Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center
The Brain Imaging and Analysis Center (BIAC) (www.biac.duke.edu/) encompasses more than 10,000 sq. ft. on the Duke University Medical Center campus. The BIAC offices and the image analysis laboratory are housed in the Hock Plaza Building. Across the street, the Duke Hospital North houses two research-dedicated MRI suites (3T GE scanners), a MR scanner simulator, additional image analysis laboratories, an RF coil construction shop, and offices for faculty and students engaged in imaging methodology development. BIAC's computing facilities consist of a high-speed network of Windows and Linux servers, workstations, and a large-scale computational cluster for parallel data analysis. Data analysis is performed using custom-developed software, commercial software, and software obtained from other research MRI centers. BIAC has just installed a new 3T scanner with a high-power high-duty-cycle 50-mT/m gradients at 200 T/m/s slew rate.
The Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience training program is a member of the Consortium of Neuroscience Graduate Programs of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. Via the Consortium, students in our program interact with a wide range of other students and faculty in an interdisciplinary setting.
http://www.dibs.duke.edu/education/graduate
Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
The Center for Cognitive Neuroscience (www.mind.duke.edu), which is located in the Levine Science Research Center (LSRC) at Duke, provides several resources for research in cognition and cognitive neuroscience: office and laboratory space for researchers and students, laboratories for behavioral testing, and several systems for measuring event-related potentials (ERP). These ERP laboratories are state-of-the-art and permit testing both adults and children. Additionally, a new transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) laboratory has been built in the Bryan Research Building. Finally, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience hosts many activities and events, including talk series, journal clubs, and a retreat.
Duke Medical Center and Durham VA Medical Center
The Duke Medical Center has been recognized as one of the world's great health care providers by such publications as TIME and U.S.News & World Report. Having a major hospital nearby provides access to a variety of clinical patients, as well as consultation and research collaborations with neurologists and psychiatrists. The Durham VA Medical Center serves veterans in central and eastern North Carolina in its main medical center or one of three community-based outpatient clinics. Several Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience faculty investigate patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who are treated at the Durham VA. Both medical centers are within a short walk of the Psychology building and the laboratories of our faculty.
Duke Aging Center and Bryan Alzheimer Disease Research Center
With more than 30 core staff members and more than $3 million in annual direct research funding, the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development (www.geri.duke.edu) is a national resource for the study of aging. It hosts a database of over 1,000 community-dwelling healthy older adults, who often volunteer on behavioral and neuroimaging studies conducted by C/CN laboratories. The Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (http://adrc.mc.duke.edu) is a clinical and basic science center dedicated to the highest level of care for patients and families affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other memory disorders, discovery of the basic mechanisms underlying the disease process, and development of effective treatments and preventive strategies for AD and related conditions. This center provides access to AD patients for behavioral and cognitive neuroscience studies.
Duke immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE)
The DiVE is a 3m x 3m x 3m stereoscopic rear projected room with head and hand tracking and real time computer graphics. All six surfaces – the four walls, the ceiling and the floor – are used as screens onto which computer graphics are displayed. For virtual worlds designed for this system, it is a fully immersive room in which the individual (researcher, educator, etc) literally walks into the world, is surrounded by the display and is capable of interacting with virtual objects in the world. Stereo glasses provide depth perception, and a handheld “wand” controls navigation and input to into the world for manipulating virtual objects. The DiVE represents a substantial investment that provides an unparalleled interface between humans and digital worlds. This resource is housed in the nearby Pratt School of Engineering and is available for cognitive studies.
