Laleh Najafizadeh received a new NSF award on Uncovering Dynamics of Neural Activity of Subjective Estimation of Time

ECE Associate Professor Laleh Najafizadeh is the PI for a new NSF award, from the “Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NCS)” program, for her research project titled "NCS-FO: Uncovering Dynamics of Neural Activity of Subjective Estimation of Time”.  This is a three-year project with a total budget of $879,091.  The Co-PI on this project is Professor Tracey Shors from the Department of Psychology.

Research suggests that our experience of time can be influenced by various internal and external factors, yet little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie such variability. To address this knowledge gap,  this project develops an innovative data-driven computational tool, designed specifically to find the differences in the dynamics of neural activity (in time and space) between two neural data matrices. The proposed approach utilizes matrix factorization, and deviates from most conventional analyses, which make stronger assumptions about the nature of the underlying neural processes (e.g., temporal or spatial adjacency). When combined with brain imaging and behavioral measurements, the proposed computational tool can localize specific neural activities that give rise to the observed differences, as well as identify when these activities occur. The project aims to develop this technique and utilize it to study the neural mechanisms underlying changes in an individual’s subjective estimation of time while three factors are manipulated (memory, sensory processing, and arousal). The outcome of this project is expected to result in a new approach for analyzing neuroimaging data, and advancing our scientific understanding of how the brain perceives time. The knowledge gained could also have implications for neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for which changes in time perception are common.