Welcome to the N.E.E.R.D. Lab
(Neuroscience, Education, Extended Reality Development)


DR. STEED’S LAB:

Our lab explores the intersections of neuroscience, education,
and extended reality development. Through innovative projects, collaborations, and student involvement, we seek to expand knowledge and create meaningful applications for health, learning, and technology.

Dr. Kevin Steed, Ph.D.
Neuroscience – Brigham Young University.

Neuroscience
Alzheimer’s disease: We are interested in looking at Dietary impacts on Alzheimer’s. AD has a high correlation with Diabetes, and the Brain/Gut Biome Axis has become a point of discussion in neurodegenerative disorders.
Parkinson’s disease: A combined project with RMU and BYU, using Virtual Reality as a physical therapy intervention for PD patients measuring changes in locomotion, cognition and brain connectivity. We are scanning the patient’s brains in the MRI and having them perform task in EEG, gathering both functional and structural data.

Education
Anatomy Academy: Service-Learning Programs help both the students and the volunteers. Teaching Anatomy and health topics to elementary students improves their understanding and application of those same topics, while also improving the teaching skills of future doctors.

Pre-Med Pathway Boot Camp: The bootcamp is put together to help pre-medical students navigate the process preparing for and applying for medical school. They get the opportunity to learn from medical students and medical faculty about how to improve their application and understanding of what it takes to be a medical student and future doctor. Medical Student Sleep, Diet and Cognition: Examining medical students sleep and diet using current biostatistics devices and tracking apps and measuring cognition over the course of a semester. Future studies will include MRI as well.

Extended Reality
Extended Reality (Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality) technologies are becoming increasingly powerful and readily available. These technologies can be used to expand communication, wellbeing, and education in a variety of applications. Students are interested in applying these technologies into educational settings at the medical level in Anatomy Education, with neurodegenerative diseases and with, neurodiverse groups i.e. autism spectrum.

Highlighted Publications/Presentations:

  • Steed KS, Holcomb BM, Graneto J, Kadavkollu S. “Pre-professional student perceptions of team-based learning applied in a medical college admission test preparatory course.” Springer Nature Social Sciences. 2023.
  • Black E, Rasch A, Wimmer T, Li A, Araujo A, Cieslak S, Steed KS, Adhikari RD, Wisco JJ, Hutchinson BA. “The effects of age, genotype and diet on hippocampal subfield iron dysregulation and Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in an ApoE mouse model.” Eur J Neurosci. 2023.
  • Cook, D.P., Steed, K., Read, C., Baysarowich, R., Redway, T., Robineau-Charette, P., & Carnegie, J. “Science Outreach: Six Examples of Programs that Enrich the Learning Environments of Students and Educators.” Journal of Human Anatomy and Physiology Society, Special Conference Edition. 2020.