Mission Statement

The NeuroCognitive Imaging Lab (NCIL) at Dalhousie University conducts basic and applied cognitive neuroscience research. Much of our research is focused on language and neuroplasticity — how the brain changes with experience. The ultimate goal of our work is to help people live healthier, happier, and more productive lives. To this end, our activities follow a cycle including basic research, active participation in clinical settings, clinical research, and knowledge translation and commercialization.

NCIL is equally dedicated to training in research methods. This training is valuable not only to future scientists, but to virtually everyone. This training teaches critical thinking, project planning and management, careful and consistent adherence to protocols (such as experimental methods or equipment use), analytical skills, team work, and communicating complex information in an organized and understandable way.

NCIL is committed to providing a safe, diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment for learning and working. We welcome trainees from all backgrounds, both locally and internationally. In particular, we welcome and encourage participation by people from African Nova Scotian and Mi'kmaq communities. We recognize the barriers to participation in academia that these and other groups have experienced, and we actively work to support future scholars from historically marginalized communities. We recognize and honour that NCIL and Dalhousie University is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq. We are all Treaty people. We recognize that African Nova Scotians are a distinct people whose histories, legacies and contributions have enriched that part of Mi'kma'ki known as Nova Scotia for over 400 years.

Our Research

Current projects in the lab are focused on the following topics:

• Basic language processing

• Reading development

• Second language learning using mobile apps

• Aphasia rehabilitation

• Brain-computer interfaces

• Advanced analysis approaches for EEG and fMRI

Due to the broad range of research that takes place in the lab, we are often searching for participants from diverse backgrounds. This ranges from elementary school children, to young adults, older adults, and individuals with different language learning experiences.