$107,000 Cummings grant funds brain activity research

By PAULA WITHERELL
Reporter Contributor

This three-year study will combine images of brain activity formed using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans with images of structures in the brain acquired through Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to create a unique image that links neural activities to specific brain sites. Through the combined images, researchers hope to gain new insights into how sounds relayed by the auditory system are understood.

Directed by Alan Lockwood, professor of neurology, the multidisciplinary project will involve the departments of Nuclear Medicine, Neurology, Communicative Disorders and Sciences, Linguistics, Psychiatry and Rehabilitation Medicine, and the Faculty of Social Sciences. Also participating is the Department of Veterans Affairs through the VA Western New York Healthcare System.

"This award by the Cummings Foundation will allow us to continue mapping the critical pathways by which humans understand language," said Lockwood. "By studying the links between sound and emotion centers in the brain, we may also be able to better understand hearing loss and disorders such as tinnitus or 'ringing' in the ears, which is associated with adverse psychological symptoms such as depression, anxiety and insomnia."

In addition, the study will examine auditory attention systems that require more complex processing of aural information and analyze how the brain handles language, including studies of reading, grammar and syntax. Such tests already have proved useful in monitoring recovery from concussive brain injuries such as those suffered by Buffalo Sabres player Pat LaFontaine.