This is a proposal to advance interdisciplinary work in cognitive psychology and neuroscience by providing funds for travel and a workshop to train investigators and graduate students in the use of MEG (Magnetoencephalography) technology prior to the delivery and installation of new MEG equipment at the LIFE center at the University of Washington in Seattle. Travel will be to the Low Temperature and BioMag Laboratories at the Helsinki University of Technology, centers of MEG expertise in Helsinki, Finland.
Investigators at the labs in Helsinki and in Seattle have collaborated to develop novel uses of MEG applicable to the study of learning, and appropriate head-tracking techniques to allow whole-brain imaging studies in awake infants who are engaged in cognitive tasks such as learning. MEG is the only currently available whole-brain imaging technology that is appropriate for use with awake infants.
The primary area of study is first and second language learning in infants. Behavioral studies have established that the brains of very young babies begin to specialize in the ambient language between 6 and 12 months of age. The purpose of the MEG studies will be to track exactly what is going on in the brains of infants undergoing this specialization process, as either monolinguals or bilinguals.
The request of $45,000 for one year is to support travel to Helsinki by investigators from six Science of Learning Centers, plus two graduate students from the University of Washington, and to support an international workshop in Helsinki on MEG technology to be called "MEG as a Tool for the Learning Sciences." The workshop is to be organized by the PI and associates from the LIFE Center at the University of Washington.
