Tag Archives: neuroscience

The Princeton Lab That Can Read Your Mind

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By Kaden Paz Leyva

The Princeton Social Neuroscience lab is tucked into the basement of the Peretsman Scully Hall.

Inside, the lab has enough space for two people to be scanned at the same time as they talk, argue and laugh about their moments together. On the other side of the room with a computer system, a researcher charts their brain activity over time, searching for the moments when the two minds move together and the moments when they become disconnected.

The intensity of this work is deserving of the lab’s unofficial motto: “Your brain is on my mind.”

The lab studies and specializes in how people understand their own minds and that of others. Their research includes guessing what a friend is thinking and the tension one feels with a stranger. But the researchers themselves say that the lab is not only trying to answer the neurosociological questions of the mind. It’s also trying to make their research reach beyond academia, in language and in papers that people beyond the field may be interested to read. This makes the lab one-of-a-kind. 

The goal of their distinctive work, hyperscanning, lies at the center of the lab. It works by placing two people in the MRI machine simultaneously. There, these two people have a conversation and talk about issues in their relationship. Meanwhile, their brains are being measured mid-conversation. Princeton’s building layout allows researchers to run both MRIs simultaneously.

Graduate student Yeaju Kim said the hyperscanning is what drew her to work on the lab in the first place. “I was interested in human social interaction because I thought that the most human thing we could do was talk to each other,” said Kim. “We have our own language and I think that’s a really unique characteristic of our lives.” Watching two people’s brain’s activity align, she said, reveals things much deeper than physical mimicry. It is the moment of synchronization that goes beyond simply moving or speaking the same way. According to Kim, the lab examines “the way to understand the way you think and how others think.”

The research divides the brain scans into roughly 8,000 tiny 3D units called voxels and compares them across two people to see where brain activity overlaps. When researchers overlap the two scans on a 3D scan, it creates zones using different shades of red. Areas of the brain that appear darker means that the two people share similar patterns in their brains. That’s usually seen more between friends than between strangers. 

The process is slow and exacting. Researchers need around 100 hours of running code with the data before beginning to analyze it. Since the lab’s coding platform is prone to breaking down, those in the lab have to learn code from scratch to be able to continue with analysis. 

Through having to monitor simultaneous MRIs, keeping participants still through the scan and making participants comfortable even though they can not see each other’s faces, it’s an intricate process. Kim still said watching the data come together makes the work rewarding. This gives her a rare and thorough window into how people connect. 

Lab manager Amy Nguyen came to the lab with experience largely in developmental and clinical psychology. Nguyen’s outside perspective has shaped how she will communicate and publish the lab’s findings in a language that will be understandable both to people who aren’t already a genius in the field and to those who are an expert.

Researchers in the lab are careful to note that basic science like this isn’t exactly designed to produce immediate applications in the real world. But Nguyen said the couple’s research could eventually help bring different approaches to relationships.

The willingness to explain and look into a more iterative side of research alongside the big findings of a lab is part of what researchers say sets the lab apart. As Nguyen put it, most people seem to picture a wet lab for dissection when they think of neuroscience, not realizing how much of the work is coding, math and careful design.

As the lab continues to study how two minds can be studied at once, the researchers say the bigger goal hasn’t changed: understanding not just how people think but how they think about each other, and making sure that understanding doesn’t stay locked inside a lab.

At Princeton Social Neuroscience Lab, Your Brain is on Their Mind

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By Angie Sepulveda

As you enter the dimly-lit and scary room, you prepare mentally for the dissection of your brain. You are dressed in white hospital clothes with medical patches attached to various sorts of wires all over your head. The needle slowly approaches your brain to initiate your lobotomy. You are an incoming neuroscience subject for research at Princeton, but are you really?

That’s how many people, including seven out of ten Princeton Summer Journal reporters, imagine neuroscience research: like a lobotomy. But the Princeton Social Neuroscience Lab dispels false notions about their profession, showing that neuroscience is simply the study of the brain and nervous system. The social neuroscientists ensure security, confidentiality and accessibility for all who participate in the research they do to further comprehend human interaction and behavioral patterns. According to Yeaju Kim, a rising second-year Ph.D. student at Princeton, this research is a tool to study how others “express thoughts and how broadly we understand others’ thoughts.”

Presently, a select number of Princeton neuroscientists are researching the potential brain scan patterns between a couple’s conversations of conflict. As the consent forms, provided by lab manager Amy Nguyen, describe, the purpose of this research “is to explore how minds synchronize as romantic couples interact with each other.” The methodology that will be utilized to gain understanding in this study will recruit several couples, place them in MRI machines and record the brain patterns shown through two structured conversations. 

Although the term “neuroscience” might inspire wild, hazardous thoughts, the actual research involves a meticulous process that ensures the safety of subjects in various ways. Every step from start to finish is intentional and serves a strong purpose for the study. 

After ensuring the eligibility of potential participants, such as checking for no new piercings, metal parts inside the body or tattoos above the neck, the couple in the study will embark on warm-up tasks before these structured conversations. Some of these warm-up tasks include “answering a brief relationship questionnaire, recording a few baseline opinions and completing simple rating tasks.” 

This neuroscientific approach strives to have “the risks be minimal and the benefits as proximal as it could get.” Potential risks that come to mind include issues regarding the MRI that are, in actuality, completely untrue. While the subject might be questioning if they have any metal on them, the neuroscientists initiate the safety steps of checking various times with metal detector doors and past medical records. MRI machines often create loud, thudding noises. Instead of enduring this irritating noise, the research subjects in the MRI have specialized headphones with microphones. 

If a participant is still feeling anxious after going through the safety protocols, check-ups and potential opt-out are always available. Even during the process of the structured conversations, participants can call out to researchers at any time they might feel uncomfortable. In case of any potential harm, the neuroscientists show through their consent form they provide well-being resources so participants can “feel okay mentally and emotionally.” 

When it comes to confidentiality, the neuroscientists ensure that all data published cannot be traced back to the participant, meaning no identifying factors will be revealed. While visiting the research lab, all participants’ information was covered to protect their privacy. In fact, after the research is published, the participant is able to request, via email, a three-dimensional scan of their brain. 

Princeton neuroscientists ensure confidentiality and security, both mentally and physically, to obtain findings that aid the comprehension of human interaction and behavioral patterns. In addition to appealing to other researchers, they plan to publish their findings in a way accessible to the public. Even in the initial process of signing the consent forms, all information is made accessible to participants and broken down in simpler terms. Accessibility is a big priority throughout the entirety of the research project.

Neuroscience is not the dissection or grilling of the brain. Being part of neuroscience research does not place the participant in any unsafe position. Better yet, it can provide benefits they would not be able to find elsewhere. The misconceptions that easily paint vivid, horrifying pictures often disregard actual neuroscience research, which, as mentioned by Kim, is needed because studying human interaction is “the most human thing that we can do.” 

The next time you hear the term “neuroscience,” remember that no lobotomy is taking place. Rather, progress is being made towards further comprehension of our own selves.