Nathaniel Thom
- Assistant Professor -
- Wheaton College -
Brain Hygiene Lab
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Go see our renewed lab website at
Grey Matters Group, NFP
Grey Matters Group is the brainchild of Dr. Thom and his post-doctoral mentor Dr. Chris Johnson. It is a non-profit (501c3) organization that exists to perform research and development in support of humanitarian aid workers across the globe. We offer several levels of assessment before, during, and after an in-field experience. Our pre-field assessments provide valuable information to the individual about readiness while our during and post-field assessments provide information about risk and resilience factors that promote adaptation during and after stressful circumstances. To learn more, contact me at: nate.thom@wheaton.edu.
Our Methods
Below is a description of the equipment in the Brain Hygiene Lab (room 223 Meyer Science Center).
To learn more about our methods, visit our lab website.
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High Density EEG
The brain is made up of a vast array of neural networks that can be measured with electroencephalography (EEG). From resting-state activity, to the detection of emotional processing and cognitive function, EEG literally provides a window into the brain. Click here for an example of how we've used EEG to better understand brain function.
The Brain Hygiene Lab at Wheaton College houses a sound-resistant participant room, separate data collection and a data-analysis rooms complete with several IMac computers. Dr. Thom uses a high-density EEG system designed and manufactured by Electrical Geodesic, Inc. (EGI).
fNIRS
When brain cells are active, they are performing metabolism. That metabolism requires oxygen and fuel, which are supplied by the blood. We can measure the level of oxygenation in the blood by passing near-infrared light through the scalp into the brain tissue and measuring the way in which it returns to the scalp. The metrics we can derive from this signal provide us with a spatially precise measure of brain activity. Click here for a recent meta-analysis I helped perform that evaluated the effects of exercise on brain blood flow as measured with fNIRS.
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HRV
An active brain communicates with the rest of the body, either through the somatic or autonomic nervous system. The somatic nervous system controls voluntary movement of muscles, while the autonomic nervous system automatically controls many of your internal organs in order to prepare your body for a stressful circumstance. The ANS does this through two main branches: the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, and we can measure the relative input of these systems into the heart by measuring heart-rate variability. We are in the midst of testing the utility of FirstBeat HR and Polar monitors for measuring HRV. Click here to view the abstract we presented at SPR evaluating HRV among aid workers and its relationship to sleep, resilience, and behavioral health.
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Eye Tracking
The eyes are the window to the mind. In many circumstances, we utilize our vision to focus our attention on an object; therefore, we can learn a lot about what people attend to by tracking their eyes.
The Brain Hygiene Lab is equipped with a Tobii Pro Spectrum 150 Eye-tracking system, with Tobii Pro Lab software and Eprime integration.
Click here and search in the Wednesday a.m. abstracts for the student co-author "Reyes" to view our SfN abstract where we used eye-tracking to measure emotion function after acute exercise as part of a collaboration with Dr. Matt Herring at the University of Limerick.
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Peripheral Psychophysiology
Our lab is also equipped with a Physio 16 Package from EGI that integrates with our high-density EEG system from EGI. With this system we can seamlessly collect respiration, ECG, Sp02 and other types of peripheral psychophysiological data.
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