Modulations of brain activity patterns during selective attention to speech (2016-)

In everyday listening situations, listeners often selectively attend to one speaker at the presence of irrelevant voices. Our research will reveal the brain mechanisms involved in such situations using a combination of brain research methods including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). We will vary attentional load (the similarity of an irrelevant voice to a concurrent attended voice), perceptual load (intelligibility of the attended speech), the amount of visual speech information (attended speakers facial movements), and semantic predictability in the attended speech passages. In addition to conventional data analysis, we will use novel methods (multivariate pattern analysis) in analyzing brain imaging data to elucidate the functional properties of attention and speech processing networks in the human brain.

Growing Mind: Educational transformations for facilitating sustainable personal, social, and institutional renewal in the digital age, Work Package 1 (2018-)

The Growing Mind research network includes researchers at the University of Helsinki, University of Turku and University of Tampere. It is funded by the Strategic Research Council and it conducts longitudinal, experimental and intervention research to support individual, social, and institutional renewal that responds to the societal challenges arising from digitalization. Work Package 1 (Team Leader: Kimmo Alho) of Growing Mind aims at elucidating positive and negative effects of socio-digital participation and determining safe and creative practices of socio-digital participation. Longitudinal questionnaire data on personal and social learning, engagement, well-being and socio-digital participation will be collected from children and adolescents (N = 2000–3000) with a special interest on transitions from lower to upper primary school and from primary to secondary school. Brain imaging (fMRI) data will be collected from targeted subgroups during distracted and undistracted performance in mathematical and linguistic tasks.
For more information, see growingmind.fi