Doctoral student Kara Dyckman (left) uses high density array electroencephalography (EEG) to record split second changes in the brain’s electrical activity as an individual practices and improves at a visual task.

“When learning a task, you first have to keep the instructions in mind and make sure that you continue to follow them,” said Dyckman. “With practice the task eventually becomes automatic, meaning that it requires less ‘executive control.’”

Understanding parts of the brain involved in “executive control” is critical to developing effective therapies for people afflicted with brain injuries or mental illness.

Dyckman received one of two graduate research fellowships funded by the John and Mary Franklin Foundation of Atlanta, which provides travel funds for visiting experts and UGA students training at the Paul D. Coverdell Neuroimaging Training Center. She was among only 30 students selected nationwide to attend the 2006 John Merck Fund Summer Institute on the Biology of Developmental Disabilities at Princeton University.

Dyckman believes her education and training at the BIRC is also largely responsible for her getting a postdoctoral fellowship next fall at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the nation’s top centers for multimodal functional neuroimaging.