Dr. McKiernan completed her graduate education in Experimental
Psychology at the University of Rhode Island. She specialized in Cognitive
Neuropsychology and was a member of Dr. Dominic Valentino’s Attention
Laboratory. Her research focused on sustained attention, specifically using
structural equation modeling (SEM) to link subject factors (ie., positive
and negative affect, motivation) and attention task performance.
Dr. McKiernan chose a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Neurology Department
of the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) with the goal of learning to conduct
research using functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI). In the Language
Imaging Laboratory (Dr. Jeffrey Binder, Director), she conducted a series
of FMRI studies investigating Task-Induced Deactivation (TID). Dr. McKiernan
continues to be an instructor for the semi-annual MCW Analysis of Functional
NeuroImages (AFNI) workshop.
Dr. McKiernan’s current position is as a postdoctoral
fellow at the Neuropsychiatry Research Center where she will continue to conduct
FMRI studies of human cognition. She is a member of the Cognitive Neuroscience
Society, Organization of Human Brain Mapping, American Psychological Society,
and American Psychological Association.
Roles
and Responsibilities include:
Develop new studies investigating neurophysiological correlates
of attention and mood using FMRI in psychiatric populations
Contribute to the training and supervision of research staff
Objectives/Interests
in Neuropsychiatry:
Impact of sleep deprivation on virtual driving performance
Interaction of neurophysiological correlates of
mood and cognition
Variations in resting state brain activity in clinical
versus healthy populations
Neurobiological basis for attentional deficits in
psychiatric disorders
Current
Projects:
An FMRI investigation of 72 hour acute sleep deprivation
on simulated driving performance
FMRI investigation of factors affecting task-induced deactivation
Publications:
Peer Reviewed Articles
Blewett, W.K., Redmond, D.P., Cadarette, B.S., Hudgens, G.A., Fatkin,
L.T., & McKiernan, K.A. (1994). P2NBC2 Test: The effects of microclimate
cooling on tactical performance. Technical Report ERDEC-TR-148: U.S.
Army Chemical and Biological Defense Agency
Szaflarski, J.P, Binder, J.R., Possing, E.T., McKiernan, K.A., Hammeke,
T.A., & Ward, B.D. Language lateralization in left-handed and ambidextrous
people: FMRI data. Neurology, 59(2):238-44, 2002 Jul 23.
In Press Articles
McKiernan, K.A., Kaufman, J.N., Kucera-Thompson, J., & Binder, J.R.
A parametric manipulation of factors affecting task-induced deactivation
in functional neuroimaging. In press (Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience).
Binder, J.R., McKiernan, K.A., Parsons, M.W., Westbury, C.F., Possing,
E.T., Kaufman, J.N., & Buchanan, L. Neural systems underlying lexical
access during word recognition. In press (Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience).
Manuscripts in review/preparation
McKiernan, K.A., D’Angelo, Kaufman, J.N. & Binder, J.R. Interrupting
the “stream of consciousness”: An FMRI investigation. In
review.
McKiernan, K.A., D’Angelo, & Binder, J.R. The stability
of the resting state as a baseline for task-induced deactivation. In
preparation.
Published Abstracts
McKiernan, K.A., Reeve, N. & Valentino, D. (1996, July). The influence
of emotion on measures of sustained attention. Poster session presented
at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, San Francisco,
CA
McKiernan, K.A., Reeve, N. & Valentino, D. (1997, May). A structural
modeling description of vigilance using emotion and CPT measures. Poster
session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society,
Washington, DC
Reeve, N., McKiernan, K., Kastner, M., Valentino, D. & Kilgore, K.
(1997, May). A comparison of sensory and cognitive forms of a continuous
performance test. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of
the American Psychological Society, Washington, DC
McKiernan, K., Purvenas, R., Tucker, V., & Valentino, D. (1999, April).
“Distractibility” during a vigilance test. Poster session
presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Society, Providence,
RI
Kaufman, J.N., Binder, J.R., Liebenthal, E., McKiernan, K.A., Hammeke,
T.A., Bellgowan, P.S.B., Lin, W., Tong, R., Possing, E.T. (2000, April).
Auditory areas sensitive to spectral information in speech sounds: A
functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Poster session presented
at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco,
CA
Bellgowan, P.S.F., Binder, J.R., Swanson, S.J., Hammeke, T.A., McKiernan,
K.A., Possing, E.T. (2000, April). Anterior hippocampus function used
for predicting memory lateralization. Poster session presented at the
annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA
McKiernan, K.A., Binder, J.R., Parsons, M.W., Buchanan, L., Westbury,
C.F., Bellgowan, P.S.B., Hammeke, T.A., Kaufman, J.N., Possing, E.T., Ward,
B.D. (2000, April). Brain activity underlying lexical access: an event-related
functional magnetic imaging study. Poster session presented at the
annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA
McKiernan, K.A., Kaufman, J.N., Binder, J.R., (March 2001). A parametric
manipulation of factors affecting task-induced deactivation in functional
neuroimaging. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the
Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York City, NY
Chen, A., Possing, E., McKiernan, K., Kaufman, J., Ward, B., Buchanan,
L., Westbury, C., Binder, J. (March 2001). Teasing apart orthography
from phonology during implicit language processing. Poster session
presented at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New
York City, NY
Spananki, M.V., Binder, J.R., Swanson, S.J., Bellgowan, P.S.F., Possing,
E.T., Hammeke, T.A., Kelderman, J., McKiernan, K.A., Mueller, W.A., Morris,
G.L. (May, 2001). Prediction of seizure focus lateralization using functional
MRI in temporal lobe epilepsy. Poster presented at the 53rd Annual
Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Philadelphia, PA
Szaflarski, J.P, Binder, J.R., Possing, E.T., McKiernan, K.A., Hammeke,
T.A., Ward, B.D. (May, 2001). Language lateralization in left-handed
and ambidextrous people: FMRI data. Poster presented at the 53rd Annual
Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Philadelphia, PA
McKiernan, K.A., Conant, L.L., Chen, A., Binder, J.R. (2001). Development
and cross-validation of a model of linguistic processing using neural network
and path analysis with FMRI data. NeuroImage, 13(6), S200
Binder, J.R., McKiernan, K.A., Chen, A., Conant, L.L. (2001). Analysis
of inter-regional connectivity in FMRI data using an autoassociative neural
net. NeuroImage, 13(6), S1297
Binder, J.R., McKiernan, K.A., Parsons, M.W., Buchanan, L., Westbury,
C.F., Kaufman, J.N., Possing, E.T., Ward, B.D. (2001). The neural correlates
of semantic processing: An event-related FMRI study. NeuroImage, 13(6),
S507
McKiernan, K.A., D’Angelo, B.R., Kucera-Thompson, J., Kaufman, J.N.,
Binder, J.R. (April 2002). Task-induced deactivation correlates with
suspension of task-unrelated thoughts: An FMRI study. Poster presented
at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco,
CA
McKiernan, K.A., D’Angelo, B.R., Kucera-Thompson, J., Kaufman, J.N.,
Binder, J.R. (2002). Task difficulty varied across three facets of cognitive
processing modulates levels of brain activation: A parametric FMRI study.
Presented at the 8th International Conference on Functional Mapping of the
Human Brain, June 2-6, 2002, Sendai, Japan. Available on CD-Rom in NeuroImage,
Vol. 16, No. 2.
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