Psychology & Neuroscience

Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center

The Brain Imaging and Analysis Center (BIAC) (www.biac.duke.edu/) encompasses more than 10,000 sq. ft. on the Duke University Medical Center campus. The BIAC offices and the image analysis laboratory are housed in the Hock Plaza Building. Across the street, the Duke Hospital North houses two research-dedicated MRI suites (3T GE scanners), a MR scanner simulator, additional image analysis laboratories, an RF coil construction shop, and offices for faculty and students engaged in imaging methodology development. BIAC's computing facilities consist of a high-speed network of Windows and Linux servers, workstations, and a large-scale computational cluster for parallel data analysis. Data analysis is performed using custom-developed software, commercial software, and software obtained from other research MRI centers. BIAC has just installed a new 3T scanner with a high-power high-duty-cycle 50-mT/m gradients at 200 T/m/s slew rate.

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

The Center for Cognitive Neuroscience (www.mind.duke.edu), which is located in the Levine Science Research Center (LSRC) at Duke, provides several resources for research in cognition and cognitive neuroscience: office and laboratory space for researchers and students, laboratories for behavioral testing, and several systems for measuring event-related potentials (ERP). These ERP laboratories are state-of-the-art and permit testing both adults and children. Additionally, a new transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) laboratory is under construction. Finally, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience hosts many activities and events, including talk series, journal clubs, and a retreat.

Duke Medical Center and Durham VA Medical Center

The Duke Medical Center has been recognized as one of the world's great health care providers by such publications as TIME and U.S.News & World Report. Having a major hospital nearby provides access to a variety of brain-damaged, demented, and neuropsychiatric patients, as well as consultation and research collaborations with neurologists and psychiatrists. The Durham VA Medical Center serves veterans in central and eastern North Carolina in its main medical center or one of three community-based outpatient clinics. Several Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience faculty investigate patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who are treated at the Durham VA. Both medical centers are within a short walk of the Psychology building and the laboratories of our faculty.

Duke Aging Center and Bryan Alzheimer Disease Research Center

With more than 30 core staff members and more than $3 million in annual direct research funding, the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development (www.geri.duke.edu) is a national resource for the study of aging. It hosts a database of over 1,000 community-dwelling healthy older adults, who often volunteer on behavioral and neuroimaging studies conducted by C/CN laboratories. The Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (http://adrc.mc.duke.edu) is a clinical and basic science center dedicated to the highest level of care for patients and families affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other memory disorders, discovery of the basic mechanisms underlying the disease process, and development of effective treatments and preventive strategies for AD and related conditions. This center provides access to AD patients for behavioral and cognitive neuroscience studies.