Student-Led Neuroscience Research
Brain Wave Research
Brain Wave at UCLA gives undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in neuroscience research through data analysis, scientific writing, poster development, and collaborative publication work.
Featured Preprint Publication
Posterior Cortex Isolation Enhances Detection of Alpha Desynchronization During Sustained Attention
Oushana L, Mahajan S, Leung C, Srinivas C, Zhou F, St. Clair N. bioRxiv, November 2025.
This student-led project used EEG signal processing to evaluate whether posterior cortical isolation improves detection of alpha-band changes across time.
Featured Preprint Publication
Limited Volumetric Separation Across CDR Groups in OASIS-1
Zimmerman K, Mahajan S, Sayadyan D, Peralta R, Tameze P, Gonzalez M, Oushana L, Thunga S, St. Clair N. bioRxiv, May 2026.
This neuroimaging study evaluates whether Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) groups in the OASIS-1 dataset demonstrate meaningful separation in regional brain volumes and assesses the limitations of volumetric biomarkers when diagnostic categories exhibit substantial phenotypic overlap.
Poster Preprint
Region-Specific Brain Atrophy Across Alzheimer's Disease Stages in the NACC Dataset
St. Clair N, Heeter J, Oushana L.
This poster preprint examines region-specific patterns of brain atrophy across Alzheimer's disease staging using the NACC dataset, contributing to our understanding of how structural neurodegeneration progresses across clinically distinct disease phases.
Active Research Areas
Members work across computational neuroscience, neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and translational neuroscience questions.
Published Preprint
EEG Alpha Desynchronization
Our EEG research investigates alpha-band power changes across posterior cortical regions using publicly available electrophysiology datasets and reproducible signal-processing pipelines.
Active Project
Alzheimer's Disease MRI Biomarkers
This project examines structural MRI markers of neurodegeneration, including hippocampal, amygdala, cortical, and ventricular changes across Alzheimer's disease staging.
Active Project
Oasis Statistical Analysis
Our neuroimaging research examines how diagnostic threshold selection influences structural biomarker interpretation in Alzheimer's disease datasets. Using OASIS and NACC MRI data, members analyze regional atrophy patterns, phenotype heterogeneity, and statistical differences across hippocampal, cortical, and ventricular brain structures.
How Our Research Process Works
01
Learn
Members begin by reading primary neuroscience literature and learning the biological basis of each project.
02
Analyze
Students use Python, MATLAB, and statistical tools to process neural datasets and generate figures.
03
Present
Teams convert findings into posters, presentations, and conference-style research summaries.
04
Publish
Advanced projects may develop into preprints, manuscripts, or public research reports.
Skills Members Build
Interested in Research?
Brain Wave welcomes students interested in neuroscience, medicine, coding, data analysis, scientific communication, and community-focused research.
Contact Us