"Neuroimaging with Broadband Near Infra Red Spectroscopy: Relating Cerebral Neural Metabolism to Cognitive Function"

Abstract:

Broadband Near Infra Red Spectroscopy (BNIRS) provides a non-intrusive functional neuroimaging method that can be used to measure neural oxygen metabolism levels and their changes during the performance of a mental task. In this lecture, I describe how we use BNIRS to relate brain-wide limits on oxygen metabolism to capacity limits in perception and thought processes. The studies I describe also establish the effects of attention on metabolism levels in different brain regions. Our research highlights the potential use of BNIRS to detect disorders in the regulation of energy to cortical neurons related to the current mental task (e.g., in ADHD).

Bio:

Nilli Lavie is a Professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, where she heads the Attention and Cognitive Control laboratory. She is an elected fellow of the British Academy, Royal Society of Biology, British Psychological Society, the Association for Psychological Science, US; and an honorary life member of the Experimental Psychological Society, UK. Among the awards she received are the British Psychological Society award for ‘outstanding contribution to research on human cognition’ and the Experimental Psychological Society ‘Mid-Career award’ for her distinguished research record.

Her research concerns attention, perception, multi-sensory integration, memory and emotion and has been applied also to cognitive development and aging, as well as to ADHD and Autism. She uses a combination of research methods spanning neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG, MEG, Spectroscopy), behavioral experiments, eye tracking and physiological measures, as well as machine learning. She has authored over 150 publications with over 28,100 citations (H-Index: 70).