---
title: "Hair, Hair for Equity in Neuroscience Research"
date: 2023-11-06T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/hair-hair-for-equity-in-neuroscience-research"
section: Articles
---
# Hair, Hair for Equity in Neuroscience Research

*November 6, 2023* — by [Karen Shih ’09](/author/karen-shih)


> Undergrad Expands African Americans’ Participation in Studies by Styling Hair So They Can Wear Sensor-Using Caps

*LEAD Lab 08092023 SC 9674 1920x1080 — From left, Assistant Professor Rachel Romeo and Abria Simmons '25 place a fNIRS neuroimaging cap on volunteer Cole Parker. Simmons is developing best practices for styling Afro-textured hair for research on children's early development.*

Rachel Romeo, a University of Maryland assistant professor of [education](https://education.umd.edu/), wants to shine a light on kids’ early development—literally. Using a technique called Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), she beams light into the brain from sensors on a stretchy black cap, pinpointing blood flow to measure brain activity.

But in summer 2022, she realized she would have a hard time including a swath of the population in her study, because that light can’t easily penetrate Afro-textured hair, which is dark and densely curled. Yet her focus is on socioeconomic disparities in learning and development; she had to find a way to work with kids from all backgrounds.

“Most of the time in neuroscience research, if you can't get a good signal from a participant, you just exclude them or you throw that data away,” said Romeo, who directs the [Language, Experience, and Development (LEAD) Lab](https://education.umd.edu/leadlab). “This contributes to underrepresentation.”

[More than 70% of research participants in the U.S. are white](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-022-01218-y), and as a white woman, Romeo didn’t know where to turn to learn how to change that dynamic. So she put out an ad for a lab assistant to help braid Black hair—and serendipitously, Abria Simmons ’25 had just declared a human development minor and enrolled in one of Romeo’s classes. She wasn’t a professional, but learned from generations of women in her family and was eager to help increase Black representation in neuroscience.


*neuroimaging cap connected to a laptop — A laptop shows data received from the fNIRS cap; green and blue indicate good signal, while red indicates poor signal.*


*a person braids afro-textured hair — Simmons braids the hair of volunteer Corbien Parker.*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Neuroscience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/neuroscience), [Human Development and Quantitative Methodology](https://today.umd.edu/topic/human-development-and-quantitative-methodology), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience)


**Units:** [College of Education](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-education)