Facilities

The Memory Lab in Cognitive Neuroscience is located in Western’s Interdisciplinary Research Building and we are part of the Brain and Mind Group at the Western Institute for Neuroscience. With access to a variety of facilities and cutting-edge technologies, this allows us to explore the role of the medial temporal lobes and other brain structures in memory processing.

scanner

fMRI

We have access to the 3 Tesla and the 7 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) facilities at the Robarts Research Institute on campus.  Our imaging is typically done using the 3T MRI scanner.  Within the Memory Lab, we have a number of dedicated workstations for the analyses of functional neuroimaging data. Our primary software used for these analyses is BrainVoyager.

Cognitive Laboratory

The Memory Lab is equipped with several testing rooms that contain workstations to run cognitive experiments. We use E-Prime and MATLAB to program and administer these experiments. We also administer online testing through Prolific and Meadows. 

Neuropsychological Patient-Based Research

We have established ongoing collaborations with neurologists at both the Cognitive Neurology and Epilepsy units of the London Health Sciences Centre as well as Parkwood Institute (St. Joseph’s Health Care London).  This allows us to study the impact of various neurological and psychiatric disorders on memory and cognitive processing. Current research includes a study on hippocampal abnormalities in major depressive disorders conducted at Parkwood Institute. 

Psychophysiology

The Lab is also equipped with Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), Electromyography (EMG), and Electrocardiography (ECG) equipment to examine the role of physiology and affect in memory processes.  We use Biopac acquisition systems and AcqKnowledge software to record these types of data.

TMS

Our lab has access to a system for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) that allows us to stimulate specific human brain regions during cognitive and memory tasks. With this system, we can co-register the stimulation coil to functional or structural MR images.