One in five youth exhibit maladaptive (i.e., externalizing, oppositional, explosive, aggressive) behaviours. These behaviours are costly in that they are linked to elevated levels of student, teacher, and familial stress. Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS), developed by Dr. Ross Greene (project collaborator) at Harvard University, teaches individuals to explore cognitive, emotional, social, and learning challenges to better understand factors that underlie problem behaviours that when targeted improve child outcomes.

In this project, we will use computerized games to teach second language material to adults. We will use neuroimaging and eye-tracking (a measurement of a person’s eye movements, which can provide information about reading and the processing of language). Adult learners will complete a 5-day game-based second language-training program. Their brain activity and eye movements will be monitored while they perform reading and auditory language tasks, before and after training.

The ensemble of the human brain wiring configuration is known as the connectome. Using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging, we can approximate the connectome and use it to increase our understanding of normal function and of neuro-diseases. However, the complex interactions between each steps from brain images to the final wires give rise to many potential sources of error. Using an array of modern simulations of these steps, we will study and disentangle the effect of their interactions to increase the accuracy of the connectome estimation in humans.

Cognitive scientists typically divide cognition between controlled and automatic processes. This framework construes controlled processes as being voluntary and effortful and automatic processes as involuntarily and effortless. Automatic processes are therefore considered outside the scope of voluntary control. Undermining this notion, studies show that hypnosis – an enhanced form of mental absorption and self-regulation – can actually suppress automatic response. Hypnosis therefore provides a mean to alter mental processes that appear immune to cognitive control.

Jogo Do Bicho, also known as the Brazilian Animal Game (BAG), is an immensely popular illegal gambling game in Brazil. Indeed, BAG generates over 60% more in revenues than legal lotteries. This is a concern as the revenue from BAG is used to fund criminal activities. Further, draws for BAG occur more frequently than the official state lotteries, which may increase the probability of an individual developing a gambling addiction. Unfortunately, there have only been a few research studies on BAG, which have focused on gamblers in treatment who make up a small portion of gamblers overall.