Meet Aaron Newman, cognitive neuroscientist

Sciographies is a radio show and podcast about the people who make science happen, presented by The Faculty of Science and campus-community radio station CKDU 88.1 FM. This is the fourth article in a series that features excerpts from each new episode released this fall.

Aaron Newman grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he developed an early curiosity for computers. While at university, he found a way to combine his interest in technology with his studies in psychology and carved a path for himself in the field of cognitive neuroscience.    

Today, Dr. Newman is the chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience with cross-appointments in Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Neurology. He uses technologies like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in his research to understand how different language experiences shape the brain. He’s also the director of the SURGE Innovation Sandbox.

In this week’s episode of Sciographies, host David Barclay sits down with Dr. Newman to talk about his experience studying how the brain processes sign language and his emphasis on innovative thinking when he’s training students. 

Listen to a preview of Dr. Newman’s episode

Here are some excerpts from the episode, edited for clarity and length.

Discovering his passion

Newman: … In the last year of high school and first year of university, I became interested in psychology because there was a history of addictions and mental health issues in my family… I was one of those kids who wanted to go to med school. I was thinking about clinical applications, neurology — I wasn’t quite sure. But I was still on the med school track through my second and third year.

Barclay: So, when did you take the turn toward a research career?

Newman: I took a second-year statistics class, and the professor approached me to ask if I wanted to be a research assistant. I started volunteering in the lab and that summer he employed me… That really got me going on research — just geeking out, writing computer programs. He did visual perception research… [I would] program these displays with little dots of light and create optical illusions and depth illusions, that kind of stuff.

Barclay: Did you continue working in that lab?

Newman: For a few summers and throughout the year as a volunteer. I liked the work, but I wasn't passionate about it. But the National Research Council (NRC) opened a center right across the street from the university, and they put an MRI scanner in there. The first fMRI studies were published in 1992, and this was 1996 – so very much on the cutting edge. And this was, I think, possibly the second MRI scanner in Canada that could do fMRI. One of the faculty members got an affiliate position with NRC and I convinced him to supervise my honors thesis. That was a huge opportunity and that really set me on the course for the rest of my career.

Understanding the complexity of the brain

Barclay: In terms of the progress within neuroscience, where do you think we are if you were to compare it to classical mechanics. Are we at the point where the apple is falling on Newton's head or are we now looking at quantum gravity?

Newman: I think we're maybe a little past the apple, but not that far past the apple. The brain is incredibly complicated… A single neuron — and there are billions of them — could be connected to 10,000 other neurons and those connections aren't stable. They change on the time scale of seconds, minutes, hours, and days… There've been some multi-billion dollar efforts to computationally model networks of neurons and the scale of that is still tiny compared to the brain… There’s so much to unpack that we're barely scratching the surface. It's amazing we can do anything, quite frankly. There's a lot of job security in neuroscience, I'll tell you that.

Training the next generation of innovators

Barclay: Can you tell us about the activities in the SURGE Innovation Sandbox?

Newman: We've done a lot of different things — even the name Sandbox is suggestive, right? It's an opportunity to play and try things low stakes. We've done hackathons around brain computer interfaces with EEG, VR applications in science, remote operated vehicles (ROVs) for underwater exploration. We've done an Ocean Startup Weekend Challenge where people brainstorm ideas around broad challenges in the ocean space. The idea is that [these activities] give students the opportunity to come and get their hands on a technology and not worry about if it’s going to be on a test… In our neuro hackathon, we had a team with a first-year computer science student, a second-year psychology student, and a master’s student in mechanical engineering. They’re three people who wouldn’t encounter each other on campus in a typical day and they're all bringing their unique experiences, talents, and ideas together on this problem. That’s the magic.

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Listen to the entire episode of Sciographies at 4:30 PM today on CKDU 88.1 FM in Halifax or find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google and other popular podcasting platforms. You can also listen to previous Sciographies episodes on the same platforms or at soundcloud.ca/sciographies and dal.ca/sciographies.