Brain Imaging Grants
Brain Imaging Grants provide CLA faculty members and students working in research areas related to brain imaging an opportunity to fund pilot projects with seed grants or to purchase items related to ongoing infrastructure needs. The Neuroimaging Research Associate, Phil Burton, promotes and facilitates neuroimaging research among faculty, students, and research staff within the College of Liberal Arts and is available to assist Brain Imaging Grant Applicants and awardees.
Neuroimaging Research Associate
CLA researchers in psychology, economics, political science, speech-language-hearing sciences, and other departments have historically studied human perception, language, emotion, and decision-making processes by measuring behaviors and making inferences about underlying mental processes. With recent rapid advances in noninvasive neuroimaging technology, these same researchers are becoming increasingly interested in measuring more directly the brain activity that underlies these processes. The CLA Neuroimaging Research Associate provides expertise as well as specialized hardware and software resources to facilitate this transition. Please note that these services are available to researchers in all CLA departments, including those that have not conventionally taken a scientific approach to studying the mind and brain. Services and resources provided include:
Assistance with study design: From safety issues associated with powerful MRI magnets to temporal offsets between stimulus presentation, neural activity, and the signal being measured in fMRI and ERP studies, there are numerous experimental design issues that must be considered in addition to those involved with behavioral measures.
Assistance with data analysis: Specialized software and analysis techniques are necessary for processing and statistically analyzing large and complex datasets. Software supported includes (but is not limited to): AFNI, Brain Voyager, MRIcron, Freesurfer, FSL, SPM.
Acquisition of specialized equipment: This position assesses neuroimaging needs to ensure state-of-the-art resources are available to allow CLA researchers to remain competitive. Past activities include: spearheading the proposal that resulted in the CLA Interdepartmental EEG Facility and contributing to the I3 grant that led to the purchase of the second 3T scanner at the Center for Magnetic Research (CMRR), along with the acquisition of peripheral equipment as needed for EEG and fMRI research.
Promoting and facilitating neuroimaging research: The Neuroimaging Research Associate coordinates the MRI Users’ Group (MUG), which includes members from multiple University of Minnesota colleges and departments and meets monthly to discuss brain imaging research conducted at the university, and for the annual application for Interdisciplinary Graduate Group.
Brain Imaging Grants awards are now available through the Social Science Research Grant process.
Neural Correlates of Goal Prioritization and Conscientiousness
Primary Investigator: Colin DeYoung, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Simultaneous Imaging of Bilateral Accumbens Dopamine Release During Reward
Primary Investigator: Nicola Grissom, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Neural Mechanisms of Speech and Voice Processing in Children and Adults
Primary Investigator: Yang Zhang, PhD, Professor, Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
Co-Investigators:
Philip C Burton, PhD, Neuroimaging Staff Scientist, College of Liberal Arts
Jason Wolff, PhD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Educational Psychology
Hui Zou, PhD, Professor, School of Statistics
Cognitive Processes Supporting Verbal Recall and Language Production in Young Adults
Primary Investigator: Jayanthi Sasisekaran, PhD, Associate Professor, Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
Comparison of MEG and EEG Data Quality for People with Coarse and Curly Hair
Primary Investigator: Scott Spohneim, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Investigators: Cheryl Olman, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology;
Charisse B. Pickron, Assistant Professor, Institute of Child Development;
Victor J. Pokorny, EEG Technician, Department of Psychiatry, Cognition & Brain (CAB) Lab
Development of BIPOC Recruitment Strategies for EEG Studies
Primary Investigator: Victor J. Pokorny, EEG Technician, Department of Psychiatry, Cognition & Brain (CAB) Lab
Co-Investigators: Cheryl Olman, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology;
Charisse B. Pickron, Assistant Professor, Institute of Child Development
Uncovering the Neural Correlates of Non-Optic Sight in Blindness using fMRI
Primary Investigator: Cheryl Olman, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology
Using High-Resolution fMRI to Assess Color Compensation in Anomalous Trichromacy
Primary Investigators:
Katherine E.M. Tregillus, Postdoctoral Researcher, Engel Vision & Imaging Laboratory, Department of Psychology
Zoey J. Isherwood, University of Nevada, Reno
Co-Investigator(s):
Stephen A. Engel, Professor, Department of Psychology
Cheryl Olman, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology
Michael A. Webster, University of Nevada, Reno
Karent T. Navarro, Ph.D Student, Department of Psychology
Assessing the Test-Retest Reliability of Neural Activations Underlying Generalized Conditioned Fear
Shmuel Lissek, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Investigating Characteristics of Foveal Feedback Using Ultra-High Field fMRI
PI: Cheryl Olman, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology
Co-PIs: Kimberly Weldon, PhD
Neural Mechanisms of Speech and Voice Processing in Children
PI: Professor Yang Zhang, PhD., Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
Co-PIs: Philip C Burton, Ph.D., Neuroimaging Staff Scientist, College of Liberal Arts; Cheryl A. Olman, Ph.D., Associate Professor; Dept. of Psychology; Jason Wolff, PhD, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Educational Psychology; Maria Sera, Professor, Institute of Child Development; Hui Zou, PhD, Professor, School of Statistics; Suiping Wang, Professor of Psychology, South China Normal University
Causal Mechanisms of Conscious Threat Appraisal and Avoidance Generalization
PI: Professor Ryan Webler, Department of Psychology
Co-PIs: Hannah Berg, Graduate Student, Department of Psychology; Adrienne Manbeck, Graduate Student, Department of Psychology; Samuel Klein, Graduate Student, Department of Psychology; Scott Sponheim, Professor, Department of Psychiatry; Ziad Nahas, Professor, Department of Psychiatry; Shmuel Lissek, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
A New Mixed Effect Model in fMRI Studies
Professor Lan Liu, School of Statistics
Professor Dennis Cook, School of Statistics
Brain-Based Indicators of Risk for Addiction: A Prospective High-Risk Twin Family Study
Graduate student Sylia Wilson, Psychology
Evaluating Prefrontal Dysconnectivity during Persecutory Sociocognitive Processes
Graduate student Anita Kwashie, Psychology
Professor Angus MacDonald III, Psychology
Impacts of medical cannabis use on cognition, mental health and neural function
Monica Luciana, Ph.D., Department of Psychology
Paul Collins, Ph.D., Department of Psychology
Phil Burton, Ph.D., College of Liberal Arts
Bryon Mueller, Ph.D., Dept of Psychiatry
Susan Marino, Ph.D., Dept of Psychopharmacology