1985 — 2006 |
Neville, Helen June |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Development of Cerebral Specialization
DESCRIPTION: (provided by applicant) The research proposed here is directed toward determining which neural systems and related functions are most dependent on and modified by experience during human development. We will characterize the sensitive periods when particular perceptual and language systems display experience-dependent changes and contrast these systems with those that retain the ability to change throughout life. We will acquire event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and structural and functional magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain to precisely characterize both the timing and the location of neural activations as subjects perform tasks designed to activate specific aspects of sensory and language functions. We will assess the hypotheses that (1) congenitally deaf subjects (Ss) are more sensitive to and display more extensive neural activation than hearing Ss to motion (but not color), especially in the far periphery of the visual fields and that these differences occur in classical visual areas, multi modal areas and in primary and secondary auditory cortices, (2) deaf Ss are more sensitive to change within the periphery of a visual scene than are normally hearing Ss, (3) subjects blind since birth are more accurate and display greater activation of classical auditory, multi modal and visual areas when processing the location (but not the pitch) of sounds presented in the far auditory periphery. In addition, we will (4) characterize the identity and time-course of operation of the neural subsystems important in processing phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic processing in normal adults, (5) determine the effects of delays in language acquisition on these same subsystems by studying bilinguals who acquired 12 at different ages, and (6) assess the hypotheses that neural systems active when native signers process semantic information and non-spatial syntax in ASL overlap extensively with those observed when native speakers process English, but that processing spatial syntax in ASL selectively engages areas of the right hemisphere that are not typically active in grammatical processing of English. We will assess the hypothesis that this pattern of cerebral specialization is dependent on early exposure to ASL but is independent of auditory deprivation. Since the proposed research will determine which perceptual and language systems are most altered by environmental input, and the time periods when they are most modifiable, these studies will contribute information of practical significance for the development, refinement and evaluation of educational and habilitative programs.
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0.958 |
1987 — 2011 |
Neville, Helen June |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Development of Cerebral Specializations
DESCRIPTION: (Adapted From The Investigator's Abstract): The broad goals are to characterize experience-dependent changes in the developing human brain and to test the hypothesis that they are determined by multiple, specific critical periods. The investigators will characterize the effects of auditory deprivation on the functional organization of the visual system, and the effects of acquisition of a visual-manual language (American Sign Language, ASL) and the effects of delayed exposure to language on the functional organization of different language systems of the brain. The investigators will test different conceptions of the identity and organization of subsystems within vision and language in studies of normal hearing adults. They will determine the nature of the effects and the time periods when altered experience affects the normal development of these systems in studies of congenitally and later deafened individuals, and in native and late leamers of ASL and English. The investigators will record event-related brain potentials (ERPS) and changes in blood oxygenation levels employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to characterize the timing and the location of neural activation as these groups of subjects perform tasks designed to activate specific aspects of sensory and language functions. They will assess the hypothesis, raised by our previous behavioral, ERP and FMRI studies, that there is considerable functional specificity in the alterations in the visual system and the language systems that can occur following auditory deprivation and that: 1. congenitally deaf subjects are more accurate and display faster and more extensive neural activation than normal hearing Ss when detecting, localizing and attending to visual events in the far periphery of the visual fields; 2. the neural systems that mediate this processing are more extensive in deaf Ss and include areas that process auditory information in normal hearing Ss; 3. there are several distinct subsystems within language and these differ in the degree to which they are dependent on and modified by language experience; 4. there is overlap in the neural systems within the left hemisphere that process ASL and English, but there is also extensive activation of the temporal and parietal regions of the right hemisphere for processing ASL only. Since these studies will determine the multiple, different time periods in human development when specific inputs from the environment have the greatest impact, the results will carry implications for the time periods when specific educational programs would optimize development in hearing and deaf children.
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0.958 |
1998 — 2005 |
Neville, Helen June |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Neurobehavioral Development--Normal, Li &Deaf Children
DESCRIPTION (adapted from the investigator's abstract): The proposal's broad goals are to characterize the time-course of differentiation of neural systems important in language and sensory processing in normally developing children ages 3 months to 8 years. The proposed research will test the following hypothesis--systems that display the greatest degree of developmental plasticity differentiate over longer time periods than do those that are less modifiable. Studies of children at risk for language impairment (Late Talkers, LTs) and children with a diagnosis of language impairment (LI) will be observed. to test the hypothesis that alterations in multiple systems can lead to LI, can be predictive of LI, and are altered by intervention programs. Studies of congenitally deaf children acquiring ASL explore the role of specific types of sensory input hypothesized to be central to the development of the language systems of the bran. ERPs will be recorded over several brain regions as normal, LI, and deaf children process stimuli designed to activate specific aspects of sensory and language functions. Six specific hypothesis will be tested: (1) By 30 months, distinct neural systems mediate lexical versus grammatical processing; these systems display increasing differentiation until 8 years. (2) Children will show ERP evidences of phonological priming at 6 months, but the associated neural systems will continue to develop throughout middle childhood. (3) Systems important in processing rapidly presented non-language auditory stimuli differentiate along an earlier time-course than language-relevant neural systems, and the dorsal visual pathway differentiates along a longer time-course than the ventral visual stream. (4) The timing and organization of the earliest responses to speech and non-speech stimuli predict which LT children will catch up and which will go on to become LI. (5) In some individuals, LI arises from deficits in sensory processing while in others the deficit is specifically linguistic. (6) The biologically invariant role of language systems in the left hemisphere follows a similar time-course for both spoken and signed languages.
