Collaborative Proposal: Preparing Undergraduates for Research in STEM-related fields Using Electrophysiology (PURSUE)

本认知神经科学项目的主要目标是开发、实施和传播本科生认知电生理学教育的最佳实践，以提高本科生教育和培训机会的质量和数量，并增加涉及本科生共同作者的研究成果。三个具体目标是：(1)开发基于证据的认知电生理学开放课程。(2)建立开放获取的6个经典事件相关电位（event- relevant potential， ERP）实验结果数据库，这些实验都是根据实验设计的最佳实践进行了优化，并产生了高可靠性的结果。这些数据将构成课堂活动、实验室训练和独立研究的基础，并将包括各种个体差异测量，也可用于学生生成的假设检验。(3)通过积极参与由用户和活跃在该领域的学生组成的9人教师学习社区，参与学习材料的持续改进。这个新生的社区将通过举办一系列年度会议来扩大，这些会议将向所有感兴趣的教师和学生开放，并在课程设计和研究活动中包括本科生研究助理。该项目将解决一个新兴研究领域对课程材料的需求，该研究领域结合了许多STEM学科（生物学、化学、物理学、心理学和电子工程），重点是认知神经科学。认知电生理学（脑电图/事件相关电位；EEG/ERP）是一种特别有利于本科学习的认知神经科学测量技术。脑电图/ERP研究检查了头皮记录的与实时认知处理相对应的脑电活动的变化。脑电图是指在认知过程中记录的动态的、持续的脑电活动。ERP是电生理学研究中最常用的方法，依靠信号平均来提取与特定感觉刺激和/或运动反应（与特定事件相关的电位）可靠相关的活动。认知电生理学非常适合本科生的研究，因为设备和用品相对便宜，学习的机会也很高。

The main goal of this cognitive neuroscience project is to develop, implement, and disseminate best practices in cognitive electrophysiology education for undergraduates with the aim of increasing the quality and number of education and training opportunities for undergraduates, and increasing research outcomes that involve undergraduate co-authors. The three specific goals are: (1) Develop open-access curricula for cognitive electrophysiology that employ evidence-based practices. (2) Create an open-access database of results from 6 classic event-related potential (ERP) experiments that have been optimized in terms of best practices in experimental design and produce highly reliable results. These data will form the basis of class activities, lab training, and independent research and will include a variety of individual difference measures that can also be used for student-generated hypothesis testing. (3) Engage in ongoing improvement of the learning materials through active engagement with a 9-member faculty learning community of users and students active in this field. This nascent community will be expanded by hosting a series of yearly meetings at a major conference that will be open to all interested faculty and students and by including undergraduate research assistants in the curriculum design and research activities.This project would address the need for curricular materials in a burgeoning field of research that combines a number of STEM disciplines (biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, and electrical engineering) in a focus on cognitive neuroscience. One cognitive neuroscience measurement technique that is particularly conducive to undergraduate learning is cognitive electrophysiology (electroencephalography/ event-related potentials; EEG/ERP). EEG/ERP studies examine changes in scalp-recorded brain electrical activity corresponding to cognitive processing in real time. EEG refers to the dynamic, ongoing electrical activity recorded during cognitive processing. ERP refers to the most commonly used method of electrophysiological research, relying on signal averaging to extract the activity reliably linked with specific sensory stimuli and/or motor responses (the electrical potentials that are related to specific events). Cognitive electrophysiology is well suited for undergraduate research because the equipment and supplies are relatively inexpensive and the opportunities for learning are high.