Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering

Translational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab (Salmi Lab)

Our research group pursues cognitive neuroscience research that matters

Picture showing the Translational Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratoty's research direction

Our research group aims at pursuing cognitive neuroscience research that matters. We are developing research innovations to advance clinical aspects in cognitive neuroscience research, especially in the domain of naturalistic neuroscience, and related behavioural methods. Our aim is to facilitate multidisciplinary research at the intersection of experimental psychology, multimodal brain imaging, computational science, and clinical medicine. We use modern technologies, such as virtual reality, wearables, and online behavioral testing, to acquire rich data in various clinical populations. Our fundamental goal is to do translational clinical research that will lead in the long run to better healthcare solutions. These could be, for instance, VR games that accurately detect or can be used to rehabilitate neurodevelopmental disorders, easily accessible online platforms for home-based cognitive testing, sensor-based measurement solutions for quantification of real-life goal-directed behavior, or personalized medicine tools for behavioral data analytics.

TCN lab publications

Here you can find the latest publications of our research group

TCN lab research projects

This page summarizes the ongoing research projects at TCN laboratory.

cartoon dragon explaining the aims of the projects

TCN Lab News

Recent lab events, activities, and other news

Some members of the TCN lab visiting Heureka museum. — Some members of the TCN lab visiting Heureka museum

Lab head

Areas of expertise

Brain imaging (especially MRI methods and EEG/MEG), clinical research and practice (e.g., ADHD, autism, personality disorders, neglect, Parkinson’s disease), cognitive neuroscience research (attention, executive function, memory, social cognition, learning)

Short biography

Juha Salmitaival (publications with his old name Salmi) has completed a PhD in cognitive neuroscience in 2009 from University of Helsinki, and postdoctoral studies from Aalto University and Åbo Akademi University. He received a title of docent (adjunct professor) in 2015 and he is currently an Academy Research Fellow at the Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering at Aalto University School of Science and a Collegium Fellow at Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Turku. He has also been working as a clinical practitioner in the field of child, adolescent, and adult neuropsychology for more than five years. His private practice is now taking place at ProNeuron neuropsychiatry centre at Espoo.

Research

Problems with attention and executive function, and social cognition are becoming increasingly common in Finland and other Western societies. Better understanding of these deficits and their causes is needed. Latest technological developments, such as online cognitive testing platforms, mobile applications for surveillance, virtual reality environments, as well as novel brain imaging methods, provide new means to investigate the mechanisms underlying various clinical conditions. My main interest here relates to develop objective measures to characterise how these problems manifest in real-life conditions (e.g., using virtual reality or movie stimuli), to clarify the complex mediators of the symptoms (e.g., using machine learning), and how the afflicted individuals could be supported (e.g., developing web-rehabilitation regimes).