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0.958 |
2000 — 2003 |
Dahlquist, Frederick Neville, Helen |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Acquisition of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Mri) System For Cognitive Neuroscience @ University of Oregon Eugene
Neville 0079540
There is virtually universal agreement that the 21 st century will be a time of unprecedented and unimaginable discoveries about the fundamental mechanisms that give rise to human thought and behavior. Catapulting us to this threshold have been key advances in cognitive science that have identified and specified interactions between the essential components of mental processes, and dis-coveries and technical advances within neuroscience that have made it possible to describe mechanisms of neuronal activity at cellular and molecular levels. - The previously ephemeral interface between these disparate levels of analysis has been strengthened by focussed efforts during this decade of the brain that have made comprehensive and noninvasive brain imaging a reality. Knowledge about the biology of cognition brings a perspective that is critical to understanding mental phenomena just as knowledge of the computations essential to cognition reveals constraints on how the brain performs its essential functions. An understanding of how functionally specialized brain systems develop is now within our grasp. The fundamental significance of these research enterprises lies in illuminating our mental capacities and vulnerabilities and in the benefits that such understanding will confer upon human society in the form of guidance in the design and implementation of educational programs to take advantage of the multiple, specific and limited time windows in human development when environmental input is most effective. Scientists at the University of Oregon (UO) have made significant and pioneering contributions to the componential analysis of cognition, to characterizing single neuron and population electrophysio-logical responses in animals and humans and from the conjunction of these strengths have established one of the world's foremost research and training programs at the interface of cognitive science and neuro-science, i.e. in Cognitive Neuroscience. UO scientists have also performed foundational studies using techniques that image blood flow and oxygenation in the brain iii studies of human cognition. However, since facilities for these studies are not available locally, such investigations have been severely limited in number, are conducted by only a few scientists and students and have been extremely expensive in time and funds because they have been conducted at sites distant from the UO. This application seeks support for the purchase of an MRI System so that each of the faculty and students within the many research and training programs that comprise cognitive neuroscience at UO can access this powerful new technique which has so recently defined a new level of analysis in the study of the human mind. This facility will be employed in basic studies investigating the brain systems and mechanisms important in selecting, localizing and attending to particular events in complex, ecologically valid, auditory environments (Takahashi et al.), the processing cascade involved in transforming visual signals into veridical perceptions and conscious experience (Dassonville, Sereno), systems important for motor control, sensory-motor integration and learning (Mayr, Woollacott, van Donkelaar), the pharmacological and anatomical analysis of covert orienting (Marrocco et al.), the interface between and mechanisms of spatial attention and spatial working memory (Awh), the architecture and encoding mechanisms of working memory and the dynamics of retrieval and forgetting (Awh, Anderson), the neurobiology of emotions and motivational influences on cognition (Tucker), the organization, plasticity and development of sensory and language relevant neural systems in adults and children (Neville, Canseco-Gonzalez, Corina) and the changes in neural circuitry underlying high level cognitive skill acquisition in adults and children (Posner, Rothbart). A unique feature of our research with MRI will be integration of its high spatial resolution with the high temporal resolution of state of the art electrophysiological recordings from humans and with the very high spatial and temporal resolution of single unit studies in non-humans, in which we have unique research strengths. Interdisciplinary research training has long been recognized as a keystone of education at the UO where interdisciplinary research institutes and training programs were established over two decades ago. The proposed facility would build on this unique strength of the UO and will bring it to a new level by providing powerful opportunities for the integration of information about cognition and the brain from multiple levels of analysis. Since there are currently no comparable MRI research facilities in the Northwest, user support from the regional science community will be strong.
