Key Research Area: Health and well-being
Aalto University’s expertise in health and well-being is broad-based, with strong clusters of research groups such as in medical devices, health AI, neuroscience, and care-facility architecture.
Neuroscience
This cluster is a subarea of Aalto University’s Health and Wellbeing (H&W) expertise and includes research and development on the human nervous system with pioneering technology that enables advanced measurement, analysis, modeling, and modulation of the system.
Our research aims at cutting-edge research on the human nervous system with pioneering technology that enables advanced measurement, analysis, modeling, and modulation of the system. Aalto has a strong, decades-long history of collaboration among neuroscientists, physicists, computer scientists, engineers, and medical professionals. Our technologies and innovations in instrumentation as well as our methods are motivated by the needs of scientists and clinicians and open up, in turn, unexpected new possibilities for research.
Key technologies in measurement, analysis, and interventions under study and development are magnetoencephalography (MEG), navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS); and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).
Emergence of noninvasive neuroimaging techniques has made it possible to track neural processing in healthy human brains and uncover the neural mechanisms of the human mind and behavior. A variety of imaging methods provides rich and complementary information to these mechanisms.
Key Research Area: Health and well-being
Representative Research Groups and Major Projects
Aalto NeuroImaging (ANI) Infrastructure
ANI research infrastructure houses three functional neuroimaging modalities, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at Advanced Magnetic Imaging (AMI) Centre, magnetoencephalography (MEG) at MEG Core and Aalto Behavioral Laboratory (ABL).
Ala-Laurila Lab
We study novel signal processing mechanisms and their adaptive dynamics at the synaptic and cellular-element level across the entire neural circuit of the retina.
Attention and Memory
In the Attention and Memory group, we investigate the neural mechanisms underlying attention and memory and the development of executive functions in healthy children, adolescents and adults, and in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Brain and Mind Laboratory
We study human cognitive, social, and affective functions in health and disorders.
Empathy Building Neuro-lab
Empathy is a multifaceted and elusive phenomenon. Our multi-national lab investigates empathy at multiple levels.
Multimodal Imaging of Aging
We study cognitive aging, and the structural and functional changes that take place in the brain as a consequence of normal aging and neurodegeneration. To do so, we combine functional measures from magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG), with structural measures based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Neurodesign Lab
Our group studies the translational potential and specific activation of C-tactile afferent neural fibers.
Sensorimotor Systems Neuroscience (MOTOR) group
We study structure and function of the healthy and diseased human sensorimotor system.
Translational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab (Salmi Lab)
Salmi's Lab for naturalistic neuroscience, attention, and ADHD research
Professors and principal investigators active in the area
Petri Ala-Laurila
Synnöve Carlson
Linda Henriksson
Matti Hämäläinen
Ari Koskelainen
Hanna Renvall
Aalto Networking Platform
The Aalto Networking Platform brings together research expertise across departments, supporting collaboration both inside and outside of Aalto.