New Haven
Our aim
The overall aim of the Brain Function Laboratory at Yale School of Medicine is to understand the neural mechanisms that underlie live dynamic social interactions between individuals. A long-term goal is to understand the neural correlates of dynamic social behavior.
Methods
A novel application of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been developed by the lab and enables simultaneous imaging of two individuals engaged in real face-to-face interactions. While ongoing and previous fMRI studies focus on segregated and distributed neural processes within single individuals, the Brain Function Laboratory is also expanding the experimental paradigm from a single-brain frame-of-reference to a multi-brain frame-of-reference using near-infrared spectroscopy, NIRS.
Blood-Oxygen-Level-Dependent, BOLD, signals acquired by NIRS; electroencephalographic, EEG, signals; and eye-tracking data are acquired simultaneously on multiple individuals using surface optodes and electrodes respectively. These neuroimaging measures are synchronized with eye-tracking and physiological measures obtained by head mounted cameras and physiological sensors. Models of dual-brain interactions are based on coherence between wavelets of signals originating from cross-brain pairs of regions.
The lab uses a Shimadzu LABNIRS, a brain imaging tool with up to 114 channels that is specifically designed to acquire simultaneous signals from multiple subjects during social interactions.
Current focus
The Brain Function Laboratory is currently focused on specific studies of dynamic coalitions and neural operations that regulate inter-personal dialog and social interactions, including:
- conflict, competition and cooperation
- non-verbal communications
- music and communication
- the role of mutual gaze and faces in interpersonal interactions
These advances open a novel window-of-opportunity to investigate the neural correlates of dynamic interactions between individuals under natural (ecologically valid) conditions.
History
The Brain Function Laboratory was established at Yale University in 2013 under the direction of Professor Joy Hirsch following a transition from Director of the fMRI Research Center within the Program for Imaging & Cognitive Sciences (PICS) at Columbia University in New York. Visit our lab website at Yale School of Medicine here.
Funding
Current support from the National Institutes of Health:
- Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Live Face-to-Face Interactions, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 5R61MH138705-02