Dr. Nichols' Research Lab
Research Interests
Dr. Nichols' primary research interests involve topics related to neuroscience: including brain dynamics, vision perception, electroencephalography, and computational neuroscience. He is also interested in using available equipment, including eye tracking, EEG, and fNIRS, to collaborate on projects in areas of interest to students and other faculty.
Both graduate and undergraduate students predominantly work on projects relating to the above research areas but have some flexibility in exact topics based on shared interests and motivation.
Working with Graduate Students
Graduate students working in Dr. Nichols’ lab will gain valuable research experience that will culminate in the completion of a master’s thesis. Students will have access to funding to support their research projects as well as funds for travel to professional conferences. If you are interested in working with Dr. Nichols, please contact him to see if he has openings in his lab at dnichols@roanoke.edu.
Current with Undergraduate Students
Students working in Dr. Nichols’ lab work on a variety of tasks, including data entry and coding, literature reviews, study design and recruitment, using physiological equipment, data collection, data analysis, and, for students progressively working on more independent tasks, study presentation in various forums.
Interested students should be hard working, self-sufficient, and in good academic standing (but can be any level of student, from freshman to upperclassmen). If you are interested in working with Dr. Nichols, email him at dnichols@roanoke.edu.
See Undergraduate Research for more information about opportunities, expectations, and course credits.
Representative Publications of Research Interests
- Binocular Rivalry and Computational Neuroscience: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042698908004872
- Motion Perception: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22391512
- Pattern Classification and Cognitive Neuroscience: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00028/abstract
- Student EEG Projects: http://impulse.appstate.edu/articles/2013/music-genre-preference-and-tempo-alter-alpha-and-beta-waves-human-non-musicians
- Student ERP Project: http://impulse.appstate.edu/articles/2014/event-related-potentials-humans-emotional-words-versus-pictures
Links
Dr. Nichols regularly takes students to SYNAPSE, an undergraduate neuroscience conference. (http://synapse.cofc.edu/)
Supplementary information pertaining to "Are electrode caps worth the investment? An evaluation of EEG methods in undergraduate neuroscience lab courses and research."
Supplementary information pertaining to "A series of computational neuroscience labs increases comfort with Matlab." in The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education.