Cognitive neuroscience equipment to study real world objects and actions

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Brain imaging (particularly functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI) has become one of the dominant techniques of the 21st century for understanding how the human brain works. For example, brain imaging has revealed that the human visual system contains a number of specialized brain areas that are devoted to processing various aspects of objects. Different brain areas analyze objects in terms of their form, color and texture, how they feel, how they might be grasped, or in the case of tools, how they might be used. Because of technical challenges with functional MRI, almost all of these studies have studied two-dimensional (2D) pictures of objects and tools, which are very different from real three-dimensional (3D) objects and tools. For example, you wouldn't expect a photograph of a hammer to feel heavy, nor would you consider grasping it and using it to pound in a nail. My lab is one of the few worldwide that has developed novel techniques for studying real 3D objects and tools using functional MRI. Because our work is so unique, we need specialized equipment. First, we need equipment to present a series of objects in the confined space of an MRI scanner. Second, we need equipment to monitor the participants' performance, to monitor their ability to remain still in the scanner, and to monitor their brain activation moment-by-moment. Third, we need equipment to measure participants' behavior in similar situations outside the MRI scanner (for example, when they grasp, move, or use tools). This requires one sophisticated camera system to track markers on the participant's fingers and hands and an additional camera system to track where each of the two eyes is looking. This research will enable us to better understand how the brain recognizes and acts upon objects. It will be useful for interpreting brain disorders in patients who have problems recognizing objects or performing actions. It may even contribute to the development of neural prosthetics, enabling brain implants to guide movements of an artificial robotic arm to real world objects.