Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

The period between childhood and adolescence is characterized by profound changes to cognitive abilities, such as, reasoning, memory, planning and cognitive control. Coinciding with maturing cognitive abilities during this period are significant changes to various lifestyle factors, most notable in sleep. During this time children and adolescents claim more control over their sleeping habits, often resulting in less and poorer quality sleep which can have significantly negative effects on cognition. Electroencephalography is an essential tool for examining the relationship between sleep neurophysiology and neural function supporting cognitive development in children and adolescents. I am requesting two high-density EEG systems to outfit two newly renovated sleep rooms in my lab. This equipment will allow us to record brain activity, as well as eye movements and muscle activity, of sleeping participants in the lab. The EEG sleep studies will allow my research team to link brain activity during sleep to brain activity associated with various aspects of cognitive functioning, such as, memory, reasoning, and inhibition. This equipment will also allow for high-quality training of current and future HQP, which includes training in EEG data acquisition, sleep staging, and advanced EEG analyses. Moreover, the equipment will forge new collaborations in this area, facilitate growth of sleep research at Ontario Tech, and advance our understanding of the links between sleep and cognition.