Our team will introduce participants to the world of sleep research!! We will show how sleep is monitored in a research lab via the technique of electroencephalography (EEG) and lead campers in a discussion on the functions of sleep! [Hint! It's not just for restoration purposes; sleep is vital for cognitive functioning, including learning and memory processes!]

From tying shoelaces to dancing, performing sequences of movements are common in our daily lives! Our research team routinely studies how sequences of movements are learned and ultimately stored in long-term memory. We use the popular video game Just Dance to show an example of motor sequence learning. 

Most people know that physical activity has tremendous health-related benefits, including strengthening bones and muscles, decreasing risk of cardiovascular disease, managing weight, etc. But did you know that exercise is also extremely beneficial for your brain (and brain development in children!). We will lead participants in heart-rate increasing activities and discuss the impact of exercise on the brain, with an emphasis on the hippocampus - a brain region critically involved in learning and memory. 

... go together like peas and carrots. We use information that we get from our eyes in order to perform even the simplest of activities. We will show campers the importance of vision with an activity that demonstrates how difficult tasks become when the visual information we get is no longer accurate (e.g., when down is up and up is down!). We then discuss how specific regions of the brain help us learn to efficiently and accurately move in this altered sensory environment.