Kara Dyckman

Hometown: Easton, PA Undergraduate: B.A. in Psychology, Bucknell University, 1996 Graduate Program: Psychology - Cognitive/Experimental

Current research interests: My research focuses on examining changes in behavior and brain activity following practice of a novel task. In a recent study using fMRI, participants performed saccade tasks in the scanner both before and after a week of practice on one of the tasks. A study is currently in progress using both fMRI and EEG to investigate possible changes in location, strength, and timing of cortical activities as a result of practice.

Publications:

Camchong, J., Dyckman, K.A., Chapman, C.E., Yanasak, N.E., McDowell, J.E. (In Press). Basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuitry disruptions in schizophrenia during delayed response tasks. Biological Psychiatry.

Dyckman, K. A., & McDowell, J. E. (2005). Behavioral plasticity of antisaccade performance following daily practice. Experimental Brain Research, 162, 63-69.

McDowell, J.E., Kissler, J.M., Berg, P., Dyckman, K.A. , Gao, Y., Rockstroh, B., Clementz, B.A. (2005). Electroencephalography/magnetoencephalography study of cortical activities preceding prosaccades and antisaccades. Neuroreport, 16, 663-668.

Wade, T. J., Dyckman, K. A., & Cooper, M. (2004). Invisible men: Evolutionary theory and attractiveness and personality evaluations of 10 African American male facial shapes. Journal of Black Psychology, 30, 477-488.

Abstracts:
Krusemark, E. A., Dyckman, K. A., Brunell, A. B., Campbell, W. K., Clementz, B. A., & McDowell, J. E. Neural Substrates of social rejection and self regulation. Poster presented at the conference for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Palm Springs, California, January 2006.

Camchong, J., Dyckman, K. A., Buckley, P. F., & McDowell, J. E. Neural circuitry activity associated with ocular motor felayed response task performance in normal and schizophrenia subjects. Poster presented at the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research, Savannah, Georgia, April 2005.

Dyckman, K. A., & McDowell, J. E. Behavioral plasticity of antisaccade performance in young adults following daily practice. Paper presented at the 27th Annual Psi Chi Convention, UGA, Athens, Georgia, March, 2004.

Brahmbhatt, S. B., Brown, R. R., Dyckman, K. A., McDowell, J. E., & Clementz, B. A. Neural correlates of decision-making and response preparation in blocked versus interleaved saccadic tasks. Poster presented at the Society of Psychophysiological Research, Chicago, Illinois, October 2003.

McDowell, J. E., Brown, G. G., Tuffy, C., Dyckman, K. A., & Hutton, T.; Saccadic performance among healthy young adults and the supporting neural correlates as identified using fMRI. Poster presented at the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research, Colorado Springs, Colorado, March 2003.

McDowell, J. E., Kissler, J., Dyckman, K. A., Rockstroh, B., & Clementz, B. A. Timing of specific cortical activities preceding pro- and antisaccades in normal humans. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March 2003.

Wade, T. J., Abad, K. A., & Cooper, M. Facial shape and the perception of African Americans. Paper presented at the 107th American Psychological Association Convention, Boston, Massachusetts, August 1999.

Honors:
2006 Acceptance to 2006 John Merck Fund Summer Institute on the Biology of Developmental Disabilities - Funding for tuition, meals, and housing, plus a travel stipend of $200

2005-2006 Paul D. Coverdell Neuroimaging Program Franklin Foundation Travel Award

2004-2005 Paul D. Coverdell Neuroimaging Program Franklin Foundation Scholar

2004-2005 American Psychological Foundation Graduate Research Scholarship (APF/COGDOP) – $1,000 for research