MRI: Acquisition of an Advanced Psychophysiological Recording System (including EEG) to Enhance Interdisciplinary Research, Education, and Training

来自大脑的电活动提供了对人类经验的许多方面的见解，包括个人可能意识到或可能意识不到的心理过程。此外，脑电图（EEG，这是从头部表面的大脑的电活动的测量）通过主动学习和实验为学生提供了一个可访问的介绍神经科学研究。小型，主要是本科院校提供了一个独特的环境，新颖的，跨学科的脑电图研究，因为学生和教师之间的密切互动，给予本科生的重大责任，以及独特的和新颖的研究合作，这种环境可以负担得起。由NSF MRI奖支持的高级心理生理记录系统（APRS）将使研究人员能够一次记录一到两个人的整个头部的EEG，以及记录其他生理活动（例如，唤醒、肌肉活动）。研究人员将启动三个核心研究项目，重点是使用APRS（主要用于测量大脑活动）来测试有关情绪，注意力，感知，记忆以及它们之间关系的假设。学生将亲眼目睹大脑如何对他们每天所做的活动做出反应，例如发短信，回忆个人记忆，以及尝试多任务。每个项目将作为教师和学生之间的合作执行，导致具体的科学贡献（例如，研究报告和出版物）。除了这些核心项目之外，教师还将把APRS整合到各种课程中，以提供独特和创新的基于研究的经验，这些经验有可能产生新的研究数据，并激励学生（和教师）考虑心理生理学方法的新应用，并开发尖端的研究项目。该APRS将使跨学科课程活动和学生研究项目，这将促进学生的培训和生产力在基础研究，以及努力促进博士后研究培训与本科生和申请额外的外部支持本科生研究。由于获奖机构中有大量的妇女和种族/少数民族，APRS仪器的放置和系统的协作使用将为科学领域代表性不足的妇女和少数民族提供独特的机会。该项目的核心研究目标是完成以下研究：（1）情绪和认知工作量的影响（即，精神努力）对与自动注意力有关的大脑反应的影响，（2）与情绪和个人记忆之间的相互作用有关的大脑活动，以及（3）情绪在与计算机介导的通信有关的大脑活动中的作用（例如，发短信）。此外，教师将通过将基于APRS的研究纳入心理学和神经科学的研究方法和独立研究课程，通过启动学生项目来检测复杂大脑活动（工程）的微妙模式，并识别与文学人物（语言和文学）连接相关的大脑活动模式，将研究与教育相结合。最终，让本科生深入参与APRS的原创科学研究将是每个研究项目的关键组成部分。

Electrical activity from the brain provides insights into many aspects of human experience, including mental processes about which individuals may or may not be aware. In addition, electroencephalography (EEG, which is the measurement of the brain's electrical activity from the surface of the head) provides students with an accessible introduction to neuroscience research through active learning and experimentation. Small, primarily undergraduate institutions provide a unique setting for novel, cross-disciplinary EEG research because of close interactions among students and faculty, heavy responsibility given to undergraduate students, and the unique and novel research collaborations this environment can afford. An Advanced Psychophysiological Recording System (APRS), supported by this NSF MRI award, will enable the investigators to record EEGs from the whole head of one or two individuals at a time, as well as recording other physiological activity (e.g., arousal, muscle activity). The investigators will initiate three core research projects that focus on using the APRS (primarily for measures of brain activity) to test hypotheses about emotion, attention, perception, memory, and the relationships among them. Students will see first-hand how the brain responds to activities they do every day, such as texting, recalling personal memories, and attempting to multi-task. Each project will be executed as a collaboration among faculty and students, leading to concrete scientific contributions (e.g., research presentations and publications). Beyond these core projects, faculty members will integrate the APRS into various courses to provide unique and innovative research-based experiences with the potential for generating novel research data and inspiring students (and faculty) to consider new applications of psychophysiological methods and to develop cutting-edge research projects. The APRS will enable interdisciplinary course activities and student research projects that will foster student training and productivity in basic research, as well as efforts to promote postdoctoral training in research with undergraduates and applications for additional external support for undergraduate research. Because of the large number of women and racial/ethnic minorities at the awardee institution, the placement of the APRS instrument and the collaborative use of the system will provide unique opportunities for women and minorities that are underrepresented in the sciences.The core research goals of the project are to complete studies of (1) effects of emotion and cognitive workload (i.e., mental effort) on brain responses related to automatic attention, (2) brain activity related to interactions between emotion and personal memories, and (3) the role of emotion in brain activity related to computer-mediated communication (e.g., texting). In addition, faculty will integrate research with education by incorporating APRS-based research into research methods and independent research courses in psychology and neuroscience, by initiating student projects to detect subtle patterns in complex brain activity (engineering) and identify patterns of brain activity related to connecting with literary characters (languages and literature). Ultimately, deeply engaging undergraduate students in original scientific research with the APRS will be a critical component of each research project.