(L to R): Patricia Van Roon, Dr. Brad Lehman (Northeastern University), Dr. Jennifer Veitch (National Research Council of Canada), and Dr. Arnold Wilkins (University of Essex, UK).
A Carleton University research study has shown that children who come from low socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds process “irrelevant” information differently than those from higher SES backgrounds.According to the study, theta brain waves, which are associated with learning and memory, were lower in the low SES group.
“This shows that children in the lower SES group were having more difficulty differentiating between relevant and irrelevant information,” says Patricia Van Roon, a master’s neuroscience student who has been been working with the research team.
“If we could change our teaching methods to help these children distinguish between information that is important to them and information that is irrelevant, we could possibly train their brains to focus attention on appropriate material.”
Van Roon also says that she thinks this work is significant because, “it shows that children in low SES groups may be exposed to more stressors which could result in a higher incidence of stress as the child ages.” She hopes that the study will eventually provide some answers in this area as well.
The graduate student says it was Dr. Amedeo D’Angiulli who first got her interested in this research area. “He made me think that this research has a great deal of potential to initiate change for people of low socioeconomic status. He has been instrumental in providing the support and guidance I needed to start my master’s program. He has quite an engaging personality and his approach leads to established collaborations with sources outside the university.” D’Angiulli is in charge of Carleton’s Neuroscience of Imagery Cognition and Emotion (NICER) Lab.
Says Van Roon: “The support I receive from the Department of Neuroscience is unrivalled, from the administrative staff, to the renowned faculty and my fellow students.”
She hopes to graduate this Fall and then pursue a PhD degree.
Thursday, February 7, 2013 in Grad Student Research, News
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