The Institute's MEG brain-imaging facility opened its doors in 2010. Its arrival ushered in a new era of brain discoveries at I-LABS, and the facility has become busier and busier. There are few MEG facilities in the world, and I-LABS has the only one optimized for infants in addition to adults.
Here's a look at the I-LABS MEG Brain Imaging facility and some accomplishments so far.
Take a virtual tour of the facility on YouTube.
Share the excitement of the MEG ribbon-cutting ceremony in the videos at "A Visit to the Future of Learning."
The MEG brain responses of 7- and 11-month-old infants showed that the areas of the brain that coordinate and plan motor movements for speech become activated by speech long before infants begin to talk. The finding suggest that infant brains appear to rehearse mechanics of speech in preparation for their first words.
Published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June 2014, the study received press coverage around the world and was later deemed one of the best science stories of the year by Discover Magazine.
Read the I-LABS story.
Read the PNAS research paper.
Called a "coup" for the Institute, Samu Taulu joined I-LABS in the fall of 2014 as the director of the MEG facility. He came from Helsinki, where he worked at Elekta Oy – the world leader in manufacturing MEG devices and creating software that analyzes the complicated datasets recorded with MEG. A physicist by training, Taulu also has a faculty appointment in the UW physics department.
"I don't think we will ever run out of open questions and mysteries when it comes to the brain," Taulu said in an I-LABS profile. "What could be more fascinating?"
Since his arrival, the MEG facility has seen a tremendous increase in the studies it does. Researchers test on weekends and holidays, keeping Taulu, along with colleagues Toshi Imada, Myles Reilly, Rey Ramirez and the newest addition to the team, Maggie Clarke, busy.
Read more about Samu Taulu.
Univision, the largest Hispanic TV network in the United States, sent a team of reporters to I-LABS for a segment about early learning and the brain. The piece, "El mejor recurso educativo para los niños" ("The best education resource for children") aired during an evening primetime broadcast and included interviews with the Institute's scientists and footage from the MEG facility.
Watch the segment on the Univision website.
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