The goal of this Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) project was to create educational materials that will fill a major void in the undergraduate neuroscience and behavioral science curriculum: A lack of educational materials that give students the opportunity to learn neuroscience by working hands-on with neuroimaging data.

This Phase 1 project evaluated the feasibility of creating multimedia CD-ROMs (student and teacher’s versions), a teacher’s manual, and a student workbook that will supplement curricula used in undergraduate psychology, biology, neuroscience, and other science courses. Entitled NeuroVisions: Teaching neuroscience with neuroimaging data, the materials were designed to be particularly relevant to the call for neuroscience-based educational materials listed in the 2003 SBIR/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) omnibus solicitation by the Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The solicitation requested applications for funding to create educational tools that disseminate information and insights about neuroscience and basic behavioral research:

Neuroscience and basic behavioral science are compelling areas of science that not only touch upon a diverse array of disciplines, but also provide insights into the essence of what it is to be human. Products aimed at teaching the substance of these fields to students of all ages would be useful in disseminating this information and these insights (PHS 2003).

NeuroVisions involved students in discovery-based explorations of addiction, memory, language, emotion, and consciousness with real data provided by leading neuroimaging scientists. Students will formulate hypotheses, design experiments, process and analyze brain imaging data, perform statistical analyses, draw conclusions based on their analyses, and write up findings in research reports. The project’s emphasis on image manipulation and image analysis afforded a novel and accessible learning experience for today’s visually oriented undergraduate students. NeuroVisions employed WebImage, a Java-based image processing and analysis program developed by key personnel on this project, as an educational technology. Based on ImageJ, a well known open-source image processing and analysis program, WebImage was integrated into the HTML structure of the multimedia materials produced and tested by the project. By reducing ImageJ’s rich but complicated set of filtering, measurement, calibration, and data rendering tools to only those functions needed to accomplish specific research tasks, WebImage enriched the undergraduate educational experience by giving students a chance to examine real data, make their own discoveries, and see neuroanatomical structures and neurophysiological processes first-hand.

Read the final project report.