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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 2004)
Danielle Hickey Photo Editor University psychology Professor Edward Vogel’s study, demonstrating for the first time a direct relationship between brain nerve activity and memory capacity, appeared in the April 15 issue of Nature magazine. STUDY continued from page 1 tasks such as reasoning, mathematics and following directions." The results of Vogel's research were published in the April 15 issue of Na ture magazine. Using electrodes placed on the scalp, Vogel and Machizawa collect ed data suggesting that neural activi ty can reveal the limitations of aware ness — the visual working memory for each person — and provides a window into how the brain controls our cognition. In their research, Vogel and Machizawa showed subjects a display with a number of objects on it. They then waited and showed subjects two cards; one identical to the first display and another with a change in the col or of one of the objects. They asked subjects to point out the original set of objects while recording the sub jects' neural activity. Subjects were successful in four trials, but were less successful pick ing the correct set after a fifth object was added. Neural activity increased with the addition of each object until the fourth or fifth was added, at which point neural activity lev eled as subjects struggled to remem ber the correct set. According to Vogel, the research opens the door to studying how peo ple hold objects in their awareness. Vogel is not the only scientist who sees the research's potential. University Associate Professor of psychology Ed Awh, who studies cognitive theory, said there are many uses for research into the human cognitive process, including some practical applications. "We have a limited number of tools in cognitive neural science," Awh said. "People for decades have worked with a small number of processes, but this will open up a huge amount of appli cations. If we can develop more mod els of short-term cognitive theory, then we can develop theories about cognitive diseases like (attention deficit disorder)." Awh said the research may also help with other attention problems or with skills requiring attention, like learning or flying a plane. Vogel said he first stumbled into re searching visual awareness while working on experiments in the mid 1990s at the University of Iowa. "We were interested in some other experiment," he said. "1 don't even re member what it was, and we realized that it would be really useful to be able to study this one thing if we knew what the capacity of the visual working memory is. We realized it hadn't been done." Vogel said visual processing hap pens within a few hundred millisec onds after light enters the eye in a process of identification, memory building and recognition. Machizawa, who did his under graduate work at the University, met Vogel while looking for opportunities to research event-related potentials, or how scientists measure the brain's electrical activity as it corresponds to experiments. Machizawa said he is surprised by the attention the research has garnered. "I never dreamed of it, but I think it's cool," Machizawa said. "In terms of publishing in Nature, for the scien tific field, that's very good." Others in the field agree that hav ing research findings published in a scientific journal like Nature is mo mentous. "Nature and Science are the two premier journals as far as scientific research goes," Awh said. "To be published in them is to be published in one of the most presti gious spots." Contact the business/science/technology reporter at stevenneuman@dailyemerald.com. LAZAR’S BAZAR Closeout Sale 57 W. Broadway • 687-0139 Downtown 2 'select items only www.lazars.com — poppiV— ^/4n&4olia. "The Land East" Traditional Greek & Indian Food Lunch Monday through Saturday Dinner 7 Nights a Week 992 Willamette Eugene, Or 97401 343-9661 Be a Leader in the Army National Guard, and get the respect of soldiers who will look to you for leadership. You’ll also get career training, money for college and opportunities to develop management skills - plus special training to prepare you for advanced positions. Most Guard members train part-time, so they’re ready to respond if their community or the Nation needs them. If you have at least 60 college credits and meet other requirements, you can apply to Officer Candidate School.The Guard offers flexible Officer programs that can help you stay in school or let you work full-time. Graduate as an Army Guard Officer. YOU CAN 1-800-GO-GUARD Ext. 195 www.1-800-G0-GUARD.com/baldr
