Dr Robert Hester
Dr Robert Hester
BBSc (Hons), PhD (Clinical Neuropsychology)
NHMRC CDA Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer
Contact details:
| email:hesterr@unimelb.edu.au | |
| telephone: +61 3 8344 0222 |
The implementation of cognitive control by the human brain is critical to a range of everyday activities, and the failure of this mechanism is believed to contribute to the symptom profile of a number of clinical conditions. The aim of my research is to examine the psychological processes, and the neural mechanisms underlying them, which signal the requirement for implementation of greater cognitive control. For example, examining (behaviourally and via functional magnetic resonance imaging) 1) error processing (detection and awareness of performance errors) and how the characteristics of this response correlate with adjustments in behaviour; and 2) how reward processes influence executive functions such as inhibition, particularly the impulsiveness for reward seen in drug addiction. My research involves the study of these processes in both healthy adults (across the lifespan) and active drug users.
Research Interests:
Cognitive Neuroscience
Clinical Neuropsychology
Professional Associations, Memberships & Awards:
Cognitive Neuroscience Society
Organisation for Human Brain Mapping
Fellowships & Awards:
- National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Award – Level 1 (2008-11)
- NHMRC Clinical Research Fellowship (2005 – awarded but declined)
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2005-7)
- U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Imaging Track Early Career Award (2006)
- University of Queensland, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Research Excellence Award – 2007
- Australian Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation – Professional Development Award (2007)
Recent Funded Research:
| Project: | Neurocognitive studies of reward sensitivity in opiate addiction |
| Year: | 2010-2012 |
| Funded by: | National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant |
| Project: | The influence of reward sensitivity on learning and executive control |
| Year: | 2010-2012 |
| Funded by: | Australian Research Council Discovery Grant |
| Project: | Neurochemical and physiological mechanisms of executive control |
| Year: | 2009-2011 – PI A.Prof Mark Bellgrove |
| Funded by: | National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant |
| Project: | Neurocognitive predictors of treatment outcome in cocaine patients: The role of cognitive control |
| Year: | 2009-2012 – PI Prof Ingmar Franken |
| Funded by: | Netherlands ZonMW |
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| Year: | 2005-7 | |
| Funded by: | Australian Research Council Discovery Grant | |
| Administered by: | Examining the relationship between error processing, cognitive control and emotion: a cognitive neuroscience approach |
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| Year: | 2004 | |
| Funded by: | U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse | |
| Administered by: | Trinity College Dublin |
Selected Publications:
Book Chapters:
Garavan, H., Hester, R., & Fassbender, C. (2003). The Impact of Individual Differences and Prefrontal Control on Action Monitoring revealed through fMRI. In M.Ullsperger & M. Falkenstein (eds.) Errors, Conflicts, and the Brain. Current Opinions on Performance Monitoring. Leipzig: MPI of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Refereed Journal Article:
Hester, R., Madeley, J., Murphy, K., & Mattingley, J.B. (2009). Learning from errors: Error-related neural activity predicts improvements in future inhibitory control performance. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(22), 7158-7165.
This article has been recommended by the Faculty of 1000 Biology:
Hester, R., Nestor, L., Garavan, H. (2009). Impaired error awareness and anterior cingulate cortex hypoactivity in chronic cannabis users. Neuropsychopharmacology, 34(11), 2450-8.
Hester, R. & Garavan, H., (2009). Neural mechanisms underlying drug-related cue distraction in active cocaine users. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, 93, 270-277.
Hester, R., Barre, N., Murphy, K., Silk, T., & Mattingley, J. (2008). Human medial frontal cortex activity predicts learning from errors. Cerebral Cortex, 18, 1933-1940.
Nestor, L., Roberts, G., Garavan, H., & Hester, R. (2008). Deficits in learning and memory: parahippocampal hyperactivity and frontocortical hypoactivity in cannabis users. NeuroImage, 40(3), 1328-39.
Garavan, H., Kaufman, J.N., & Hester, R. (2008). Acute Effects of Cocaine on the Neurobiology of Cognitive Control. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 363(1507), 3267-76.
Hester, R., Simoes-Franklin, C., & Garavan, H. (2007). Post-error behaviour in active cocaine users: poor awareness of errors in the presence of intact performance adjustments. Neuropsychopharmacology, 32(9), 1974-1984.
Hester, R., Dixon, V., & Garavan, H. (2006). A consistent attentional bias for drug-related material in active cocaine users across word and picture versions of the emotional Stroop task. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 81(3), 251-257.
Hester, R., Foxe, J., Molholm, S., Shpaner, M. & Garavan, H. (2005). Neural mechanisms involved in error processing: A comparison of errors made with and without awareness. NeuroImage, 27(3), 602-608.
Hester, R., Murphy, K., Foxe, J., Foxe, D.M., Javitt, D. & Garavan, H. (2004). Predicting Success: Patterns of cortical activation and deactivation prior to response inhibition. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(5), 776-785.
Hester, R. & Garavan, H. (2004). Executive dysfunction in Cocaine addiction: evidence for discordant frontal, cingulate and cerebellar activity. Journal of Neuroscience, 24(49), 11017-11022.
Hester, R., Fassbender, C., & Garavan, H. (2004). Individual differences in error processing: A review and reanalysis of three event-related fMRI studies using the GO/NOGO task. Cerebral Cortex, 14(9), 966-973.
Bellgrove, M., Hester, R., & Garavan, H. (2004). The Functional Neuroanatomical Correlates of Response Variability: Evidence from a Response Inhibition Task. Neuropsychologia, 42(14), 1910-6.
Lab Members:
Dr Adrian Carter (NHMRC Post-Doctoral Fellow)
Dr David O’Connor (Post-Doctoral Fellow)
Dr Jennifer Moore (Masters Student)
Lisa Grech (PhD student)
Joyce Sim (PhD student)
Sarah Rossiter (Research Assistant)