People
Jennifer O'Brien
Associate Professor and St. Petersburg campus Chair
CONTACT
Office: DAV 112A
Phone: 727/873-4415
Email
LINKS
BIO
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cognitive Aging Lab/Neurophysiology of Aging Lab, School of Aging Studies/Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of South Florida
Dr. Jennifer O鈥橞rien uses behavioral and electroencephalography (EEG) methods to investigate human visual perception and attention. Her focus is on how our attentional system prioritizes and processes information across the lifespan.
O鈥橞rien is the recipient of numerous internal and external research grants. In 2021, she was part of a team that received a $44.5-million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for a clinical trial seeking to reduce the risk of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease in cognitively healthy older adults. In 2022, she and colleagues received a $24.3-million grant from the NIA for a clinical trial seeking to reduce the risk of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease in older adults with cognitive impairment. O鈥橞rien and her colleagues are using the funding to determine whether cognitive training can reduce incidence of cognitive decline.
O鈥橞rien teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in research methods, statistics and physiological psychology. An avid instructor and science advocate, O鈥橞rien trains her students in the scientific method and how to conduct scientific psychology experiments. She is the recipient of an outstanding advisor award for her work with students.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Bangor University
RESEARCH
Human perception, attention, decision-making, and cognitive aging
Dr. O鈥橞rien鈥檚 research focuses on the fundamental mechanisms behind perception, attention, and decision-making in healthy adults and in changes to these systems during normal and abnormal aging using both behavioral and neurophysiologicial methods. She is especially interested in the integral role that motivational value has in the way we perceive and attend to stimuli in our environment.
SPECIALTY AREA
Cognition, Neuroscience, & Social
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Nicholson, J. S., Hudak, E. M, Phillips, C. B., Chanti-Ketterl, M., O鈥橞rien, J. L. ... Edwards, J. D. (2022). The Preventing Alzheimer鈥檚 with Cognitive Training (PACT) randomized clinical trial. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 123, 1-8. doi. 10.1016/j.cct.2022.106978.
Bell, K. L., Lister, J. J., Conter, R., Harrison Bush, A. L., O鈥橞rien, J. L. (2021). Cognitive event- related potential responses differentiate older adults with and without probable mild cognitive impairment. Experimental Aging Research, 47(2), 145-164 doi: 10.1080/0361073X.2020.1861838
O鈥橞rien, J.L., Lister, J.L., Fausto, B.A., Morgan, D.G., Maeda, H., Andel, R., & Edwards, J.D. (2020). Are auditory processing and cognitive performance assessments overlapping or distinct? Parsing the auditory behavior of older adults. International Journal of Audiology. doi: 10.1080/14992027.2020.1791366
Buj谩n Mera, A., Lister, J. J., O鈥橞rien, J. L., & Edwards, J. D. (2019). Cortical auditory evoked potentials in mild cognitive impairment: Evidence from a temporal-spatial principal component analysis. Psychophysiology, e13466. doi: 10.1111/psyp/13466
O鈥橞rien, J. L., Jacob, M. L., & King, M. (2019). Preliminary evidence of biased attentional mechanisms and reward processing in adults with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 83(2), 128-151. doi: 10.1521/bumc.2019.83.2.128
O鈥橞rien, J. L., Lister, J. J., Fausto, B., Clifton, G. K., & Edwards, J. D. (2017). Cognitive training enhances auditory attention efficiency in older adults. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 9, 322. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2017.00322
O鈥橞rien, J. L., Lister, J. J., Peronto, C. L., & Edwards, J. D. (2015). Perceptual and cognitive neural correlates of the Useful Field of View Test in older adults. Brain Research, 1624, 167-174. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.07.032
O鈥橞rien, J. L., Edwards, J. D., Maxfield, N. D., Pertonto, C. L., Williams, V., & Lister, J. J. (2013). Cognitive training and selective attention in the aging brain: An electrophysiological study. Clinical Neurophysiology, 124(11), 2198-2208. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2013.05.012
O鈥橞rien, J. L. & Raymond, J. E. (2012). Learned predictiveness speeds visual processing. Psychological Science, 23(4), 359-363. doi: 10.1177/0956797611429800
Raymond, J. E. & O鈥橞rien, J. L. (2009). Selective visual attention and motivation: The consequences of value learning in an attentional blink task. Psychological Science, 20(8), 981-988. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02391.x