Resources
Below are listed some of the extraordinary resources to which the Memory Systems Lab has access, and some of the facilities, programs and other labs with which we partner.
The Memory Systems Lab is a part of the University of Illinois Department of Psychology. The Psychology Department at Illinois is one of the top psychology programs in the nation. The department currently houses over 40 different research labs, including work in cognition, neuroscience, development, clinical, social, and more. The Memory Systems Lab is located in the Psychology Building, 603 East Daniel St.
Dr. Melissa Duff's Communication and Memory Lab at Vanderbilt University is a current collaborator on our Relational Memory and Traumatic Brain Injury project. This project investigates the impact of moderate-severe TBI on relational memory and its neural correlates, namely the hippocampus, using behavioral, eye-tracking, and neuroimaging methods. Dr. Duff, previously at the University of Iowa, is a long time collaborator and former graduate student of Dr. Cohen.
We take advantage of the presence within the Beckman Institute of The Biomedical Imaging Center (BIC), whose commitment to the development of cutting edge techniques that integrate MRI and fMRI with other imaging or cognitive neuroscience techniques, including optical imaging, eye-tracking, EEG, and TMS, permit us to address critical questions about the complex interactions among the multiple brain regions supporting memory and among the multiple memory systems of the brain.
As one of a few facilities in the country with a 7 Tesla MRI scanner designed for both clinical and research use, the Stephens Family Clinical Research Institute at Carle has expanded research collaboration with the University of Illinois to form the Carle Illinois Advanced Imaging Center.
We also benefit greatly from our association with the Neuroscience Program (NSP), one of the most comprehensive neuroscience programs in the country, with more than 80 faculty from across 7 colleges on campus, with research focusing both on model systems and on studies related to understanding and treatment of human behavioral disorders and neural disease. Particular areas of strength and interest include cognitive neuroscience and imaging; neural plasticity, learning, and memory; neuronal signaling and development; and neurogenomics.
Neal Cohen serves as Director of the Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory (CNLM), a unique interdisciplinary research Center formed in a partnership between Abbott Nutrition and the University of Illinois to discover the potentially enhancing effects of nutrition on learning and memory, and the brain mechanisms that support it.
In collaboration with the Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab (CNL), directed by Gabriele Gratton & Monica Fabiani, we have used the Event Related Optical Signal (EROS) from optical imaging, using its unprecedented combination of spatial and temporal resolution to study cortical reactivation of relational memory.
If you are interested in gaining research experience and earning psychology course credit, we offer courses in which you will receive credit hours for your work in our lab. We also are currently looking for participants for our studies from a variety of populations.
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