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1 |
2007 — 2011 |
Neville, Helen June |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Neurocognitive Development in Typically Developing, At-Risk, and Esl Children
[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project Summary: Our broad goals are to characterize the identity, developmental timecourse, and relative plasticity (modifiability/vulnerability) of neural systems and subsystems important in language processing and in attentional and sensory skills that are central to language. In children ages 3-17, we will acquire behavioral data, event-related brain potentials (ERPs), and, in the 6-17 year olds, structural and functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) of the brain to characterize both the timing and the location of neural activity as participants perform tasks designed to manipulate specific aspects of sensory, attentional, and language processing. We will test the hypotheses that (1) systems important in semantic processing mature earlier than those important in grammatical and phonological processing, and that (2) longer developing systems are less mature in lower compared to higher SES children. In view of the central role of auditory attention and rapid auditory processing in language skills, we will also assess the hypotheses that (3) some aspects of the neural mechanisms underlying focused auditory attention are not mature until at least 10 years of age and (4) these systems are less mature in lower than higher SES children. We will also assess the hypotheses that (5) the systems important for rapid auditory processing develop slowly and (6) may be less mature in lower than higher SES children. We will test the hypotheses that (1) the same duration of exposure to English as a second language results in more typical language and related, brain systems at 3-5 years than at 6-8 years, (2) lower SES ESL children have less mature attentional systems than higher SES ESL children, and (3) lower SES ESL children have lower proficiency English language skills, and the related brain systems are less mature. In a third series of experiments we will assess the relative modifiability of these systems by comparing brain organization and behavior of monolingual children aged 3-5 years before and after 8 weeks of a small group intervention focusing on training language or attentional skills. We will test the hypothesis that increased language and cognitive input will lead to increases in semantic, grammatical, phonological, and attentional skills and related neural systems. Relevance: Since the proposed research will provide evidence about which cognitive and language skills and related brain systems are most altered by environmental input, these studies will contribute information of practical significance for the development, evaluation, and refinement of educational and intervention programs for typically developing, at-risk, and ESL children. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]
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0.958 |
2013 |
Neville, Helen |
Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Head Start University Partnerships: Dual Generation Approaches
Head Start; Early Head Start; dual-generation programs; two-generation programs; family well-being; self-regulation; executive functioning; stress;
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1 |
2015 — 2017 |
Pakulak, Eric [⬀] Neville, Helen |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Effects of Early Adversity On Autonomic and Neural Mechanisms Underlying Self-Regulation @ University of Oregon Eugene
Early developmental exposure to chronic stressors associated with poverty leads to profound disparities in multiple social and health outcomes that persist into adulthood. One specific aspect of brain function that is important for success in school and success in adulthood is self-regulation, which is traditionally studied from a strictly cognitive perspective. However, to meet the demands of different stressful or non-stressful situations, in a healthy system the brain and heart must interact to appropriately prepare the body and brain to respond. Very little is known about how this dynamic interaction between the heart and brain is associated with self-regulation in children and adults or how chronic stress associated with early adversity affects this interaction. This project will significantly improve our understanding of these relationships, which has the potential to contribute to the achievement of a broad range of societally-relevant outcomes for national health and prosperity. Results from this project will provide a critical link between the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience and pediatrics, behavioral medicine, health psychology, and intervention science. This research may also identify potential protective factors to the adverse effects of chronic stress on cognition, which would provide neurobiological targets to inform the development and refinement of interventions. Evidence-based interventions have the potential to improve health outcomes, with numerous and substantial economic benefits, including but not limited to reductions in health care costs, expansions in labor supply, and greater productivity. Work by economists has shown that effective early interventions have substantial positive economic impact, with conservative analyses estimating a return on investment of approximately 7 to 1. Interventions targeting self-regulation also promise to improve individual academic outcomes and quality of life for children from backgrounds of adversity. Greater academic opportunity for underrepresented populations can also increase the diversity and the competitiveness of the domestic workforce, both of which are crucial to the development of a more globally competitive workforce in the 21st century.
The objective of this project is to determine how the dynamic interaction between the heart and brain is associated with attention and self-regulation in childhood and in adulthood, and to identify which aspects of this interaction are the most vulnerable to early adversity and stress. These vulnerable systems are likely to respond positively to early-childhood interventions. The central hypothesis is that two branches of the autonomic nervous systems, the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS), interact with behavior and brain systems involved in attention and self-regulation in young children and adults, and that these functions will influence the relationship between early adversity and attention/self-regulation. We will test this hypothesis with three specific aims: Aim 1. To determine the relative contributions of PNS and SNS mechanisms to behavior and brain function for attention and self-regulation in young children and adults; Aim 2. To determine the extent to which autonomic nervous system functions interact with the brain response to feedback and errors in self-regulation on a trial-by-trial basis; and Aim 3. To develop and refine models of the role of PNS and SNS functions in the relationship between early adversity and behavior and brain function for cognition. We will measure PNS and SNS function at the same time as brain measures of attention and self-regulation using electrophysiology in children and adults from a wide range of socioeconomic status backgrounds. This will contribute to understanding how early adversity impacts brain systems underlying the control of attention and behavior.
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