The goal of this Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) project is 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 will evaluate 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 will 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 will involve 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 will afford a novel and accessible learning experience for today’s visually oriented undergraduate students. NeuroVisions will employ 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 will be integrated into the HTML structure of the multimedia CD-ROMs to be produced 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 will enrich 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.

A “hybrid” structure to be employed in the NeuroVisions materials will include a learning and application module (LAM) and research and discovery module (RDM) in each lesson. This structure will help bridge students from the simpler but limited WebImage applet embedded in the multimedia structure of the NeuroVisions LAMs to the complex but powerful desktop version of the ImageJ software used in the RDMs. The hybrid structure will thus increase the flexibility of the NeuroVisions materials. Instructors of survey courses who wish to introduce students to neuroimaging and key neuroscience concepts can assign the LAMs as laboratory or independent study activities; Instructors of research methods and other in-depth classes can add on the RDMs.

Each NeuroVisions lesson will begin with a LAM that leads students through activities designed to help them understand the neuroimaging research and neuroscience concepts covered in the module. In each LAM, students will use WebImage to analyze images from the featured research. In most instances, the analysis will be a simple “between single subjects comparison” across experimental groups in a research study. Accordingly, statistical analyses of the research data will not be possible. The RDM of the lesson will provide a format for students to employ ImageJ as a tool for conducting statistical research on data sets provided by participating scientists. The RDM, which will provide a valuable supplement for neuroscience research methods courses and other courses that encourage independent student research, will expose students to hypothesis generation; various types of research designs, including between-subjects, within-subjects, factorial, correlational, time series, and single-subject designs; image processing and analysis, including false colorizing, density calibration, histogram segmentation, ROI, and volumetric analysis; statistical analysis, including t-tests, ANOVAs, and linear regression analyses; scientific reasoning; and scientific communication.