Turning down the noise helps researchers 'listen' to the brain
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Professor Barry Van Veen (center) with students (from left to right) Patrick Cheung, Pam Limpiti, Andrew Bolstad and Matt Rebholz. (View larger image)
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o study how regions of the brain communicate, neuroscientists often use a technique called electroencephalography (EEG), which reads electrical activity in the brain through sensors on the scalp.
However, the skull and the scalp blur these EEG readings. In addition, a multitude of signals from “background” processes make it difficult to pinpoint electrical activity corresponding to specific tasks. “It’s like standing outside a crowded party and trying to sort out individual conversations,” says Professor Barry Van Veen.
Van Veen and his students use signal-processing techniques to filter out that noise and enable them to study how one area of the brain influences another (see graphic below). “The brain is active all the time,” he says. “It’s in the midst of that background noise that you have to identify a specific set of connections associated with a task.”
One research paradigm is working memory, a type of task-oriented short-term memory. For example, working memory allows a person to remember a phone number long enough to dial it, or to remember a series of notes or pattern of shapes long enough to repeat it. Neuroscientists hypothesize that several regions of the brain are connected in working memory tasks. Van Veen and his students use their signal-processing techniques to identify electrical connections from EEG data and determine how they change under different conditions, such as task difficulty or recall accuracy.
The group also is interested in how connectivity in the brain changes between waking and sleep, and more complicated activity such as language processing.
Van Veen is hopeful that, as the research progresses, his methods will provide some insight into the workings of the brain and lead to better understanding for treatment of medical conditions like epilepsy or schizophrenia.
"Wind energy is a growing source of new power generation in the world and the technology has even greater untapped potential,” says Jahns, who directs the Wisconsin Power Electronics Research Center and helped establish the partnership. “By teaming with an industry leader like Vestas, our research environment will thrive and Wisconsin will see expanded opportunities in wind energy and other renewable energy options.”
Under the partnership, Vestas will provide funding support beginning this year to as many as 10 graduate and undergraduate students working on wind technology projects. The company also plans to provide visiting scholars to campus and start a small research and development facility on the engineering campus.
The plans grow significantly more ambitious over time, ultimately leading to the formation of a multidisciplinary center for advanced wind power technology. Another stage of the partnership will support named professorships or endowed chairs with expanded focus on wind-energy research and education. One named professorship will focus on developing new curriculum materials to support the emerging energy and sustainability fields.
“The Vestas partnership is an exciting addition to the range of energy research and education at the college,” says College of Engineering Dean Paul Peercy. “Once we solve energy storage issues, wind power potentially could supply as much as 20 percent of the nation’s energy needs by 2030. Our students will be highly motivated to participate in this growth industry.”
According to the DOE, recently funded wind-energy projects will begin to address market and deployment challenges identified in the 2008 report, “20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030.” Increasing wind energy generation will be a critical factor in achieving the Obama administration’s goals for clean energy, while also supporting new green jobs.
To read more about the Vestas partnership, visit: www.engr.wisc.edu/news/headlines/2009/Apr01.html.
