Helping students build a better brain

At Georgia State, student researchers are playing a key role in collecting data for a new study focused on improving the brain health of people just like them, fellow college students.

The project, aptly named the Healthy Student Brain (HSB), has been underway for 18 months, with a team of more than a dozen Georgia State undergraduate and graduate students working alongside the faculty research team from the labs of Vonetta Dotson, Tricia King and Erin Tone in psychology.

Funded by Georgia State's Research Innovation and Scholarly Excellence (RISE) initiative, the interdisciplinary project includes seven faculty and staff researchers from a number of colleges and fields of study. They began the work in 2022 and expect the project to expand as it leads to new findings.

The overarching goal of the work is to identify variables that predict brain health and verify those variables using functional brain imaging. As part of the project, researchers have collected important data, including participants’ childhood and trauma history, exercise and dietary habits, and even current levels of anxiety and depression. The study participants are also given a Fitbit to track their exercise and sleep.

Some study participants are assigned cardiovascular exercise, some will complete online brain health modules developed by the University of Texas Brain Health Center and some will be assigned both.

Using artificial intelligence, the team will see which variables are the best indicators of brain health so that investigators can develop new interventions that rely on collecting only a small number of variables that best predict brain health.

“What’s unique about this project is not only have we brought together a diverse group of students and teachers to conduct this pioneering research, but it’s also truly interdisciplinary — with experts from a number of different colleges and fields of study coming together to use their skills to develop a unique window into student brain health,” says Vince Calhoun, co-principal investigator and a Distinguished University Professor of Psychology. Calhoun leads the collaborative Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS Center).

Calhoun added that in implementing online brain health training and exercise interventions to fellow students, the student researchers gain valuable career experience.

Mentoring Student Researchers

Typically, data collection for a pilot project such as this would be conducted by a team of two to three graduate students or post baccalaureate students in the same lab, and would fall under the purview of one principal investigator. The HSB project is unique in that the data collection teams include six undergraduate students along with seven graduate students across multiple labs, with input from faculty researchers across psychology, nursing, exercise science and from the TReNDS Center.

Faculty researchers say the diverse group of students working on the study is gaining hands-on knowledge in their respective fields — including in neuropsychology, physiology and cognitive neuroscience. The work includes administering cognitive assessments and collecting anthropometric and MRI data at Georgia State facilities, including at the collaborative Center for Advanced Brain Imaging at Georgia Tech.

This real-world application of the scientific process supplements the material many of these students are learning in their psychology and neuroscience classes. For example, students on the data collection team administer neuropsychological tests of attention and working memory which provides experiential knowledge of these key psychological concepts.

“Working as a research assistant on the Healthy Student Brain study has provided me with unparalleled research training from top experts and granted me access to the university’s state-of-the-art technology, enabling me to acquire skills in facilitating MRI sessions,” says Kylie Szymanski, a research assistant on the project who graduated with a psychology degree last fall. “This opportunity has played a pivotal role in shaping a robust and versatile skillset encompassing clinical assessment, research design and neuroimaging techniques, which I aim to apply in my future career and advanced studies.”

Using data collected by the students, the data collection team has investigated topics such as the relationship between anxiety and performance on cognitive tasks, mechanisms of coping with anxiety, and the relationship between exercise and improvement in anxiety and depression.

Research team members say that gaining this knowledge of the procedures from the ground up has also given these students tremendous ownership in the project, which has led to seven different presentations at local conferences, two international conferences and an in-press manuscript.

“I take pride in the critical thinking and analytical skills that I have demonstrated through various tasks such as data collection, administering cognitive tests and collaborating with a team of researchers to meet shared goals and deadlines. These experiences have imparted a comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of research, which I can apply innovatively in my field,” says Jennalyn Burnette, an undergraduate research assistant.

Students from HSB have applied for and received funding to continue the collection and analysis of this data, including a summer fellowship with the Brains & Behavior program, and a D-MAP academic year fellowship. They are also preparing an application for the prestigious Barry Goldwater foundation scholarship.

The interventions that result from the research partially rely upon the collaboration with the University of Texas. Participants in the study will use materials developed for the Brain Health Project, which uses tailored online cognitive testing and provides personalized brain health recommendations.

By having a large team, the study provided opportunities for tiered mentorship that allow graduate students to mentor undergraduates with oversight from the project’s lead investigators. Psychology student Mercedes Fyffe has been working on the project and expects to earn her B.A. in psychology next spring.

“As an undergraduate research assistant, the study has provided the opportunity to gain fundamental research skills, such as administering cognitive tests, data entry and anthropometrics measures as well as competitive skills, such as saliva sampling, MRI training, data scoring and data analysis,” Fyffe says. “That has made a lasting impact not only on my professional development but also for my future endeavors in research.”

Focus on Student Engagement

With faculty oversight by Professor of Kinesiology and Health Rebecca Ellis and Professor of Nursing Dawn Aycock, the data collection team also studied participant recruitment. By hanging paper flyers, displaying electronic flyers and sending emails to students, the team was able to reach students across Georgia State. More than 1,000 students have expressed interest in participating in the HSB project across various campuses including the Atlanta Campus and the Alpharetta and Decatur campuses.

After determining study eligibility and coordinating data collection with student schedules, the team recruited 100 student participants. This richly characterized dataset includes a variety of ethno-racial groups and backgrounds, and the majority are Black female participants, an understudied population in brain health research.

So far, the study has led to several publications and presentations by both faculty and student researchers, and the team expects more insights to come.

With additional funding, the research team plans to expand recruitment to other universities in metro Atlanta, with an emphasis on minority serving institutions and HBCUs including Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Atlanta Metropolitan State College and Georgia Gwinnett College. The team also wants to expand recruitment efforts to target Black men, another understudied population.