8/4/2019 Marina Shah Poster

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Marina Shah, under the supervision of Prof. Monica Fabiani, in collaboration with Prof. Gabriele Gratton, Kathy Low, Nils Schneider-Garces, & Timothy WengUniversity Laboratory High School and the Department of Psychology, College of LAS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Illuminating the Bustling Brain: Methods of Functional Brain Imaging

Acknowledgments

Conclusions

Since I was helping with a larger project that isnot yet finished, I don’t have any project-relatedconclusions to report. I don’t think this is aproblem; I feel that I had a more meaningfulexperience because I got the opportunity to be apart of an important, large-scale project. Mypersonal aim, which was to learn more aboutbrain imaging methods, was absolutely achievedduring this month. I plan to continue working inthe lab all summer, next year whenever timepermits, and hopefully the summer after that aswell. The I-STEM Research experience hasgiven me a great opportunity to help withmeaningful research that I find extremelyinteresting and fun. I am so excited that I’m able

to extend this opportunity to a more long-termexperience.

Introduction/Aim

During this month, I have been helping w ith aresearch project at the Beckman Institute under thesupervision of Professor Monica Fabiani. The project I

have been helping with is a large longitudinal projectthat was well under way by the time I began workingin the lab, and it is not close to being finished yet. Theproject focuses on ways in which the human brainchanges as people age. I worked in the CognitiveNeuroimaging lab, where we used EROS (the Event-Related Optical Signal) to obtain information aboutbrain activity while people perform tasks.

My personal goal during this month was to gain abetter understanding of methods of brain imaging. Ihoped to learn how these methods worked, what kindof information they can give, and the advantages anddisadvantages for different methods. The goal of thelarge-scale project I was helping with is to gain abetter understanding of the ways in which the humanbrain changes with age.

Method 

Before working in the lab, I read chapters fromseveral textbooks about brain function and methodsof brain imaging. Working in the lab really solidifiedwhat I read by giving me a hands-on experience.

The main method of brain imaging that I helped withis called EROS.

The method I used in the lab to obtain data for theproject has a few steps:

1. After the subject has practiced the task, we putthe electrodes and helmet on them, then insertmore electrodes and lasers into the helmetaccording to a chart. The end result looks likethis:

2. The task each person is asked to perform canbe best explained with the following diagram:

3. While the subject performs the task, we keepan eye on monitors to make sure we are gettingthe signals we need to have accurate data. Wekeep a record of anything that goes w rongduring a session, and have about twenty three-minute sessions of this activity.

4. Last is a breathing exercise. The subject holdshis/her breath for an allotted time and wecollect data about his/her brain activity duringthe exercise. After this, we relieve the subject ofthe heavy helmet and sanitize all of theequipment.

ResultsEven though I do not have data from this project yet, Ido have some examples of data from a previous, verysimilar study. The data from the older project

highlights some of the interesting findings that thecurrent research team hopes to learn more about withthis project.

The previous study involved 32 subjects. 16 wereaged 18-30, and the other 16 were aged 65-82. Ineach group of 16, half were women. All subjectsperformed the same task. Below is an image of thegeneral information that was collected.

When there was no switch or a switch to meaning,both the younger and older subjects used the left sideof their brains. However, when there was a switch toposition, younger subjects used the right side, butolder subjects lacked activity where it should havebeen. The older subjects also had more difficultyanswering correctly when they were asked to switch

to position-related information. The research teambelieves that this was a result of the corpus callosum,which controls communication between the twohalves of the brain and was found to be smaller in theolder subjects. Below is some graphical datadepicting this information.

Works Cited

For data and images from previous project: Gratton,G., Rykhlevskaia, E., Wee, E., Leaver, E., & Fabiani,M. (2009). Does white matter matter? Spatiotemporaldynamics of task switching in aging. Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience, 21(7), 1380-1395.

For background information on technologies: Banich,M. T., & Compton, R. J. (2011). Techniques forassessing. In Cognitive Neuroscience (3rd ed., pp.62-77). Cengage Learning. (Original work published2003)

Technologies

My personal goal being to learn about brain imaging, Ilearned a lot about EROS and a bit about fMRI as well,both of which are being used in this research project.

fMRI: fMRI, or functional magnetic resonance imaging,is a variation of MRI. fMRI allows us to examine specificbrain functions. One particular application for thisinvolves measuring the relative changes in the amountof oxygenated blood in the brain. Advantages to fMRIinclude being able to obtain images that provide preciseindications of the brain areas involved. Thedisadvantage for this method is that it does not provideprecise temporal information.

EROS: This is an optical method of brain imaging thatuses light. The way optical imaging works is fairlysimple: while a laser source is placed on the scalp,detectors are positioned a couple centimeters away fromthe laser. The detectors are able to detect what happensto the light (whether it is absorbed or scattered). Thismethod measures the scattering of light, which is relatedto neuronal activity. This information is called the fastsignal, and is used in EROS. EROS uses the fast signalto record brain activity that is linked with an event.EROS can give a fairly exact measurement of whereand when brain activity occurs.The only disadvantage toEROS is that it cannot measureinformation that is too deep

within the brain, because toomuch light is absorbed.

Precue

M: attend meaning

P: attend positionM+M P+P

+ +

ReactionStimulus

No conflictConflict

above+ +

above

YoungerOlder

Spatial Task

r = -.45

8/4/2019 Marina Shah Poster

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Marina Shah, under the supervision of Prof. Mary Smith, in collaboration with Michael JonesUniversity Laboratory High School and the Department of XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, College of XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

My Project Title

Acknowledgments

Conclusions

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