1185-93. [view pdf]
  • Botly, L.C. & De Rosa, E. (2007) Cholinergic influences on feature binding. Behavioral Neuroscience, 121, 264-276. [view pdf]
  • Caplan, J.B., McIntosh, A.R. & De Rosa, E. (2007) Two Distinct Neuromodulatory Functional Networks for Successful Resolution of Proactive Interference. Cerebral Cortex. 17, 1650-1663. [view pdf]
  • De Rosa, E., Desmond, J.E., Anderson, A.K., Pfefferbaum, A., & Sullivan, E.V. (2004). The human basal forebrain supports integration of new with old learning.Neuron, 41, 825-837. [view pdf]