Neurocognition and Action - Biomechanics
© Universität Bielefeld
EEG Cognition Lab
How do we walk and talk at the same time - and even balance an umbrella without losing track on our way to some destination, for example? Also in sport settings, multiple sensory information (from the environment and the body) have to be processed together with athletes' goals and their action plans. So, all senses and intentions have to work together in an optimal way to achieve the desired performance. In the EEG-Cognition lab, we investigate different cognitive processes such as perception, action planning, motor control and memory and the interactions among those and other cognitive domains. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a very powerful tool because it is not invasive and it can trace electrical brain activity with very high precision. As part of CITEC, we work in close collaboration with the Biomechanics Lab and the Sensorymotor Lab of the "Neurocognition and Action - Biomechanics" research group.
Research Topics
- Perception processing of body posture (e.g., from Volleyball or High jump movements)
- Processing of social cues for action control/planning (e.g., head fakes in basketball)
- Action control in grasping (various tasks, e.g., transportation or rotation)
- Functional interactions of motor control and working memory
- Functional interactions of motor control and language comprehension
- Neurofeedback training (e.g., in golf putting)
- Simultaneous recording of eye movements and EEG
- Anticipation and planning of manual actions
Lab Equipment
The EEG-cognition lab houses a spacious, electrically shielded examination booth, a control area, and a (separate) cleaning area for participants.
The core equipment includes a 64-channel, passive recording electrode EEG system and a 64-channel eego (TM) sports mobile EEG system, and both systems contain bi-polar channels for other physiological recordings (i.e. EMG, respiration, temperature, skin conductance, and acceleration).
A number of devices for specific experimental purposes, such as grasp-and-rotation tasks or action memory-interference studies are available. Most experimental studies are performed by Presentation (TM) software.