Our interdisciplinary SMART Center's Neuroscience Core will integrate neuroscience and self-management science to uncover the relationships between brain processes with self-management behaviors. To achieve that goal, the Neuroscience Core will provide SMART Center investigators with cutting-edge technologies and support to obtain real-time measures of brain activity and function associated with self-management behaviors.
Aim 1 provides expertise in the collection, analysis and interpretation of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of brain activity.
Aim 2 provides expertise in the collection, analysis and interpretation of electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of cortical neural network activity obtained with Hi-density EEG (128 channels), standard EEG (20 channels), nocturnal EEG (16-20 channels), or EEG assessment of cognition P300 (2-4 channels).
Aim 3 provides expertise in collection, analysis and interpretation of hypothalamic- pituitary axis (HPA) function and stress levels through electrochemiluminescence measures of serum and hair. The Neuroscience Core is guided by neurophysiologic models proposing that activity within specific brain regions, such as the prefrontal cortex, influence a person's critical decision making. Complimentary models guiding Neuroscience Core faculty include consideration of neural activity within multiple cortical networks and their influence upon learning, behavior, and implementing new skills. Neuroscience Core faculty will integrate those models with contemporary models of self-management behaviors to develop new knowledge describing, perhaps for the first time, neural processes involved with self-management behaviors. Our Neuroscience Core faculty's expertise in neuropathology and psychopathology may also contribute to our understanding of sub- clinical or unapparent brain dysfunction that impedes one's ability to learn or perform new self-management strategies. Neuroscience Core faculty will offer laboratory-based training in the application of neuroscience technologies including neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging, and molecular biology that will be used to assess self-management hypotheses proposed by SMART Center investigators. Additional training opportunities include coursework and workshops in Neurobiology, Cognitive Science, and Genetics, that are currently taught by Neuroscience Core faculty. Expertise residing within the Neuroscience Core will be made available to the general campus community through a service model in which consultation and services can be requested. These will be tracked, quantified, summarized and reported to Administrative and Executive Committees. The Neuroscience Core faculty will also coordinate with the Pilot Cores to review preliminary results from individual Pilot Projects and subsequently develop seminars to address topics of interest to Smart Center investigators.
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