The purpose of the Neuroscience of Imagination, Cognition and Emotion Research (NICER) Lab is to use Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) and other electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques to study human emotion, cognition, and perception. The NICER Lab uses 70-channel Neuroscan and 32-channel Brain Vision EEG electrode systems to measure electrical activity across the scalp.  Analysis of neural activity can provide researchers with valuable information about how and where the brain processes information.

Current research involves the (i)  effect of music training in children, (ii) development of brain-computer interface programs, (iii)  impact of skill-based camps and their effect on the quality of life in children and youth, (iv) neurogradients of socio-economic status, (v) neural correlates of prosopagnosia, and (vi) multivariate electrophysiological computational modelling of ADHD.

Recent projects in the NICER Lab include research on how the brain reacts differently to vivid, emotion-laden pictures (e.g. pictures of graphic violence) compared to more neutral images and how the brain processes images of cues that elicit cravings (such as food cues when someone is hungry).

The NICER Lab research is supervised by Dr. Amedeo D’Angiulli, Professor and Director of the lab,  who joined the Carleton University faculty in 2007. Dr. D’Angiulli held the Canada Research Chair (Early Intervention/Child Development) from 2004 to 2007 while he was director of the Centre for Early Education and Development at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. Dr. D’Angiulli also completed his post-doctoral research at the University of British Columbia, doing both a post-graduate fellowship and a teaching fellowship.

Any Questions regarding the NICER Lab or its current research projects can be forwarded to Professor D’Angiulli.