Who are we?
The Preston Lab is a group of students and researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. We are interested in learning more about how the brain changes as we grow up!
What do we study?
We study how children, adolescents and adults remember new things. We want to know more about why we remember some things but forget others. We ask questions like, How can we use our memories to answer new questions? Do children and adults remember things differently?
Who is eligible to participate?
We could not answer these interesting questions without your help! We are looking for healthy children, adolescents and adults ages 6-27 to participate in our studies. To find out if you or your child is eligible, please complete the secure survey listed on our contact page.
What is it like to participate in a study?
For some of our studies, you and your parent will come into the lab and you will play games on a computer. For example, you might play a game to see how well you can remember pictures you saw on the computer screen.
Other studies also use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. In these studies, you can play the same kinds of computer games while you are lying down inside our special MRI machine. We can use the MRI machine to learn about what is happening inside your brain when you try to learn about and remember things.
What is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)?
We use MRI to take pictures of your brain. There are many different types of MRI scans. Some let us see where the different parts of your brain are located. Others let us look at how different areas of your brain are connected to one another. We can also use functional MRI (fMRI) to see what is happening in your brain as you think about and remember different things.
Where are we located?
We are located on the main campus of The University of Texas at Austin. Our lab and our MRI scanner are in the Norman Hackerman Building. To learn more about where we take our brain pictures, please visit the Imaging Research Center website.
What will I get for participating?
If you come into our lab and play games on the laptop computer, you will get $10/hour for participating. You may also be able to earn extra money if you do well in the computer games!
If you want to be in a brain imaging experiment inside the MRI scanner, you will get $25/hour for participating, and a picture of your brain to take home!
How do I sign up to participate?
If you or your child are interested in participating, please complete the secure survey listed on our contact page. If you have questions or want to learn more, you can contact us by email at prestonlab@gmail.com or call us at (512) 232-5145.