Experimental Neurophysics

Cellular Bioelectrochemistry

The focus in this area of interest is the electrochemistry of biomolecules and the effect of electrical fields on altering the thermodynamics and kinetics of biological systems, especially with regard to control mechanisms in the cell. The research seeks to elucidate the role of electrical forces (through electrochemical processes) in the modulation of cellular behavior.

Click here for our areas of investigation on Cellular Bioelectrochemistry……

Near-Infrared Spectra Spectroscopy (NIRS)

A major effort in the laboratory is using light to both monitor and effect biochemical processes in the nervous system. Near-infrared spectra spectroscopy (NIRSS) is an optical technique that has a great potential for non-invasive medical diagnostics and therapeutics. Near-infrared light penetrates through several centimeters of tissue and has been successfully applied to the non-invasive study of skeletal muscle (for muscle perfusion and oxygenation), breast (for tumor detection), and brain (for functional studies) in human subjects. NIRSS is strongly sensitive to the concentration and oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in tissue, and therefore it provides physiological information related to the local blood flow, blood volume, oxygen delivery, and metabolic rate of oxygen in tissue. As a spectrophotometric technique NIRSS has the capacity to interrogate not only intrinsic biochemical species but can be sensitive to molecular species added to living tissue therefore giving it a capacity for biological imaging of molecular markers.

Click here for more on the NIRS technique……

Psychophysics

Our laboratory actively uses electroencephalography and evoked potential studies to explore brain networks in cognition, under stress and in situations of medical education and biomedical emergency response management and training.  These tools have also been used to explore pharmaceutical effects of drugs on cognition as side effects to be avoided.

–> Click on the following link to read about a current project that embodies our laboratory’s experimental approach to Neurophysics:

The Menagerie Project