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Welcome to the
Gazzaley lab:
Thank you for your interest in our research. Our lab uses
state-of-the-art scientific tools and methods to explore how the brain
functions, with a focus on the interface between attention and memory.
We are also very interested in understanding how the brain changes with
normal aging and how these changes impact our cognitive abilities.
Furthermore, we are attempting to use this information to develop novel
therapies to alleviate memory and attention deficits associated with
normal aging and early dementia.
If you are
above 18 years old, live
in the San Francisco Bay Area, and are interested in participating with
us:
Please start our eligibility prescreening process by
providing us with a brief medical history. You can fill out
our online Gazzaley Lab
Eligibility Survey or leave us a voice mail at (415)
502-7322
with your
name, phone number, and best time to reach you. We will
contact you as soon as we can. All information is kept
confidential.
Research Participants:
We are always interested in recruiting individuals who are willing to
be research participants. If you are between the ages of 18 and 35 or
over 60 years of age and would be interested in participating in one of
our studies, please continue to read about our research and contact us
for a more detailed explanation.
Studies
by tool:
Our lab uses several different research
tools to study cognition. What
all of our studies have in common is that you will be performing memory
and attention experiments that require you to observe images presented
on a computer screen and make responses with a button press; similar to
playing a video game. What follows is a description of the types of
studies you may be appropriate to participate in:
-
Behavioral studies.
Some of our experiments are purely behavioral. This means that you sit
before a computer, watch images on a computer screen and respond to
different tasks by pressing a button. During these experiments we do
not record brain activity, just your button pad responses.
-
EEG studies.
Several experiments in the lab use EEG
to record electrical brain activity while you engage in attention and
memory experiments that are presented on a computer screen.
These studies are performed at the Gazzaley lab on the Mission bay campus.
-
f MRI studies.
In some of our experiments, we record brain activity using an MRI
scanner. fMRI,
or functional MRI, allows us to see both the structure of your brain
and brain activity. These experiments are performed at the Neuroscience
Imaging Center ( NIC). -
TMS
studies. TMS is a magnet that can be
used to stimulate areas of the brain during our experiments to better
determine the function of those brain regions. These studies are
performed at the Gazzaley lab on the Mission bay campus.
 Studies
by population:
Research in our lab is directed at understanding how the brain
functions in general, as well as how it changes with aging.
Therefore, we conduct studies on participants from different age groups.
- Healthy
young adults. We perform studies on individuals
between the ages of 18-35.
- Healthy
older adults. We perform studies on healthy older
individuals between the ages of 60-80 to investigate healthy brain
function.
Studies by type:
- Observational.
Many of our studies involve only the recording of button responses and
brain activity to better understand how the brain works and how it
changes with age.
-
Interventional.
Some of our studies are directed at therapeutic interventions that
attempt to maintain or improve memory and attention abilities that have
declined with age. Two studies currently being performed are: 1)
Cognitive training: Healthy older adults are trained at home on a
computer program for one month before and after they are studied in our
lab with EEG. This is a research study performed in
collaboration with Posit
Science, 2) Ariciept treatment: Older adults that have been
diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are treated with three
months of Aricept (cholinesterase inhibitor), while they perform an
fMRI experiment (at three time points) at the NIC.
All participants are
compensated for the time that they commit to our studies. Compensation
is determined by length of time and type of experiment and is generally
$15/hr for behavioral and EEG experiments and $20/hr for TMS and fMRI.
Thank you for
your interest in our research!
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