Stefon van Noordt
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Greene Hall 217
vannoos@wfu.edu
My research is focused on understanding the brain-based markers of cognitive control as they relate broadly to goal-directed behavior and self-regulation. The medial frontal cortex is engaged when we are faced with events that challenge our behavior, such as when we prepare or inhibit responses, monitor for errors and make adjustments, and process feedback outcomes related to our decisions. Our studies suggest that medial frontal activation, in the context of goal-directed behaviors, represents a functional hub for domain-general cognitive control processes that are mediated through theta-band dynamics. In a parallel line of work we examine how these frontally-mediated control processes change across development and vary across individuals, in particular the relationships between medial frontal activity, social feedback, and negative affect and anxiety. In addition, I am actively involved in open-science initiatives to promote scalable neuroinformatics on centralized platforms. The ultimate goal of this work is to help researchers leverage emerging computational tools, facilitate replicability, and enhance the long-term utility of multimodal datasets.
Students interested in gaining research experience and joining our team are encouraged to contact me directly: vannoos@wfu.edu
To view my complete publication list, please visit Google scholar or ResearchGate
Selected Publications
**shared co-first authorship
*student/trainee
Cognitive control and performance monitoring
Castagna, P.J.**, van Noordt, S.**, Sederberg, P.B, & Crowley, M.J. (2023). Modeling brain dynamics and gaze behavior: Starting point bias and drift raterelate to frontal midline theta oscillations. NeuroImage. 268.
van Noordt, S., Desjardins, J.A., Gogo, C.E.T.*, Tekok-Kilic, A., & Segalowitz, S.J. (2017). Cognitive control in the eye of the beholder: Theta and alpha modulation during response preparation in a cued saccade task. NeuroImage. 145(Pt A), 82–95.
van Noordt, S., Campopiano, A., & Segalowitz, S.J. (2016). A functional classification of medial frontal negativity event-related potentials: Theta oscillations and single subject effects. Psychophysiology. 53, 1317–1334.
van Noordt, S., Desjardins, J.A., & Segalowitz, S.J. (2015). Watch out! Medial frontal cortex is activated by cues signaling potential changes in response demands NeuroImage. 114, 356–370.
van Noordt, S. & Segalowitz, S.J. (2012). Performance monitoring and the medial prefrontal cortex: A review of individual differences and context effects as a window on self regulation. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 6(197), 1–16.
Developmental, self-regulation, and individual differences
van Noordt, S., Heffer, T.*, & Willoughby. (2022). A developmental examination of medial frontal theta dynamics and inhibitory control. NeuroImage. 246.
van Noordt, S. & Willoughby, T. (2021). Cortical maturation from childhood to adolescence is reflected in resting state EEG signal complexity Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 48, 100945.
Leno, V.C., Pickles, A., van Noordt, S., Huberty, S.*, Desjardins, J.A., Webb, S.J., The BASIS Team, & Elsabbagh, M. (2021). 12-month peak alpha frequency is a correlate but not a longitudinal predictor of non-verbal cognitive abilities in infants at low and high risk for autism spectrum disorder. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 48, 100938.
Ke, T.*, Wu, J., Willner, C.J., Brown, Z., Banz, B., van Noordt, S., Waters, A.C., & Crowley, M.J. (2020) The glass is half empty: Negative self-appraisal bias and attenuated neural response to positive self-judgment in adolescence. Social Neuroscience. 15(2), 140–157.
Davidson, C.A., Willner, C.J., van Noordt, S., Banz. B.C., Wu, J., Kenney, J.G., Johanssen, J.K., & Crowley, M.J. (2019). One-month stability of Cyberball post-exclusion ostracism distress in adolescents. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioural Assessment. 41, 400–408.
EEG methods and large-scale human neuroscience
EEGNEt – Collaborative EEG Platform for Advancing Neuroscience.
Desjardins, J.A**, van Noordt, S.**, Huberty, S.*, Segalowitz, S.J., & Elsabbagh, M. (2021). EEG Integrated Platform Lossless (EEG-IP-L) pre-processing pipeline for objective signal quality assessment incorporating data annotation and blind source separation. Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 347, 108961.
van Noordt, S., Desjardins, J.A., Huberty, S.*, Abou-Abbas, L.*, Webb, S.J., Segalowitz, S.J., Evans, A.C., The BASIS Team, & Elsabbagh, M. (2020). EEG-IP: An international infant EEG data integration platform for the study of risk and resilience in autism and related conditions. Molecular Medicine. 26:40.
Campopiano, A., van Noordt, S., & Segalowitz, S.J. (2018). STATSLAB: An open-source EEG toolbox for computing single-subject effects using robust estimation. Brain Research. 347, 425–435.