My current research interests concern the roles of the prefrontal cortex as they apply to decision-making, olfaction, and development.  My students and I are investigating how decision-making performance may be changed by having participants smell various aromas and/or deliberate various cognitive dilemmas, both of which engage different regions of the prefrontal cortex.  This work has implications for “risky” decisions made by adolescents in whom the frontal lobes are undergoing significant neuroanatomical and chemical changes as they mature into adulthood.

Select Publications

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Reavis, R., & Overman, W. (2001). Adult Sex Differences on a Decision-Making Task Previously Shown to Depend on the Orbital prefrontal Cortex. Behavioral Neuroscience 115: 196-206.

Overman, W., Fassrand, K., Ansel, S., Trawalter, S., Bies, B., & Redmond, A. (2004). Performance on the IOWA Card Tasks by Adolescents and Adults. Neuropsychologia 42: 1818-185.

Epting, L., & Overman, W. (1998). Sex-Senstive Tasks in Men and Women: A Search for Performance Fluctuations Across the Menstrual Cycle. Behavioral Neuroscience 112: 1304-1317.