Research page of Karolina Janacsek, PhD

Karolina Janacsek, PhD

Associate Professor

ILD Centre for Thinking and Learning, School of Human Sciences, University of Greenwich, Greenwich

Co-director of Brain, Memory and Language Lab, ELTE Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest

INTRODUCTION

I am an Associate Professor at University of Greenwich, and co-director of the Brain, Memory and Language Lab at ELTE.

My research focuses on human learning and memory. Humans possess a powerful ability to extract patterns/regularities from the environment without conscious effort, often referred to as statistical learning. This form of learning is involved in perception, predictive processing, language, music, and various motor skills; it is therefore a vital aspect of life from infancy to old age.

My research goal is to understand the neurobiological organization of statistical learning in the human brain, how that organization changes from childhood through adulthood, how it is disrupted in neurodevelopmental and other disorders, and how knowledge of that organization may help develop more effective training and intervention strategies.

I employ various methods of cognitive and clinical neuroscience in my research, including behavioral measurements (reaction time and accuracy data), functional neuroimaging, electrophysiology and non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Age-related differences in learning and consolidation across the life span

The goals of this line of research are to 1) better understand how children acquire and consolidate knowledge about patterns and regularities embedded in the environment, 2) characterize how explicit/controlled and implicit/automatic processes interact during learning and consolidation, and 3) track how learning abilities change from childhood to adulthood and old age.

Learning and consolidation in neurodevelopmental disorders

The focus of this line of research is on understanding 1) how learning and consolidation of patterns/regularities are altered in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, ADHD, Tourette Syndrome and childhood sleep disorders, and 2) how controlled vs. automatic cognitive processes may compensate for the altered functions to achieve normal behavioural performance.

Neurocognitive underpinnings of learning and consolidation

The goal of this line of research is to gain a better understanding of 1) the neurocognitive networks underlying the learning and consolidation of complex patterns/regularities, and 2) how the contribution of these neural networks changes depending on the way of information processing (e.g., controlled vs. automatic), using various methods such as fMRI, EEG and non-invasive brain stimulation.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Toth-Faber, E., Nemeth, D., & Janacsek, K. (2023). Lifespan developmental invariance in memory consolidation: evidence from procedural memory. PNAS Nexus, 2 (3), pgad037. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad037

Janacsek, K., Evans, T., Kiss, M., Shah, L., Blumenfeld, H., & Ullman, M. T. (2022). Subcortical cognition: the fruit below the rind. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 45, 361-386, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-110920-013544

Park, J., Janacsek, K.*, Nemeth, D., & Jeon, H-A. (2022). Reduced functional connectivity supports statistical learning of temporally distributed regularities. NeuroImage, 160, 119459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119459

Horvath, K., Nemeth, D., & Janacsek, K. (2022). Inhibitory control hinders habit change. Scientific reports, 12, 8338. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11971-6

Kiss, M., Nemeth, D., & Janacsek, K. (2022). Do temporal factors affect whether our performance accurately reflects our underlying knowledge? The effects of stimulus presentation rates on the performance vs. competence dissociation. Cortex, 157, 65-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2022.09.003

KEY PUBLICATIONS FROM LAST 5 YEARS

Janacsek, K., Shattuck, K. F., Tagarelli, K. M., Lum, J. A., Turkeltaub, P. E., & Ullman, M. T. (2020). Sequence learning in the human brain: A functional neuroanatomical meta-analysis of serial reaction time studies. NeuroImage, 207, 116387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116387

Ullman, M. T., Earle, F. S., Walenski, M., & Janacsek, K. (2020). The neurocognition of developmental disorders of language. Annual review of psychology, 71, 389-417. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011555

Takács, A., Kóbor, A., Chezan, J., Elteto, N., Tarnok, Z., Nemeth, D., Ullman, M. T., & Janacsek, K. (2018). Is procedural memory enhanced in Tourette syndrome? Evidence from a sequence learning task. Cortex, 100, 84-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.08.037

* Indicates shared first authorship (equal contribution)