Acquisition of neurophysiological instrumentation for language and movement processes

With support from a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation award Dr. Andrew Gordon, Dr. Peter Gordon, and colleagues at Teachers College, Columbia University, will establish a research facility containing state-of-the-art instrumentation to investigate neurophysiological mechanisms underlying language and movement and their interactions. Particular emphasis will be placed on processes underlying learning and development. The award will fund acquisition of a high-density electroencephalographic (256 channel EEG) system, which provides the best resolution available to study the structure and localization of neural activity associated cognitive function. Researchers at Teachers College will examine how the child and adult brain processes information during first and second language learning. Further studies will investigate neural information processing related to infants' perception of events in the world. These will include studies of how infants understand basic actions and sequenced events that will later be expressed verbally as they develop spoken language. The EEG system will also be used to investigate changes in brain activity as people use language to express their emotional reactions to life stressors. An eye-tracking system will also be acquired to study the relationship between eye-hand coordination during typing in adults, and the acquisition of reading in children and second language learners. Finally, a movement analysis system for tracking motion in three dimensions will be acquired to study facial and hand movements in children and adults as they develop language-related behaviors. These studies using state-of-the-art equipment will serve as a window into linguistic and cognitive development, explore brain-behavior relations in early perceptual development, identify relations between language and emotion, provide insights into the reading strategies and abilities of emerging readers, and gain deeper insights into the neural mechanisms underlying second language acquisition. The groundbreaking combination of language and movement sciences within this facility represents an exciting new approach to the study of human communicative learning and development.

The broader impacts of these activities include scientific discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training and learning. The instrumentation will enable the investigators to create a well-equipped learning environment for integrating research and education. The research projects all involve students from Teachers College, which includes a high proportion of females and individuals from underrepresented groups, thus broadening their participation in science and its application to education. The instrumentation will be a centerpiece of a recently re-established multi-disciplinary Neurosciences and Education program that focuses on the neurological basis of learning and education. The benefits of these activities to society include developing the capacity to generate research that will aid our understanding of developmental and learning processes and impact pedagogy related to spoken, written and signed language. Students at Teachers College will become leaders of the educational establishment and will take the knowledge gained from exposure to the instrumentation and resulting research into the schools in their roles of leadership and practice.