A Day in the Lab Learn about what we do at the Bunge Lab!

What do the scientists do? Scientists do research. Doing research means finding answers to scientific questions.

What research does the Bunge Lab do?  In this lab, our scientists do research on the brain. This is called neuroscience.  The research we do is on memory, reasoning, and cognitive control.

How do our experiments work? At the lab, we do research in 6 steps: Step 1: Create hypothesis and design experiment First, the scientist asks a question. A research question would be, for example, "which brain area is involved in reasoning?"  We then come up with a hypothesis, which is a guess.  To test his or her hypothesis the scientist will design an experiment.  Step 2:  Recruiting In order to do an experiment we look for kids to participate.  This process is called recruiting. Step 3: Behavioral Testing At this stage, the children we have recruited come in and play computer games.  The computer games are part of our experiments and we use them to see how children solve problems.  Step 4: Scanning During the experiment, a child plays a reasoning game while lying in the MRI scanner (Click here to learn more about MRI). The scanner takes pictures of the brain. So, it is kind of like a photo shoot of the brain during the entire game-playing session. Step 5: Data Analysis After all the pictures have been taken, the scientists put them into a computer which does all the difficult calculations to see which brain area is used during the game-playing.  We then study the brain pictures to see if our hypothesis is correct. Step 6:  Publish Results Once we have tested our hypothesis and examined the results of our experiment, we write an article.  This article explains our experiment and it is read by scientists from around the world.  In this way scientists share information and work together to better understand the brain.

Why take part in our experiments? We need you so we can learn more about how the brain works.  The more we know about the brain, the better we can understand how people learn. Plus you will get to take home pictures of your brain!  You will also come away with a certificate, prizes and the knowledge that you have made significant contributions toward important neuroscience research. CLICK HERE TO GET INVOLVED!