People
Krista Schendel Parker, Ph.D.
Health Science
Research Specialist, (Focus: Cognitive Neuroscience)
Research Interests
My research focusses on cognitive deficits after brain damage, particularly in stroke patients. I am currently a Cognitive Neuroscience Research Investigator at the VANCHCS and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at St. Mary’s College of California in Moraga, CA. I have been conducting neuropsychological assessments along with computerized neurocognitive tests in both healthy and neurological patient populations for more than 20 years. My research focusses on hemispheric specialization of cognitive functions, aspects of visual attention and perception, and the impact of brain injury on cognition. Specific neuropsychological syndromes that I study include hemispatial neglect, extinction, and Balint’s syndrome, as well as patients with mild to moderate aphasia. During my time at the VA, I have developed expertise in the areas of human lesion analysis, attention and speech disorders caused by brain injury, and more recently the impact of strokes on visuospatial and verbal working memory.
Selected Publications
Ries, S.K., Schendel, K.L., Herron, T.J., Dronkers, N.F., Baldo, J.V. & Turken, A.U. (2021).Neural underpinnings of proactive interference in working memory: Evidence from patients with unilateral lesions. Frontiers in Neurology, 12:607273.
Phan, M.L., Schendel, K.L., Recanzone, G.H. & Robertson, L.C. (2000). Auditory and visual spatial localization deficits following bilateral parietal lobe lesions in a patient with Balint's syndrome. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12(4), 583-600.
Schendel, K.L., Robertson, L.C. & Treisman, A. (2001). Objects and their locations in exogenous cuing. Perception & Psychophysics, 63(4), 577-594 (Lead article).
Schendel, K. & Robertson, L.C. (2004). Reaching out to see: Arm position can attenuate human visual loss. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(6), 935-943.
List, A., Brooks, J.L., Esterman, M., Flevaris, A., Landau, A.N., Bowman, G., Stanton, V., VanVleet, T., Robertson L.C. & Schendel, K. (2008). Visual hemi-spatial neglect, re-assessed. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 14(2), 243-56.
List, A., Landau, A.N., Brooks, J.L., Flevaris, A., Fortenbaugh, F., Esterman, M., VanVleet, T.M., Albrecht, A., Alvarez, B., Robertson L.C. & Schendel, K. (2011). Shifting attention in viewer- and object-based reference frames after unilateral brain injury. Neuropsychologia, 49, 2090-2096.
Schendel, K., Dronkers, N.F. & Turken, A.U. (2016). Not just language: Persisting lateralized visuospatial impairment after left hemisphere stroke. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 22(7), 695-704 doi: 10.1017/S1355617716000515.
Paulraj, S.R., Schendel, K., Curran, B., Dronkers, N.F., & Baldo, J.V. (2018). Role of the left hemisphere in visuospatial working memory. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 48, 133-141.