Holroyd 9605183 This award supports a 24 month Science and Technology Agency of Japan (STA) Postdoctoral Fellowship for Dr. Tom Holroyd at the Behavior Control Laboratory (BCL), National Institute of Bioscience and Human-Technology, Tsukuba, Japan. Dr. Holroyd will work with Dr. Tsunehiro Takeda, director of the BCL, on a research project entitled, "Non-invasive Measurement of the Dynamic Nature of Human Brain Functions." The proposed research will investigate the way that different brain areas interact during perceptual and behavioral tasks by measuring the magnetic field of the brain. The techniques used are completely non-invasive: the tissues of the head are transparent to magnetic fields, allowing relatively accurate mapping of the magnetic field produced by electrical activity in the brain, with millisecond time resolution. The research focuses on the reorganization of brain processes, and is motivated by theoretical work on pattern formation and change in complex systems. Changes in a subject's perceptions or behavioral patterns will be experimentally induced, and observations will be made of corresponding reorganization of the magnetic field. By combining these observations with spatial information from control conditions, researchers will be able to determine the dynamics of different brain areas during the perceptual or behavioral reorganization. Reproducible dynamic relations among interacting brain areas will provide insight into how the brain organizes and reorganizes itself during typical cognitive functions. ***
