National Science Foundation grant to boost brain research at Lawrence Tech

SOUTHFIELD-Lawrence Technological University has received a $175,476 grant from the National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation Program to buy a new piece of research hardware.

LTU will use the grant to purchase a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system from NIRx Medical Technologies LLC, a medical device company with offices in New York, Florida, and Germany.

The device measures changes in blood flow to various areas of the brain. It's used by a wide variety of researchers in neuroscience and other sciences to study how the brain reacts when people perform cognitive tasks. It consists of a fabric cap studded with LEDs that emit near-infrared light. The device measures how much of that light bounces back to the cap, which indicates the level of blood flow, and therefore brain activity, in measured regions of the cerebral cortex.

At LTU, the fNIRS system will be used by an interdisciplinary group of researchers in everything from cognitive psychology to the engineering of brain-computer interfaces to management to marketing.

The principal investigator on the grant is Corey Bohil, a cognitive neuroscientist in the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Communication in LTU's College of Arts and Sciences. Co-principal investigators are Franco Delogu, associate professor in the department, and Hamad Al-Azary, assistant professor in the department.

However, researchers from other LTU colleges are also signed on as co-investigators who will use fNIRS in their research: Eric Martinson, chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science; Matthew Cole, interim dean of the LTU College of Business and Information Technology; A. Murat Hattat, an assistant professor of marketing in the business college; and Roya Salehzadeh, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical, Robotics, and Industrial Engineering in the LTU College of Engineering.

Bohil said the grant will fund not only the device itself, but also provides funding for three years of support from an undergraduate research assistant. "That will give those students in-depth knowledge on how to use the equipment, and they will train other undergraduate research assistants in using and maintaining the equipment, helping us use the equipment effectively," Bohil said.

Bohil says he's looking forward to using the device to measure blood flow changes in the brain when people are involved in different types of learning, while his colleagues in psychology plan to use it for studies of language and decision-making. And he said he's also looking forward to the other kinds of research the device will allow LTU professors to conduct. Salehzadeh, for example, is researching direct brain-computer interfaces, and will use the device to study brain activity when people are learning to control devices like drones with their thoughts. Cole plans to use the device to study differences in brain activity between people who possess the quality of perseverance known as "grit"-and people who don't. Hattat will use the device to measure differences in brain activity when people are exposed to various forms of marketing, while Martinson will use fNIRS in studies of driver engagement.

Bohil said LTU already had "trained investigators on campus who are qualified to do this sort of work in psychological and cognitive neuroscience research. But they didn't have the ability because they didn't have the equipment."

Now, Bohil said, they do - so, let the experiments begin, shedding new light on the mysteries of the how the human brain works.

Bohil said the university is hoping to have this new equipment in place by November.

Lawrence Technological University is one of only 13 independent, technological, comprehensive doctoral universities in the United States. Located in Southfield, Mich., LTU was founded in 1932 and offers more than 100 programs through its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, Engineering, and Health Sciences, as well as Specs@LTU as part of its growing Center for Professional Development. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation's top 11 percent of universities for alumni salaries. Forbes and The Wall Street Journal rank LTU among the nation's top 10 percent. U.S. News and World Report list it in the top tier of the best Midwest colleges. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, "theory and practice" education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech's 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.

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