Media releases

• Brock part of national research team setting up EEG data-sharing system

  Tuesday, August 17, 2021 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 12 August 2021 – R0086

  Brock University is at the forefront of a movement that’s getting a major boost to make neuroscience more open and accessible worldwide.

  Brock is part of a national team developing a system to share data collected from electroencephalography (EEG), which is a technique used by researchers and clinicians to measure electrical signals in the form of brainwaves, gathered by electrodes placed on the scalp of participants.

  These data are used to enable scientists to better study and potentially detect early signs and progress of a wide variety of psychological conditions and behavioural disorders in childhood, as well as neurodegenerative diseases and conditions in aging. These can range from autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia.

  “We all wanted this vision to happen, we hoped it might happen,” says Brock University Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience Sid Segalowitz. “By pulling together all our different resources, we’ve gotten there. It’s a very nice feeling.”

  The team, led by Alan Evans at McGill University’s Montreal Neurological Institute, includes Brock University and the Université Laval.

  Brain Canada, a national charitable organization that supports brain research, has awarded the team $1.8 million through their Platform Support Grants competition to create EEGNet, a platform that will standardize methods, data formats, algorithms and conventions from multiple EEG laboratories, making it easier for researchers to contribute information to, and draw from, the platform.

  Segalowitz says a repository of EEG data will boost brain research in a variety of ways.

  Using the example of a researcher testing out a theory of what brain responses reflect ADHD in children, he says “If we collect data from 10 kids with ADHD compared to 10 kids without ADHD to examine differences between the two, what are the chances of finding that out with such a small sample size?”

  “But if we have some data from ADHD kids, and other labs have data on ADHD kids, and we put them all together to have 500 kids in each group, that much bigger data set will result in a much stronger study,” he says.

  Segalowitz is co-ordinating Brock’s involvement in the EEGNet project, while four research teams from the University are involved in the project:

  • In partnership with Pathstone Mental Health Services, Segalowitz, Associate Professor of Child and Youth Studies Ayda Tekok-Kilic and Assistant Professor of Child and Youth Studies Erin Panda are studying up to 300 children per year with various mental health disorders to determine if EEG data gathered at entry to the program helps practitioners provide more targeted services with better outcomes.
  • As part of the work of a collaboration with CanChild, centred at McMaster University, Segalowitz and Christine Lackner (BA ’07, PhD ’15), now at Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax, are using EEG to examine self-regulation and information processing in young adults with cerebral palsy.
  • Professor of Psychology Teena Willoughby has been collecting EEG data of a group of 500 adolescents over many years used for research on mental health issues, risk-taking behaviour and school performance.
  • Associate Professor of Psychology and Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging, Karen Campbell, will investigate memory mechanisms in approximately 100 older adults and young controls over three years.

  In the lead-up to the recent Brain Canada grant, Brock had been working for many years with McGill University to develop a system of purifying EEG data.

  Stemming from his master’s work, James Desjardins (BA ’98, BA ’01, MA ’12) developed a tool called EEG Lossless Pipeline, which is able to remove factors that distort brainwave patterns.

  Brock is strong in EEG research capacity, says Segalowitz, with nearly a dozen labs in several Faculties across campus using the EEG technique in studies of human behaviour, sleep, mental health, aging, muscle function and dysfunction, and other subject areas.

  The EEGNet project has been made possible with the financial support of Health Canada, through the Canada Brain Research Fund, an innovative partnership between the Government of Canada and Brain Canada, and Brock University, Université Laval — CERVO Brain research centre, and McGill University.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970 

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock researchers want to hear from teachers about pandemic and return-to-classroom experiences

  Friday, August 06, 2021 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 5 August 2021 – R0085

  All eyes are on September following the Ontario government’s recent unveiling of its back-to-school plan.

  Brock University Professor of Child and Youth Studies Dawn Zinga and Associate Professor Danielle Sirianni Molnar want to make sure teachers’ voices are being heard and understood as schools re-open.

  “I think of teachers as being front-line workers of a different sort,” says Zinga. “They were there with the students face to face and they were there in students’ homes virtually during long periods of the pandemic, yet we didn’t hear a lot about that side of things,” she says.

  To that end, the duo has launched a survey of teachers as part of their study “Teachers’ Perspectives on the Pandemic.”

  “Teachers have faced an incredible number of challenges during the pandemic, such as having to adapt to completely different learning environments with no warning,” says Sirianni Molnar.

  “We want to understand their experiences, including impacts to their health and well-being,” she says. “We are also very interested in what teaching is like during these difficult and ever-changing times.”

  The research team, which also consists of master’s student Melissa Blackburn and other research assistants, is looking for 250 elementary or secondary school teachers who are certified with the Ontario College of Teachers and have at least two years of teaching experience in Ontario.

  Those interested in participating are asked to e-mail teapopstudy@brocku.ca to enrol in the study, which consists of three online surveys, each spaced two months apart. For each survey completed, participants will receive a $20 Amazon gift card.

  The first survey asks teachers to describe their teaching experiences during the pandemic, including being mandated to teach virtually, the transition to online platforms, if there was a combination of online and in-person learning, and other processes.

  “We’re also asking if they feel stressed or burned out, what resources they may have used, what helped them get through the tough times, how they balanced things at home and if there were any positive things that came out of the pandemic for them,” says Zinga.

  Two months after the first round, the second survey will ask teachers about their experiences with returning to in-person teaching.

  The third survey will ask similar questions about transitioning back to in-person learning.

  “The surveys are spaced two months apart so that we can assess changes over key transitional periods, such as when everyone returns to school, and so that we can capture changes over relatively short periods of time, given how fast things have been changing across the pandemic,” says Sirianni Molnar.

  The researchers will also be conducting extensive, one-on-one online interviews with teachers interested in going into more detail and sharing their assessments of what needs to be done to improve the situation. Those who complete an online interview will also receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

  The current research follows a study the researchers launched last month. The Niagara Adolescent Personality and Social Connection Study involves adolescents completing a series of three online surveys including questions on how the pandemic affected their experiences at school.

  Adolescents are still able to register in this study. Requests to participate and parental permission can be sent to dphwblab@brocku.ca

  “These are twin studies,” says Zinga. “When you take the two studies together, it gives us those two perspectives.”

  The researchers are hoping the surveys will capture information and perspectives that will help educators and policy-makers to move forward with their current re-opening plans, especially in the area of providing more teacher supports.

  Lessons learned during the pandemic can also inform policies and procedures in the event of future pandemics or a fourth wave, say the researchers.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases