Dr. Robert Dowman
Dr. Robert Dowman
Professor and Chair of Psychology
Psychology Department
173 Science Center
PO Box 5825
Potsdam, NY 13699-5825
Phone: 315-268-3836
Fax: 315-268-7118
E-mail: rdowman@clarkson.edu
Education
Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1984
Courses Taught
Experimental Psychology, Perception, Physiological Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience.
Research Interests
Electrophysiological and computational modeling studies of attending towards threat
Our work is aimed at understanding how the brain detects a threatening stimulus presented outside the focus of attention and re-directs attention towards it. This fundamental cognitive process is critical to our survival and has been shown to play an important role in the development of anxiety disorders and some types of chronic pain. We study this phenomenon using the somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) elicited by strong electrical stimulation of the sural nerve. The brain electrical activity indexed by the SEP is recorded by electrodes placed on the scalp. The sural nerve electrical stimulus has a number of properties that make it ideal for studying threat. It is strong, has a sudden onset, and produces an unfamiliar paresthesia (prickling/tingling) sensation. We have identified a network of brain areas that are important in detecting and orienting attention towards the threatening sural nerve electrical stimulus. The threatening stimulus is detected by threat feature detectors located in the dorsal posterior insula early in sensory processing (100-180 ms after the stimulus is given). Detection of the threat is monitored by the medial prefrontal cortex (130-200 ms), which in turn signals the lateral prefrontal cortex that on-going tasks need to be interrupted and attention re-directed towards the threat (320-400 ms). Dr. Daniel ben-Avraham (Physics), Dr. Kathleen Fowler (Math and Computer Science) and I are developing an artificial neural network model of this system that accounts for the behavioral and electrophysiological data. The modeling studies have led to new unexpected predictions that we have recently confirmed in studies that use pictures of threats to the body. Clarkson undergraduates who have worked on this project include Nina Carey, Gregory Dorchies, Kylie Drouin, Brian Leventhal, Erica Sieg, Jennifer Quinn, Jasmine Stephens, Kaylene Samuels, Suzanne Van Arsdale, and Alyssa Toia. All have given presentations at Clarkson's SURE conference and some at international scientific meetings.
Publications (Last 5 years)
Dowman, R. The Role of Somatic Threat Feature Detectors in the Attentional Bias Towards Pain: Effects of Spatial Attention, Psychophysiology, 48 (2011) 397-409
Dowman, R., Rissacher, D., & Schuckers, S. EEG indices of tonic pain-related activity in the somatosensory cortices. Clinical Neurophysiology, 119 (2008) 1201-1212
Dowman, R., & ben-Avraham, D. An artificial neural network model of orienting attention towards threatening somatosensory stimuli. Psychophysiology, 45 (2008) 229-239
Dowman, R. Neural Mechanisms Of Detecting and Orienting Attention Towards Unattended Threatening Somatosensory Target Stimuli. I. Inter-modal effects. Psychophysiology, 44 (2007)407-419.
Dowman, R. Neural Mechanisms Of Detecting and Orienting Attention Towards Unattended Threatening Somatosensory Target Stimuli. II. Intensity Effects. Psychophysiology, 44 (2007) 420-430.
Dowman, R., Darcey, T.M., Barkan, H., Thadani, V. & Roberts, D. Human intracranially-recorded cortical responses evoked by painful electrical stimulation of the sural nerve. NeuroImage, 34(2007) 743-763.
Presentations at Scientific Meetings (Last 5 years)
Lowenstein, K., Leventhal, B., Drouin, K., Dowman, R., Fowler, K., Mondal, S. (2011) Simulation and Model calibration with sensitivity analysis for threat detection in brain. The 23rd European Modeling & Simulation Symposium (Simulation in Industry), Sept 12-14, Rome Italy.
Dowman, R. Attentional bias towards somatic threats is mediated by attentional set. Psychonomic Annual Meeting, St. Louis MO, Nov 18-21, 2010.
Dowman, R., Quin, Jennifer, & Sieg, E. Mechanisms Underlying the Capture of Attention by Somatic Threats. American Psychological Society 22nd Annual Meeting, Boston MA May 27-30, 2010.
Dowman, R. The neural mechanisms of detecting and orienting attention towards threats to the body, Special Interest Meeting "Symptom Perception and Illness Behaviour", Bellum, Belgium, September 2008.
Dowman, R. An artificial neural network model of orienting attention towards threatening somatosensory stimuli. Society for Psychophysiological Research, 47th Annual Meeting, Savannah Georgia, Oct 17-21 2007.
Rissacher, D., Dowman, R., & Schuckers, S.A.C. Identifying Frequency-Domain Features for an EEG-Based Pain Measurement System. 33rd Annual Northeast Biomedical Engineering Conference, SUNY Stony Brook, New York, March 10-11, 2007.
Dowman, R., Neural processes detecting unattended somatosensory target stimuli. Society for Psychophysiological Research, 46th Annual Meeting, Vancouver B.C. Canada, Oct 25-29 2006.
Dowman, R. (2006) Neural processes detecting unattended somatosensory target stimuli. Society for Psychophysiological Research, 46th Annual Meeting, Vancouver B.C.
Student Presentations (Last 5 years)
Toia, A. & Dowman, R. Cognitive processes underlying underlying the attentional bias towards biological threats. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, July 2011
Carey, N., Dorchies, G., & Dowman, R. Evidence for sensitization of somatic threat detectors in the human brain. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, April 2011
Drouin, K., Dowman R. Modeling how the brain detects threats. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, July 2010
Sieg, E., Dowman, R. Cognitive processes underlying the attentional bias towards threats to the body. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, April 2010
Samuels, K., Van Arsdale, S., Dowman, R. Mechanisms of detecting and orienting attention towards threats to the body. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, April 2010
Quinn, J. Dowman, R. Investigation of how the brain orients attention towards threats to the body. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, July 2009
Lowenstein, K. Dowman, R. A toolkit for developing neural network models of how the brain detects and orients attention toward threat. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, July 2009
Trickey, K., Dowman, R. Threat detection and the orientation of attention toward threatening stimuli. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, April 2009
Gundling, W. Dowman R. Spatial attention in response to threat. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, August 2009
Lowenstein, K., Dowman, R. Modeling the brain mechanisms of detecting and orienting attention towards threat. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, August 2008
Roper, J., Stephens, J., van Arsdale, S., Dowman, R. Developing protocols to study how threats to the body are detected and capture attention. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, August 2008
McHugh, C., O'Brien, S., & Dowman, R., and ben-Avraham, D. An artificial neural network model of threat detection. Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology (BEST) Symposium, Clarkson University, April 2007.
McHugh, C., O'Brien, S., & Dowman, R. An artificial neural network model of threat detection. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, April 2007.
Trombley, T., Dowman, R. Brain computer interface control of a robotic arm: Parameters optimizing accuracy. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, August 2006.
Lajoie, R., Tucker, S., Gregoire, S., Ingrim, D, Dowman R. Gender differences in altruistic behavior among college students. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, April 2006.
Denesha, N., Fraczek, J., Dowman, R. Neural mechanisms of threat detection. Annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences, Clarkson University, April 2006.
