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Psychology professor studies baby brains

Megan McIlreavy, professor of psychology, spent the summer at the University of South Carolina working in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience with John Richards, Carolina Distinguished Professor and interim department chair at USC.The research project explores how babies' brains change toward the end of the first postnatal year when they are paying attention to different kinds of visual events. The project is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

In the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, McIlreavy learned how to collect electroencephalogram (EEG), electrooculogram (EOG) and heart rate (HR) on infants between the ages of six and 12 months. Infants sat on their parent's lap and watched characters from Sesame Street dance around the screen and appear to hide in a couple of locations. When viewing these characters, infants actively paid attention and showed changes in the patterns of neural activity within the brain as they processed these episodes.

McIlreavy will continue to work on the project throughout 2010. She has been a member of the University's Department of Psychology since August 2008.

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