The Nyhus Lab is focused on human executive function and episodic memory. We approach these topics from a cognitive neuroscience perspective with the goals of understanding the characteristics of mental processes and how they are realized within the brain. Currently, students in my lab are using brain electrical activity (EEGs) to study how neural oscillations provide a mechanism for interaction among brain regions during memory retrieval. The lab regularly uses EEG along with behavioral paradigms to examine the moment by moment neural dynamics involved in human learning and memory.
Team
Honors Students
Emma Gibbens '25
Research Assistants
Natalie Faillace '26
Student Research Opportunities
If you are interested in coducting research in the Nyhus Lab, please see how to get involved in neuroscience research, our publications, and the lab manual before contacting Professor Nyhus.
Our research involves studying human memory using EEG and some of the analyses require programming in Matlab. Therefore, I am particularly interested in students who have taken Lab in Cognitive Neuroscience and/or with programming experience.
Students in the lab are involved in all aspects of the research from designing experiments, conducting experiments, analyzing the data, presenting research, and eventually writing a paper and/or co-authoring any published papers that result from the research. Through participation in this research students gain skills in doing cognitive neuroscience research with human participants, technical skills in EEG and tACS techniques, computational skills in analyzing the data, and effective communication of research. Students in the lab also have the opportunity to engage with other researchers at Bowdoin College and at other institutions. Therefore, students gain valuable experience in performing independent research in cognitive neuroscience, contribute significantly to the field, and engage with the broader research community. And hopefully have some fun too!
When I am not in the lab or in front of my computer analyzing neural oscillations, I spend my time playing with my kids, going to yoga, and enjoying the Maine outdoors. Depending on the season, on the weekends I am at the Farmers' Market, skiing, hiking, or camping with my family. I also love to travel and spent a year living in Spain prior to graduate school and walked the Camino de Santiago.