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Brain And Behavior Measurement

The Brain and Behavior Measurement Laboratories offer services to researchers at UNC Chapel Hill conducting research in the field of neurodevelopmental disorders. These services are offered as part of the Clinical Translation Core at UNC’s Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC). At the Brain and Behavior Measurement Laboratories, researchers measuring brain and brain-related characteristics can request access to and training on well-established and validated neuroimaging methods, as well as new methods and modifications of existing state-of-the-art image acquisition and analysis. The Brain and Behavior Measurement Laboratories has been instrumental for studies of early biomarkers (MRI, DTI, eye-tracking, EEG) that could serve as predictors for later brain and behavioral abnormalities, as well as providing potential neurological indicators for tracking disorder outcomes. This support has been provided to numerous studies of developing human and non-human primate brain throughout the country.

Explore below to learn more about how the Brain and Behavior Measurement Laboratories can support your research.

Provides support to researchers studying brain and brain-related characteristics, including:

  • Experimental protocol development
  • Imaging data acquisition
  • Storing and archiving of clinical study image data
  • Maintenance of imaging databases
  • Assistance and training with image data processing
  • Development of novel imaging data analysis tools
  • Quality assurance of image acquisition protocols
  • Data transfer of image data to the image analysis lab
  • Two- and three-dimensional segmentation to obtain quantitative measurements
  • Rigorous validation and quality control of processing with intra- and inter-rater studies
Neuro Image Research and Analysis Lab Page
Provides assistance with electrophysiology research, including:

  • Study design
  • Access to state-of-the-art EEG and fNIRS equipment
  • Implementation of experimental protocols and support during EEG or fNIRS acquisition
  • Design and programming of analysis pipelines for event-related potential spectral and time-frequency domain analysis
  • Handling, desensitizing, and managing infants and young children during data acquisition

The Developmental Electrophysiology Lab supports two EEG facilities, one on UNC campus, next to the Core imaging facilities and trainee offices, and a second system at an off-campus site, contiguous with the CIDD observation/clinical research rooms, with easy participant access and parking availability. These EEG facilities offer:

  • Two Electrical Geodesic Dense Array EEG Net Amplifier 300, for high-density EEG measurement, suitable for the infant/pediatric population
  • A 64-channel NeuroScan SynAmps RT Amplifier with an active license for SCAN 4 Software for Neuroscan
  • A 32-channel Synamps II Neuroscan system
  • A 64-channel Biosemi system
  • A mobile 32-channel gTec Nautilus system
  • A mobile fNIRS devices model 100

EEG Electrophysiology Lab
Provides access to sophisticated eye-tracking equipment, which provides a non-invasive method for exploring the behavioral correlates of brain function and maturation. An increasing number of ongoing studies are also integrating eye-tracking with functional imaging at the MIR scanners, both to control for eye-movement and fixation, as well as to explore the behavioral correlates of neural impairments in attention deployment in autism and schizophrenia. The core has two TOBII eye tracker systems (120Hz and a 60Hz) that can be used in studies with participants across the age span, from infancy to adulthood.

All publications and presentations that include assistance from the UNC IDDRC should acknowledge this support using this language: “Assistance for this project was provided by the UNC Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (NICHD; P50 HD103573).”

Questions?

For more information about the Brain and Behavior Measurement Core, contact Dr. Ayse Belger.