ERP and EEG Laboratory | Colgate University

Brain Recording and Cognitive Science Lab

The lab facilitates both intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary work among researchers who may not otherwise collaborate.

The Lab’s Mission

The lab’s primary mission is to facilitate cutting-edge transdisciplinary research in human cognition among researchers who may not otherwise collaborate. The BRCS lab is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, including high-density mounted and remote EEG systems for brain recording, neuromodulation systems, advanced source localization systems, virtual reality eye-tracking systems and desk-mounted eye-tracking systems, and independent psychophysics stations, all funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) Major Research Instrumentation (MRI), James S. McDonnell Foundation: Human Cognition, and Robert H.N. Ho Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative grants.

The lab is an expansive shared space by cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience professors and undergraduate research students exploring human cognition from behavioral, neuroscience, and computational perspectives.

Research in psychological and brain sciences

In contrast to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), or diffuse optical imaging (DOI) techniques, EEG is a more direct measure of neural activity, whereas these other neuroimaging techniques yield measures of physiological changes that are only correlated with changes in neuronal activity.

EEG recordings can be time-locked to behavioral experimental paradigms in the form of event-related potentials (ERPs), thereby allowing for a wide variety of analyses focused on the temporal localization of different brain signals. This makes EEG a very powerful technique for assessing the temporal characteristics of the brain’s neuroelectric activity.

Watch this short video on event-related potentials (ERPs), one of the tools used in the BRCS lab.

About the Lab

The laboratory is located at Olin Hall 134 within an expansive space that includes four shielded EEG chambers, an eye-tracking and virtual reality lab, five psychophysics labs, a large collaborative space capable of housing multiple simultaneous lab meetings or small classroom demonstrations, and a data visualization lab.

Lab Access and Training

Student researchers who are interested in gaining experience with brain recording and cognitive science measures should contact one of the lab directors (below).