MRI-R2: Acquisition of Dense Array EEG for Research and Training across the Disciplines

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5How neural activity in the brain translates into the "mind" is a critical question facing psychology and cognitive science. With support from the National Science Foundation, the Center for Psychophysiology at Miami University will acquire two high density electroencephalography (EEG) systems to help answer this question.Housed in the recently constructed Psychology Building on the Oxford campus, the Center for Psychophysiology will serve to further Miami University's dedication to high-quality teaching and research. The Center will enable access to modern cognitive and behavioral neuroscience technologies and will build expertise in their use. The acquisition of these systems will allow researchers from a broad range of disciplines to augment their current behavioral methodologies with a variety of noninvasive means of measuring and modeling human brain function.The continuous, scalp-recorded EEG and its derivative, event-related potentials (ERP), provide windows into the brain activities that underlie psychological processing. This technology measures brain activity by recording rapid changes in the electromagnetic fields generated by neurons as they engage in processing. The acquisition of high-density (64 channel and 256 channel) EEG systems will enable researchers at the Center to identify the sources of this electrophysiological activity. By taking advantage of recent advances in mathematical modeling techniques, this spatial information can be used to localize activity observed in the EEG signal to specific parts of the brain, and thus clarify the relationship between neural activity and psychological function. Planned projects span multiple disciplines, some of which will involve cross-disciplinary collaborations. These include relating neural activation to working memory and category learning, identifying the neural correlates of value in decision-making, measuring brain activities during play in young children, and contrasting the neural components of same-race and other-race face recognition. Researchers planning to use the new equipment come from eight departments spanning all five divisions of the Miami University campuses including a regional campus in Hamilton. In addition to supporting faculty and student research efforts, this acquisition will also enable the Center to offer a unique undergraduate curriculum in psychophysiology and cognitive neuroscience that embodies the "Student as Scholar" learning model. Students will obtain hands-on experiences in the collection and analysis of EEG data, broaden that knowledge to include applications outside of their own specific disciplines, and design and conduct independent research projects in their final year of study. This tiered curriculum initiative is one-of-a kind in its focus on undergraduate training as it relates to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and is exemplary of Miami's goal of creating the engaged learner.