Opportunity: The Brain and the Body: Multimodal Psychophysiological Imaging to Understand Cognition

Understanding an individual’s cognitive state is of critical importance to the Air Force to effectively train, plan missions, and design relevant interventions if performance goes awry. To characterize an individual’s state, a combination of neural (e.g., EEG), peripheral (e.g., eye tracking, pupillometry, EKG), and behavioral (e.g., task performance) data are combined. These rich multimodal data—capturing the interaction of the brain and the body—are modeled alongside task performance to understand which signals provide the most value, in which settings, and derive actionable insights using sophisticated machine learning techniques.

With access to data from cognitive neuroscience laboratory settings as well as in-flight physiological recordings, there will be opportunities for students to develop their statistical skills and coding abilities (experience with MATLAB, R, or Python is required), data visualization, multi-sensor data fusion, algorithm development, and expand their conceptual and theoretical knowledge of physiologically measured cognitive states. Students will gain experience in critical thinking, public speaking, and working on multidisciplinary teams.