It seems I may have dropped the ball on this blog... First, I got caught up in my summer research and presentations, then along came classes, swimming and graduate applications. It’s safe to say I’ve been busy, but hopefully this post will serve as a good general update.
The Underwater EEG
My summer research project to create a waterproof EEG was successful! We were able to create a sealed waterproof case for the OpenBCI Ganglion and obtain valid underwater recordings from a few athletes on my team. Moving forward, 3D printing a more compact case would be ideal, as well as attaching the Ganglion board to the case to prevent it from sliding around the enclosure.
Working on this project cemented my love for research and validated my decision to apply to PhD programs for the 2022-2023 academic year! I hope to continue and expand upon this research in a graduate program.
What am I doing now?
The answer to that question is probably about 4 pages long, but I’ll try to quickly break it down for you. I am working on a few research projects, running experiments in the Memory and Attention lab, finishing my swimming career (which is crazy to say) and taking my last undergraduate courses. Other than that, I am waiting on admissions decisions on my graduate school applications. I applied to programs whose research interested me, which lead me to clinical psychology, cognitive psychology and neuroscience programs. Everything is still up in the air, but I’m excited to see where I go from here.
Neurofeedback Training for Athletic Performance
Last academic year, 2020-2021, I was awarded a CURCS mini grant through my university which gave me $750 to perform neurofeedback research. For anyone who isn’t familiar with neurofeedback training, it is a form of biofeedback which provides an individual with visual, auditory or tactile feedback based on their cognitive performance.
The goal of my study was to determine if a neurofeedback training regime aimed at boosting high alpha frequencies could be used to reduce athletic anxiety and boost performance. High alpha frequencies are believed to be a “meditative state”, associated with decreased anxiety and heightened cognitive performance. The idea here is that the participants will be able to train themselves to reach this high alpha range during competitions, so they can focus on their performance and not be distracted by their surroundings or their nerves.
I worked with about around 10 collegiate swimmers (my lovely and generous teammates) and had them visualize their best races for 3 or 5 minutes, completing 3 sessions per day, 3 days a week for two weeks. The participants would hear a buzzing sound when they were not within the desired alpha threshold, the goal being to concentrate hard enough on the race visualization, while being relaxed, that they were able to keep the buzzer off. They also completed surveys about their athletic performance and evaluated the difficulty of reaching the alpha threshold.
Data analysis is still underway, but if you’re curious about the procedures, equipment or anything, please feel free to email me!
Memory and Attention Lab
As you may know, I am an undergraduate research assistant in the Memory and Attention Lab at the University of South Dakota. I am currently collecting data for a visual working memory experiment that was designed by the lab’s primary investigator, Dr. Ricker. I began data collection last fall, and this has been my first experience running participants on a computer programmed experiment. I should hit the target number of participants next week, which will allow me to begin data analysis. I have never gotten to analyze raw experimental data from a cohort of this size, so I am excited to learn more about the statistical side of research from Dr. Ricker.
Well, that’s a very, very summarized version of what I’ve been up to! I am hoping to bring you along as I prepare for future presentations and begin analyzing data for all of my ongoing projects. Fingers crossed I’ll have a graduate announcement for you all soon!
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