We here at the Brainlab are moving forward in two parallel directions, one strategic and one scientific.
First, the Brainlab has joined the recently created Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu (IRSJD), a join initiative of the Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital, the University of Barcelona and the Politechnic University of Catalonia, to foster research along the life cycle, with an emphasis on pediatric medicine and rare diseases. We expect to contribute to this endeavor by developing new tools and procedures, based on non-invasive EEG and event potential recordings, aiming at the identification of newborns and infants at risk of neurocognitive impairment (read more…).
On the other hand, our research has turned to the so-called Frequency-Following Response (FFR), a fascinating minute brain potential that captures from the human scalp how speech sounds are transcribed in subcortical neuronal aggregates, and how these soundtraces are shaped by experience and context. Current projects are addressed to establish a biomarker for neurocognitive development, the source generators of the FFR and the functional significance of genetic advantage in encoding speech sounds. For an overview of our research see here.
To accomplish these new ambitious objectives, we are currently recruiting very talented and competitive candidates to be sponsored to the different Spanish programs for early stage researchers (FI, FPU and FPI programs from different agencies) and young post-docs (Juan de la Cierva and Beatriu de Pinós programs), starting early next year. Posts will be launched soon.
The shift in our major research focus can be appreciated in the changes of our webpage home image, as it is now featuring the Frequency-Following Response (FFR) replacing its formerly displayed Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR).
The main motif in our home image displays now the Frequency-Following Response (FFR) as published by Slabu et al. (2012; Figure 2).
Notice that our home image motif in 2014 was an Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) as published in 2011 by Althen and colleagues (their Figure 2).