ERC Foundations of Cognition (FOUNDCOG)

April 6, 2018. We are excited to announce the "Foundations of Cognition" project, which will begin in October 2018 with an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. Using neuroimaging, we will measure the hidden changes in mental representations during infancy and compare them to predictions from deep neural networks, the technology that has been responsible for recent dramatic advances in artificial intelligence. 

To hear more about the goals and discoveries of the project, the studentship and job opportunities, or to participate, please join our mailing list.

​BRAINHACK IRELAND 2018

Join us from May 2-4 @ Huckletree, Dublin to participate in a neuroscience hackathon.
Learn more at ​www.brainhackireland.org

---

INFANT BRAIN FUNCTION

MIND AND BRAIN IN THE FIRST YEAR

We study what infants are thinking and what they are learning. This research will help us know ourselves and our children, and help us understand how the development of brain functions goes awry following perinatal brain injury.

NEUROIMAGING METHODS

Neuroimaging with magnetic resonance imaging is a powerful tool to help us understand the brain. 
We develop methods to improve brain scanning, by acquiring better data, and improve what we can learn about the brain with new analysis and modelling methods.

PROJECTS

Measuring the development of connections in the infant brain in the first year, using diffusion-weighted and functional connectivity MRI, and relating this to the development of brain function.

Understanding the emergence of cognition

• A review in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
• Recruit and test infants online with Mechanical Turk!
• Measuring selectivity of infants at 3 and 9 months to the features of complex sounds

The development of methods for the study of infant brain function, such as:

• Methodological challenges for longitudinal fMRI in infants
• Optimizing Stimulation and Analysis Protocols for Neonatal fMRI
• Differences in the spatial and temporal patterns of head motion during MRI of adults and infants
• Inter-subject regression, a new way to combine traditional fMRI analysis with model-free fMRI analysis

 

​Understanding how brain function is disrupted by brain injury around the time of birth

• Predicting motor impairments from functional connectivity in brain networks at birth
• Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Detect Preserved Function in a Preterm Infant with Brain Injury
• Affordable Cranial Ultrasonography in East African Neonatal Intensive Care Units

• Brainstem shape is affected by clinical course in the neonatal intensive care unit.​

Using multi-voxel pattern analysis to characterize the neural representation of "silent" thoughts, such as things we are remembering or imagining.