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.
