2019 Seed Grant Projects

Some of the challenges that this year’s seed projects treat are: aphasics’ struggles with word-finding, attitudes toward agricultural water reuse, difficulties in language comprehension among non-native speakers, the intransigence of bystanders during cases of bullying in middle and high school, the deleterious effects of building design on mental health, and the gap in knowledge about how the brain’s molecular and genetic structures affect human beings upon loss-of-function (e.g. in cases such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s diseases).

The impact of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on therapy outcomes in aphasia

This project proposes noninvasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation as one method of treating post-stroke aphasia, a disorder typically marked by loss of language and difficulty word finding.

Molecular connectomics of activity-dependent circadian circuit development

This project deploys a combination of advanced transcriptomic, proteomic, and high-resolution imaging methodologies to investigate circuit plasticity across multiple biological scales, from RNA and proteins to neurons and whole circuits.

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Nexus between sustainable buildings and human health: a neuroscience approach

This project uses virtual reality and EEG to provide repeatable measures for quantifying the “soft” benefits of pre-build building design features.

Moving beyond the “Yuck Factor”: measuring brain responses to water reuse terms and determining if natural environmental images change responses

This project leverages expertise in water reuse, communication, and cutting-edge neural activity measurements to move beyond self-reported perceptions of water reuse terms.

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The Impact of Race and Gender on Cyberbullying and Interventions among Middle School and High School Students

This projects identifies the cognitive, risk, mental health and protective factors that increase the likelihood of peers intervention in cyberbullying.

Neural representations of continuous speech and linguistic context in native and non-native listeners

This project uses MEG to study how far down the processing hierarchy predictions are propagated for non-native speakers with difficulties in language comprehension.


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