With Major Research Instrument Support, Dr. Kelly Jantzen and his collaborators at will purchase a Magstim Super Rapid2 Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator for the Psychology Department and Behavioral Neuroscience Program at Western Washington University(WWU). WWU, a liberal arts undergraduate institution located 90 miles north of Seattle and 50 miles south of Vancouver, Canada, serves an important segment of first-generation and low-income students who may struggle to access higher education. The addition of TMS to the Behavioral Neuroscience Program will 1) expand laboratory capability for understanding the neural basis of cognition, 2) enhance undergraduate training and teaching (both in the lab and in the classroom) in human cognition and neuroscience and 3) foster greater collaboration across the Program, the Psychology department, University and community, in part, by providing a platform for translational research.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a central tool in cognitive neuroscience because, unlike other human brain imaging approaches, TMS allows for the investigation of causal relationships between localized brain function and human behavior. The TMS will be employed in two main research programs involving a number of collaborative scientists working on both basic and translational research. The Integration of action and perception program seeks to understand neural mechanisms for how humans coordinate, correct and control action. The research team will use TMS in conjunction with high-density electroencephalography (EEG) to understand the brain network involved in the integration of action and vision, to learn how information about sensorimotor coordination is used to correct ongoing actions and finally to uncover how frontal brain regions play an inhibitory role over action execution. A related translational program will combine human TMS studies with and animal research to further understand the role of frontal cortex in exerting inhibitory control over action and cognition. The second Language Processing in the Brain program, shows great promise for making new and exciting discoveries in understanding how humans process language. Research will investigate how musical training enhances the processing of language in the right hemisphere. The team will test whether altering neural excitability in tempo-parietal cortices with TMS will influence categorical perception of speech sounds In part 1, the effects of disrupting activity in right posterior-superior temporal regions of musicians and non-musicians will be evaluated. In part 2, researchers will evaluate the influence of using TMS to enhancing activity in these same regions. The team will extend these findings to clinical work using TMS to investigating constraint induced language therapy in aphasics
The research and training program enabled by the equipment will foster intramural and extramural collaborations and increase WWU's competitiveness for extramural research funding and publishing. The equipment will support ongoing and help foster new collaborations within WWU and between WWU and other institutions and the community. The instrumentation will provide training and access to mainstream electrophysiological methodologies to undergraduate students, many of whom are the first in their family to attend university. Training in Cognitive Neuroscience methods provides opportunities in neuroscience, industry and healthcare. TMS is rapidly gaining in popularity for the treatment of a number of clinical disorders and we have the opportunity to produce undergraduates with extensive training and direct experience.
