Facilities
Behavioral experiments (BEELab)
The BEElab was established in February 2008. It consists of two rooms separated by a removable wall. The rooms contain 20 and 13 computer terminals, respectively, and a printer. There is a small briefing room at the entrance of the lab with 16 seats and a white board.
The terminals are HP Small Form Factor Business PCs, equipped with 19 inch LCD screens. There are 15 headsets available.
Standard software includes Windows 7, MS Office 2007, together with internet connection, provided and maintained by the IT department of the School of Business and Economics. Additional software such as z-Tree and netQuestionnaire is available.
More information can be found at the BEELab website.
Brain stimulation (TMS)
The lab is fully equipped for research that can combine TMS and fMRI in a novel way. It consists of two stimulators which allow for single-pulse TMS (chronometry of functional relevance), event-related TMS and repetitive TMS (long-term effects), in which different forms of coil (8-shaped and round, placebo coils) can be used. MRI- (or fMRI-) controlled neuronavigation makes precise stimulation possible using the MRI and fMRI data and Talairach coordinates. This is an MR-compatible setup which is one of the few labs worldwide to combine TMS and fMRI simultaneously.
More information can be found at the Labs for Non-invasive Brain Stimulation and Multi-modal Imaging website.
Digital Experience Laboratory (DEXLab)
The purpose of the SBE DEXLab is to drive understanding of digital experiences at SBE with a variety of mobile and wearable devices, which are cutting-edge, usable without extensive technical support (beyond the academics), potentially useful for various research applications and focus on user experience. These devices include a wide array of digital technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR), Sensory-enabling-technologies (SETs), Augmented Reality (AR), Social/service robots, etc.
More information can be found at the DEXLab website.
Electroencephalography (EEG)
The four EEG labs each contain two rooms, one for the test participants and one for the experimenter. There is also a small kitchen, where the electrodes are fitted and cleaned.
The experimenter’s room includes amplifiers, computers and viewing screens. The amplifiers have either 32 or 64 channels. A channel represents an electrode position on the test participant’s head. An EEG can show where and when activity is occurring in the participant’s brain. Currently, the EEG labs have 3 x 64 channels and 1 x 32 channels.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
MRI studies can be conducted on any of the three whole-body MRI scanners at Brains Unlimited, housed within the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience. The Siemens MRI scanners have ultra-high magnetic fields of respectively 3.0, 7.0 and 9.4 Tesla.
Other facilities
Researchers also have access to the other labs at the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience. Of particular interest for neuroeconomics research are the pharmacology and eye-tracking labs.