BERP lab

We are currently in the process of setting up a new Event Related Potential (ERP) and Eye-tracking lab, where we hope to test infant and adult language development and cognition.

Event Related Potential technique

This is a completely non-invasive technique used to record the electrical activity over different parts of the scalp during normal processing of linguistic or visual stimuli.

The recorded EEG signal is locked to the timing of presentation of the different stimuli, in order to provide the event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with different processes in the brain.

This technique has been used for many decades to record infant brain activity for medical research and can now be used to test the stages in infant language development and processing. As you can imagine, with widespread use in the medical community, there are no known risks to infants' well-being using ERPs.

 If you would like for your child to take part in this research, please contact Nivi Mani or Vanja Vucetic.

Eye-tracking

The eye-tracking methodology enables us to record and analyse detailed eye-movements. In the BERP lab, we are currently using two SMI systems: remote eye-tracker device (RED) and head-mounted eye-tracker device (HED).  

The remote system consists of a camera, positioned in front of the participant. Attached to the camera is a source of a small amount of infra-red light which is directed onto the pupil. The pupil itself has to be the darkest object in the camera picture, so that pupil can be easily selected using a threshold value. At the same time, a small reflection of light can be seen on the cornea of the eye, which should be the brightest spot in the camera picture selected by a second threshold value. The displacement of the corneal reflection is mathematically related to the eye movement. 

The head-mounted device consists of a helmet which participants wear during testing. An eye camera and a scene camera are attached to the helmet, so that they provide a picture of the eye and the scene the participant is looking at. Unlike the RED, the HED system is less sensitive to head-movements.  

If you would like to take part in this research, please contact Vanja Vucetic.