Anti-Racism in Neuroscience

     It is known that various groups do not have equal access and representation in research fields, so it is important for scientists to acknowledge this inequality and work to make sure all people are represented in their research. This week Dr. Caitlyn Hudac spoke with our class about her research and how her team works towards anti-racism in neuroscience research. Dr. Hudac's team has been developing methods for effectively applying EEG electrode nets over textured hair to ensure that people of all races can be included in their research. Dr. Hudac uses a mobile community based method to increase representation of Black participants in her research. It is incredibly important for researchers not only to increase representation, but to also modify their research to make sure it is able to accommodate all participants. Dr. Hudac had to overcome technological hurdles in order to accommodate Black participants that had previously not been represented. 

    Dr. Hudac and her team also focused on community engagement and support which opened doors for their research. It is important to listen to the communities you are engaging with through your research and do what you can to give back to those communities. I think one important thing this research team did was reimbursing participants for hair care that may be needed after participating in the study. While the researchers found ways to make EEG more accessible it still causes some damage to certain hair types and styles so they received funding to pay for hair care services at local salons for the participants, which also gives back to the wider community by supporting local businesses. It is efforts like this that make research more equal and allow everyone to be represented in research.

    In another article by Gilpin & Taffe, they discuss Biomedical and Neuroscience research and how they both contribute to racial health disparities and can help solve this issue. Research throughout history has been inherently racist by only focusing on white men. Gilpin & Taffe acknowledged this disparity as a danger to public health, limiting health care resources available to people of color and access to health care. Racism also negatively impacts Black researchers and scientists who receive less grants, less funding, and less investment in their research topics. Doctors and researchers from marginalized groups are more likely to focus their work on those populations, so limiting funding and support to Black researchers also limits research being done to support Black communities.

    Gilpin and Taffe go on to discuss ways the NIH and Neuroscience community can address these problems. They state that they should prioritize underrepresented racial groups, provide more funding to the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, and include a section on grant applications for health disparities. These methods will work to provide more racial equality in research and health fields by providing funding to Black researchers and research topics that impact Minority health disparities. It is important for both researchers and larger institutes like the NIH to use an anti-racist approach towards their research to avoid these health disparities.

    The work being done by both Dr. Hudac and Gilpin & Taff are incredibly important for creating equality in research. The research community must always be working towards an anti-racist goal regardless of their research focus. Whether it is on a smaller scale working in local communities to develop new techniques that create racial equality in your research or reforming funding methods from major research institutions it is so important for everyone in research fields to consider what they can do in their research to be more anti-racist.

    Hudac CM, Wallace JS, Ward VR, Friedman NR, Delfin D and Newman SD (2022) Dynamic        cognitive inhibition in the context of frustration: Increasing racial representation of adolescent athletes using mobile community-engaged EEG methods. Front. Neurol. 13:918075. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.918075 

   Toward an Anti-Racist Approach to Biomedical And ..., The Journal of Neuroscience, 20 Oct. 2021, www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/41/42/8669.full.pdf.