Acquisition of neurophysiological instrumentation for language and movement processes

在国家科学基金会重大研究仪器奖的支持下，哥伦比亚大学师范学院的安德鲁·戈登博士、彼得·戈登博士和同事们将建立一个研究设施，其中包含最先进的仪器，以研究语言和运动及其相互作用的神经生理机制。将特别强调学习和发展的基本过程。该合同将为高密度脑电图（256通道EEG）系统的采购提供资金，该系统为研究与认知功能相关的神经活动的结构和定位提供最佳分辨率。师范学院的研究人员将研究儿童和成人在学习第一语言和第二语言时大脑是如何处理信息的。进一步的研究将探讨与婴儿感知世界事件有关的神经信息处理。这些研究将包括婴儿如何理解基本动作和顺序事件，这些事件将在他们发展口语的过程中被口头表达。脑电图系统还将用于研究当人们用语言表达他们对生活压力的情绪反应时大脑活动的变化。还将获得一个眼球追踪系统来研究成人打字时眼手协调与儿童和第二语言学习者阅读习得之间的关系。最后，我们将获得一个三维运动跟踪分析系统，用于研究儿童和成人在发展语言相关行为时的面部和手部运动。这些研究将作为研究语言和认知发展的窗口，探索早期感知发展中的大脑-行为关系，识别语言和情感之间的关系，为新兴读者的阅读策略和能力提供见解，并深入了解第二语言习得的神经机制。语言和运动科学的突破性结合代表了研究人类交际学习和发展的一种令人兴奋的新方法。这些活动的更广泛影响包括科学发现和理解，同时促进教学、培训和学习。该仪器将使研究人员能够为整合研究和教育创造一个装备良好的学习环境。这些研究项目都涉及师范学院的学生，其中包括很高比例的女性和来自代表性不足群体的个人，从而扩大了他们对科学及其在教育中的应用的参与。该仪器将成为最近重新建立的多学科神经科学和教育计划的核心，该计划侧重于学习和教育的神经学基础。这些活动对社会的好处包括培养进行研究的能力，这些研究将有助于我们理解与口语、书面语和手语相关的发展和学习过程，并影响教学法。师范学院的学生将成为教育机构的领导者，并将从接触仪器和最终研究中获得的知识运用到他们的领导角色和实践中。

With support from a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation award Dr. Andrew Gordon, Dr. Peter Gordon, and colleagues at Teachers College, Columbia University, will establish a research facility containing state-of-the-art instrumentation to investigate neurophysiological mechanisms underlying language and movement and their interactions. Particular emphasis will be placed on processes underlying learning and development. The award will fund acquisition of a high-density electroencephalographic (256 channel EEG) system, which provides the best resolution available to study the structure and localization of neural activity associated cognitive function. Researchers at Teachers College will examine how the child and adult brain processes information during first and second language learning. Further studies will investigate neural information processing related to infants' perception of events in the world. These will include studies of how infants understand basic actions and sequenced events that will later be expressed verbally as they develop spoken language. The EEG system will also be used to investigate changes in brain activity as people use language to express their emotional reactions to life stressors. An eye-tracking system will also be acquired to study the relationship between eye-hand coordination during typing in adults, and the acquisition of reading in children and second language learners. Finally, a movement analysis system for tracking motion in three dimensions will be acquired to study facial and hand movements in children and adults as they develop language-related behaviors. These studies using state-of-the-art equipment will serve as a window into linguistic and cognitive development, explore brain-behavior relations in early perceptual development, identify relations between language and emotion, provide insights into the reading strategies and abilities of emerging readers, and gain deeper insights into the neural mechanisms underlying second language acquisition. The groundbreaking combination of language and movement sciences within this facility represents an exciting new approach to the study of human communicative learning and development.The broader impacts of these activities include scientific discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training and learning. The instrumentation will enable the investigators to create a well-equipped learning environment for integrating research and education. The research projects all involve students from Teachers College, which includes a high proportion of females and individuals from underrepresented groups, thus broadening their participation in science and its application to education. The instrumentation will be a centerpiece of a recently re-established multi-disciplinary Neurosciences and Education program that focuses on the neurological basis of learning and education. The benefits of these activities to society include developing the capacity to generate research that will aid our understanding of developmental and learning processes and impact pedagogy related to spoken, written and signed language. Students at Teachers College will become leaders of the educational establishment and will take the knowledge gained from exposure to the instrumentation and resulting research into the schools in their roles of leadership and practice.