CEREBBRAL News

"Master's in Psychology" interview with Sebastien Helie, Director of CEREBBRAL

Sebastien Helie, professor in Psycology at Purdue University and Director of CEREBBRAL, was recently interviewed by the host of "Master's in Psychology" Bradley Schumacher for their Podcast Episode #10. This episode began airing Friday June 18, 2021.  

Click here to listen or read the complete interview.

CEREBBRAL Symposium 2021

Friday, March 26, 2021

12:00-1:30 pm 

Zoom link:  https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/my/shelie

Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Alaa A. Ahmed, Associate Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder

Title:  Movement Vigor as a Reflection of Subjective Neuroeconomic Utility

Abstract:  

To understand subjective evaluation of an option, various disciplines have quantified the interaction between reward and effort during decision making, producing an estimate of economic utility, namely the subject ‘goodness’ of an option. However, those same variables that affect the utility of an option also influence the vigor (speed) of movements towards that option. To better understand this, we have developed a mathematical framework demonstrating how utility can influence not only the choice of what to do, but also the speed of the movement follows. I will present results demonstrating that expectation of reward increases speed of saccadic eye and reaching movements, whereas expectation of effort expenditure decreases this speed. Additionally, these immediate effects of reward and effort on vigor can be modulated by an individual’s internal state, reflected by their recent history of action. These results and others imply that vigor may serve as a new, real-time metric with which to quantify subjective utility, and that the control of movements may be an implicit reflection of the brain’s economic evaluation of the expected outcome.

 

Dr. Huber Elected Fellow of National Academy of Inventors

Dr. Jessica E. Huber, Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Studies, Co-Director of CEREBBRAL, and Associate Dean of Research in the College of Health and Human Sciences, has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.  This nomination is tied to the SpeechVive, a small, wearable device that Dr. Huber invented to treat symptoms in Parkinson disease.

Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors are nominated by their peers for their inventions that have improved the quality of life of people in society, leading to patents and licensing.  The NAI Fellows Program represents 1,229 Fellows worldwide.

An announcement of the election can be found in Purdue's Research Foundation News.  More information about Dr. Huber's work can be found on her lab website:  Purdue Motor Speech Lab

CEREBBRAL Member Highlight 2019

On Tuesday November 19, 2019, CEREBBRAL hosted its first annual member highlight presentation.  Our inaugural speakers were Dr. Shirley Rietdky, Professor of Health & Kinesiology, and Dr. Susan Sangha, Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences.

 

Title of Dr. Rietdky's presentation:  Can Slips, Trips, and Falls be Beneficial?  Information Gained from locomotor Failures.

More information about Dr. Rietdky's research can be found on her lab website: Purdue Human Motor Behavior Group

Title of Dr. Sangha's presentation:  Role of the prefrontal cortex in regulating emotions:  Converging mechanisms across species.

More information about Dr. Sangha's research can be found on her lab website:  Sangha Lab

CEREBBRAL Faculty Member Honored for Research Achievements

Dr. Georgia A. Malandraki, Associate Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, will receive the College of Health and Human Sciences Early Career Research Achievement Award.  Dr. Malandraki's work aims to uncover the central and peripheral neural mechanisms of swallowing function, in an effort to inform clinical decisions and develop neurophysiologically-driven treatments for patients with swallowing disorders (dysphasia) caused by neurological conditions, such as stroke, cerebral palsy, and Parkinson's disease.  Her research has led to the development of two new neurophysiology-driven swallowing rehabilitative protocols and, more recently, to the development of novel wearable technologies that can aid in the tele-treatment of these disorders and improve the rehabilitation potential of millions of patients who suffer from dysphasia across the globe. 

More information about Dr. Malandraki's work can be found on her lab website:  www.purdue.edu/i-eatlab/

Please join us in celebrating her success at the HHS Fall Research Day on November 13, 2019 from 1:00-3:30 pm in STEW 302-306.

Dr. Helie wins the 2019 Trailblazer Award!

Dr. Sebastien Helie, Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences and Co-Director of CEREBBRAL, take an interdisciplinary approach to studying the cognitive neuroscience of learning, decision-makking, and problem solving.  He uses different methodologies from cognitive processing.

The Trailblazer Award is an annual award for mid-career faculty whose recent research, scholarship or creative work has made a significant impact in their disciplines in the College of Education, College of Liberal Arts, College of Health and Human Sciences or Purdue Libraries.

More information about Dr. Helie's work can be found on his website:  Laboratory for Computational Cognative Neuroscience