Smith-Kettlewell Brain Imaging Center
The Smith-Kettlewell Brain Imaging Center supports a wide variety of human brain imaging modalities, including MRI, MRI morphometry, functional MRI, fMR Iretonogrphy, fMRI dynamics, functional connectivity, Granger-causal connectivity, DTI, DTI tractography, whole-head EEG, EEG functional connectivity, ERG, EEG eye tracking, electroblepharography, etc. Our work centers on human visual neuroscience and computational vision, especially in the areas of human visual processing in adults, of the diagnosis of eye diseases and cortical deficits in infants and adults, on brain plasticity in relation to low vision and blindness, and on the processes of blindness rehabilitation. We are particularly interested in the normal capabilities of binocular visual processing and its disruption by forms of traumatic brain injury.
Tabs
Journal Articles
. (2020). Differences in the major fiber-tracts of people with congenital and acquired blindness. Imaging Science & Technology / Human Vision And Electronic Imaging 2020. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2470-1173.2020.11.HVEI-366
. (2019). Learning face perception without vision: Rebound learning effect and hemispheric differences in congenital vs late-onset blindness. Imaging Science And Technology: Human Vision And Electronic Imaging. http://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2470-1173.2019.12.HVEI-237 Human Vision and Electronic Imaging 2019
. (2018). Brain reorganization in adulthood underlying a rapid switch in handedness induced by training in memory-guided drawing. Neuroplasticity Ed. Chaban V. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76317
. (2018). When light hurts: Comparative morphometry of human brainstem in traumatic photalgia. Nature Scientific Reports, 8(1):6256. http://doi.org/doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-24386-z
. (2018). Haptic aesthetics in the blind: Behavioral and fMRI investigation. Imaging Science And Technology: Human Vision And Electronic Imaging, 532: 1-10. http://doi.org/DOI: 10.2352/ISSN.2470-1173.2018.14.HVEI-532
. (2018). Detection of amblyopia using sweep VEP Vernier and grating acuity. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 59(1;59(3), 1435–1442.
. (2018). Fiber-tract differences in people with congenital and acquired blindness. Journal Of Vision, (18(10).
. (Apr 2017). Studying the Retinal Source of Photophobia by Facial Electroretinography. Optometry And Vision Science, 94(4). http://doi.org/10.1097/OPX.0000000000001064 PMID: 28338564
. (2017). Memory-guided drawing training increases Granger causal influences from the perirhinal cortex to V1 in the blind. Neurobiology Of Learning And Memory, 141. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2017.03.013 PMID: 28347878 PMCID: PMC 5488874
. (June 24 2016). Anticlockwise or Clockwise? A Dynamic Perception-Action-Laterality Model for Directionality Bias in Visuospatial Functioning. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. http://doi.org/DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.06.032 PMID: 27350096 PMCID: PMC5003653
Conference Papers
. Face perception as a multisensory process. In Multisensory and Crossmodal Interactions, at IS&T HVEI. Multisensory and Crossmodal Interactions, at IS&T HVEI: Burlingame, California. Retrieved from https://www.imaging.org/site/IST/Conferences/EI/EI_2020/Conference/C_HVEI.aspx
Presentations/Posters
. (2020). Rapid training of supramodal spatial cognition and memory for improved navigation in low vision and blindness. ARVO Issue abstract 2020. ARVO 2020. Retrieved from https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2766791&resultClick=1
. (2019). Top-down control of spatial memory visualization in early visual cortex. Retrieved from VSS, Fl
. (2019). Is the face schema innate? Evidence from learning faces in the congenital blind. Retrieved from SfN
. (2018). Memory Visualization and spatial learning. Retrieved from Nano-symposium at SfN
. (2018). Brain plasticity and art. Retrieved from Guangzhou Technology Institute
Other Publications
. (2014). The neurometabolic underpinnings of fMRI BOLD dynamics. In Advanced Brain Neuroimaging Topics in Health and Disease-Methods and Applications:. InTech. http://doi.org/10.5772/58274
. (2018). Memory drawing and learning in the class room. Retrieved from Southern China Normal University, Guangzhou
Upcoming Events
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Heinen Lab
Our laboratory studies eye movements to understand basic neural circuitry that moves the eyes for clear vision, and as a tool to probe mental processes that are distinctly human. Our ultimate goal is to understand the substrate of neurological function and dysfunction, leading to development of non-invasive diagnosis and therapy for brain trauma and psychiatric disorders.
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Likova Lab
The main areas of my research are learning and brain plasticity of multimodal sensorimotor processing in the blind and the sighted.
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Active
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ActiveMechanisms of Photophobia in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Human Subjects: Therapeutic Implications
The purpose of this grant is to identify the mechanisms responsible for generating photophobia in patients who have suffered mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Currently, estimates indicate that this painful condition persists in about 60% of those who suffered from blast-related traumatic brain injury and 30% of those who suffered non-blast-related concussive injuries.
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ActiveSpectral ERG analysis of hypersensitivity to light in traumatic brain injury
The purpose of this research study is to use the spectral electroretinogram (ERG) to deteremine how the retinal mechanisms of sufferers from abnormal light sensitivity due to head injury differ from those without abnormal light sensitivity.
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ActiveSL-CN: Harnessing the Power of Drawing for the Enhancement of Learning across Levels of Vision Function
This Science of Learning Collaborative Network brings together researchers and experts from the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, University of Bamberg (Germany), Columbia University and Emory University to investigate how the visual art of drawing can enhance learning. Underlying learning principles and neural mechanisms will be considered, and how these can be harnessed for real-life learning enhancement. Though humans have been drawing for at least 30,000 years, little is understood about brain processes involved in this activity.
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Completed
Advanced Spatiomotor Rehabilitation in Blindness and Visual Impairment
We propose a multidisciplinary approach to effective spatiomotor rehabilitation in blindness and visual impairment. For those who have lost vision, the eye-hand coordination normally available for the manipulation of objects for everyday activities is unavailable and has to be replaced by information from other senses
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Completed
Stereoscopic motion-in-depth perception: fMRI and neurophysiological studies
This project is designed to advance the integration of high field fMRI in alert macaque monkeys with "informed" neurophysiology, and to apply it in addressing a long-standing research question regarding the neural processing of stereoscopic 3-D motion.
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Completed
Encoding of 3D Structure in the Visual Scene: A New Conceptualization
The multidisciplinary goal was to develop an integrated conceptualization of the mid-level encoding of 3D object structure from multiple surface cues
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Completed
Human Oculomotor Functions & Their Deficits in Traumatic Brain Injury
Recent studies have established that a high proportion of patients diagnosed with mild (or diffuse) traumatic brain injury (mTBI) exhibit binocular vision dysfunctions, particularly, deficiencies in the binocular coordination of eye movements.
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Completed
Learning in the Sighted and the Blind through Different Sensory Modalities: Structure and Dynamics of Cortical Reorganization
This project focuses on the emerging area of the neuroscience of art learning.
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Inactive
Oculomotor Control
The binocular coordination of movements of the eyes is a complex issue controlled by many brainstem nuclei, and is subject to a wide variety of forms of disruption by traumatic brain injury and ocu
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Current
- Christopher Tyler - Head, Smith-Kettlewell Brain Imaging Center
- Lora Likova - Likova Lab Director
- Spero Nicholas - Senior Programmer-Analyst