Dr. Fani Awarded DEIA Mentoring Grant to Support Inclusive EEG Research
We're thrilled to announce that Dr. Fani has been awarded a prestigious DEIA Mentorship Award by NCCIH to further her research on mindfulness in Black communities! This grant will allow her to incorporate electroencephalography (EEG: a non-invasive way to study brain activity) data collection into her ongoing mindfulness study.
Dissociation and Mindfulness
Dissociation, a feeling of detachment from oneself or surroundings, is a common experience in Black communities as a response to racial stressors, and can negatively affect attention (the ability to focus without distraction) and body connection. This project focuses on how mindfulness interventions may improve attention and interoception (sensing internal signals from one’s body) in Black individuals who dissociate.
Addressing Inequities in EEG Research
This project incorporates EEG data collection to measure brain wave activity during mindfulness sessions. By examining changes in alpha and theta waves, we will gain valuable insights into how mindfulness and exteroceptive feedback (here, vibrations) affect attention and interoception in the brain.
Historically, Black people have been excluded from many EEG studies due to data quality challenges related to hair texture, leading to bias in neuroscience research. We plan to optimize EEG data collection for Black hair to address this problem and pave the way for more inclusive research.
More Than Just Research
This project has a two-fold mission:
Advancing Treatment for Dissociation: By studying the effects of vibroacoustically-augmented breath-focused mindfulness, our team hopes to develop more effective treatments for dissociation
Increasing Diversity in Research: The grant will provide valuable training for clinical neuroscience students and trainees, specifically focusing on optimizing EEG data collection with Black participants. This will help to increase diversity in clinical neuroscience research and improve the quality of data collection for all populations.
Stay Tuned for More!
We're incredibly excited about the potential this project holds to improve our understanding of mindfulness in Black communities. To learn more about the DEIA Mentorship awards, you can visit the National Institutes of Health website. You can also find more details about the grant itself on the NIH Reporter website.
For future updates on this project and other exciting research, be sure to check out our blog or https://x.com/negarfani