
Likova Lab
Brain Plasticity, Learning & Neurorehabilitation
The research in my Lab is focused on the fields of neuroplasticity, brain mechanisms of art and learning, neurorehabilitation of blindness, memory and spatial cognition, navigation, vision deficits in TBI, and multimodal sensorimotor processing across levels of visual impairment. For this research we integrate multiple brain imaging techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), tensor-based brain morphometry (TBM), and electroencephalography (EEG), as well as virtual reality, motion-capture, and specialized remote-research systems.
Tabs




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Smith-Kettlewell Brain Imaging Center
View CenterThe 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.
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Active
Advanced Spatiomotor Rehabilitation for Navigation in Blindness & Visual Impairment
Successful navigation requires the development of an accurate and flexible mental, or cognitive, map of the navigational space and of the route trajectory required to travel from the current to the target location. The Cognitive-Kinesthetic (C-K) Rehabilitation Training that we have developed in the preceding period utilizes a unique form of blind memory-guided drawing to develop cognitive mapping to a high level of proficiency.
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Active
Harnessing the Power of Drawing for the Enhancement of Learning across Levels of Vision Function
Recent scientific findings about art and drawing suggest that drawing can facilitate learning in a wide variety of domains. The proposed collaboration will develop an interdisciplinary research program aimed at harnessing the power of drawing to enhance learning across fields of intellectual endeavor.
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Active
Mechanisms 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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Active
SL-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
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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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.
- Adam Manoogian - Senior Research Assistant
- Christopher Tyler - Senior Scientist, Director: The Smith-Kettlewell Brain Imaging Center
- Michael Liang - Research Assistant
- Zhangziyi Zhou - Research Data Analyst
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Dr. Likova Gives OPTICA Webinar on Neuroplasticity through Memory Drawing
Lora Likova discussed her research in a webinar "Harnessing the Power of ‘Visual’ Art: Memory-Drawing Training Drives Rapid Neuroplasticity in the Blind and Sighted" hosted by the Clinical Vision Sciences Technical Group of OPTICA (formerly Optical Society of America). -
Harnessing the power of visual art for blind rehabilitation
A Smith-Kettlewell scientist, Dr. Lora Likova, develops unique art training to drive brain plasticity in totally blind and visually impaired people. A major focus of Dr. Likova’s Lab, “Brain plasticity, learning and neurorehabilitation” is on the investigation of non-invasive methods for driving brain plasticity in the visually impaired. Her recent findings show that a special kind of rapid... -
Dr. Likova's Research on the Power of Drawing Featured in National...
On March 18, 2015, Dr Lora Likova’s work on how learning to draw promotes brain plasticity and can serve blindness rehabilitation was featured in a live National Endowment for the Arts webinar on Visual Arts, Learning, Coping. -
ABCs for Therapists Blog Post about Dr. Likova's Blind Drawing...
A recent posting on the therapeutic value of the brain reorganization brought about by Lora Likova’s blind drawing training paradigm may be found here: abcsfortherapists.com/drawing-intervention-yields-promising-changes-in-the-brain -
Drawing Enhances Memory and Brain Plasticity Featured in Dana Foundation...
The Dana News Foundation published an online article about the blind training paradigm. -
United Academics Highlights Dr. Likova's Research on Brain...
An online article about the implications of Lora Likova’s work for the visual memory of artists can be seen here.