Who can participate: Kids between 5 and 12 years old
What kids have to do: Children who participate in our study will play a variety of fun games with researchers. Some games are played on computers, some involve puzzles and books, and some will be played while children rest inside our MRI scanner.
When kids can come: Most children will visit our lab twice for this study. Each visit will be approximately 5-6 hours, and will include plenty of time to play in the playroom, relax, and have snacks. We provide lunch for children and their families. Most visits are scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays, but we can also schedule children on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Where it all happens: We do our research at our lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You can find out more about the location and directions here.
Why this research is important: We are studying how children's brains develop. We are especially interested in finding out which parts of children's brains are active while they do things such as looking at faces and objects, using language, or figuring out what another person might be thinking. This study will also compare brain development in typically developing children with brain development in children who have a diagnosis of autism.
How to learn more: For more information, please contact Caitlin Malloy, ctm@mit.edu or (617)800-6008.
Why blindfolded?!?: We are interested in how the brain works in children who are blind, and want to know if the brains of blind children work different from the brains of sighted children. But, we need to make sure that in both groups of kids, we are studying the brain when it is not seeing. This means that it's best for us to study sighted kids who are blindfolded! If you don't want to be blindfolded, there are other studies that you can participate in instead, like the Brain Development study.
Who can participate: We are studying sighted children ages 4-14 who are comfortable wearing a blindfold in the fMRI scanner.
What kids have to do: Children who participate in our study will play a variety of fun games with researchers, and will also play games while blindfolded in the MRI scanner. Kids only have to wear the blindfold while in the scanner.
Where it all happens: We do our research at our lab at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You can find more about the location and directions here.
Why this research is important: This research is important because it helps us understand how the brain grows and works in children who are blind. We want to know if parts of the brain that sighted kids use to see are doing other things in children who are blind. We're really interested in the parts of the brain that help us understand language and help us think about other people.
How to learn more: For more information, please contact Hilary Richardson at mit.kids.brains@gmail.com, or call us at 617-286-6476. If you'd like more information about the parts of this study that are for blind children, you can visit this website: http://kidsbrains.mit.edu/bkids.html.
Start Date To Be Announced
