Fundamental to understanding human learning and development is finding a way to peer inside the human brain to see how it works. We have to go beyond cellular neuroscience — a field more than a century old that examines the biochemistry of individual brain cells — and use new methods to look at the whole brain in action.
I-LABS’ investment in magnetoencephalography (MEG) technology - the newest of the brain imaging devices — is the critical breakthrough that makes advanced research possible in children. MEG technology allows us to watch a human brain as its owner uses language to speak and read, makes a moral judgment or feels empathy. In turn this helps us understand what it means to be human – to understand how language, compassion, personality, mathematical thinking and motivation emerge in the child, and how biology and environment interact to mold the mind over a lifespan.
Like the Human Genome Project, the Developing Mind Project will change human lives. The technological breakthroughs afforded by the MEG brain-imaging device will reveal how active young brains learn and how individual children differ. These findings will lead to the design of environments that maximize learning, taking into account differences among individuals.
