Saeideh Ghahghaei
Research Associate
Degrees: PhD in Cognitive Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
BSc in Electrical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
BSc in Electrical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
I am a cognitive psychologists and a vision scientist. I am interested in understanding reading problems in order to improve the reading experience. Along with Dr. Chandna, I study higher visual function deficits in children with cerebral visual impairment (CVI). Specifically, in collaboration with with Dr. Chandna I lead the research to investigate how CVI affects reading in each child in order to improve or develop individualized (re)habilitation techniques or assistive technologies. In addition, I am interested to understand how TBI (which is a form of CVI) affects reading in adults.
I am also interested in binocular vision and how the two eyes work together during daily living tasks including reading in individuals with normal or abnormal vision, such as strabismus or amblyopia.
To do so, I use (i) qualitative methods such as as in-depth interviews, surveys and questionnaires and (ii) quantitative methods such as regression, factor analysis and cluster analysis on objective data (e.g., eye-movements and accommodation measurements and EEG). Furthermore, I develop applications that can be used for research or rehabilitation.
Tabs
Journal Articles
. (2020). Predicting stereopsis in macular degeneration. Journal Of Neuroscience. http://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0491-20.2020
. (2019). Calibration of the PlusOptix PowerRef 3 with change in viewing distance, adult age and refractive error. Ophthalmic And Physiological Optics, 39(4), 7.
. (2019). The upper disparity limit increases gradually with eccentricity. Journal Of Vision, 19(11).
. (2018). The effect of load on spatial attention depends on preview: Evidence from a reading study. Vision Research.
. (2017). Texture segmentation influences the spatial profile of presaccadic attention. Journal Of Vision, 17(2).
. (2016). Accuracy of Eye Position for Saccades and Smooth Pursuit. Journal Of Vision, 16(23). http://doi.org/10.1167/16.15.23
. (2016). Depth Perception and Grasp in Central Field Loss. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 57, 1476-87.
. (2013). Effects of load on the time course of attentional engagement, disengagement, and orienting in reading. Quarterly Journal Of Experimental Psychology, 66(3).
. Predicting Stereopsis in Macular Degeneration. Journal Of Neuroscience.
Presentations/Posters
. (2019). CVI and the reading brain. Date Published 11/2019.
. (2019). Reading in mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Journal of Vision.
. (2018). Reading in mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Date Published 10/2018.
. (2016). Restoring Functional Stereopsis in AMD with Dichoptic Training. Date Published 05/2016.
. (2016). SKERI-Optos: A Graphical User Interface to Map Scotoma and PRL with the Optos OCT/SLO. Date Published 01/2016.
. (2015). Feedback about gaze position improves saccade efficiency. Journal of vision.
. (2013). Immediate feedback improves saccadic efficiency. Journal of Vision. Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
. (2012). Orthographic familiarity of word N affects attentional disengagement from word N-1 in reading. Date Published 01/2012.
Other Publications
. (2018). Method and Device for Improving Functional Stereopsis in Individuals with Central Vision Loss. Date Published 01/2018.
Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center
The Center's research goal is to develop and apply new scientific knowledge and practical, cost-effective devices to understand and address better the real-world problems of blind, visually impaired, and deaf-blind consumers. The RERC has many ongoing R&D projects and collaborative...
Chandna Lab (SEELAB)
We use rigorous scientific research with the goal to improve detection and treatment outcomes for individuals with strabismus, amblyopia, and cerebral visual impairment.
Verghese Lab
Our laboratory studies the mechanisms of healthy vision and action, as well as the basis of attention and visual adaptation in clinical populations.
Active
Active
Stereopsis in Macular Degeneration
Macular degeneration affects the central retina, often causing asymmetrical damage to the two eyes. How does this asymmetrical loss affect stereopsis — the percept of depth generated by the small separation of image features in the two eyes? We measured the largest separation between...
Active
CVI@SKI Meeting
We are a Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute sponsored, Blind Babies Foundation supported research advocacy group consisting of SKI researchers, select clinicians, teachers of the visually impaired, and parents of children with cerebral visual impairment.
Active
Higher Visual Function (HVF) in Individuals with Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI)
Cerebral visual impairment often affects higher level visual function (HVF); for example, spatial attention, motion perception, divided attention, etc. Such impairments sometimes are not easy to detect by a routine vision test. Nevertheless, parents may observe abnormalities in the daily living...
Active
Investigating Reading in Individuals with Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI)
There are many factors that can impair reading in CVI including, but not limited to, (i) increased crowding (ii) simultagnosia (i.e., difficulty processing two things at the same time) and (iii) abnormal eye movements. In this project, we aim to understand (i) how CVI affects reading, (ii) how...
Active
Reading in mTBI
People with mTBI often complain about dificulty in reading in spite of normal results in usual eye exams. We investigate this issue by looking at accommodation and reading rate and subjective measurement of reading difficuties for a variaty of reading tasks in normal and mTBI population. ...
Active
Adaptive Visual Strategies for Individuals with Macular Degeneration
In this project we try to gain a better understanding of what visual strategies people use to gather information in the world.
Active
The Window of Spatial Attention in Reading
In reading, visual information is extracted from a window around the gaze. For the first time, I looked at effects of word's processing load on the dynamics of this window over the course of a fixation when sequential saccades are made.
This project is now completed. Please see...
Active
Fovea Use During Smooth Pursuit
There is continuing debate as to whether smooth pursuit relies on the foveation of a moving target, especially when the target is compact. Previous studies have shown that gaze is placed on the center-of-mass of a target during saccadic eye movements. This research aims to understand whether eye...
Active
Eye Movements and Accommodation Patterns in Strabismus
Strabismus misaligned eyes is a common developmental condition in young children that can lead to amblyopia or poor vision and other forms of low vision. This project looks at the eye movements in relation to accommodation or focusing power in these patients to determine predictors of strabismus and outcome of treatment, with the goal of improving early detection, intervention and treatment.
Active
Eye-Hand coordination in Central Field Loss
Eye-hand coordination in AMD
Completed
Completed
Calibration of Eccentric Power Refractor
Eccentric power refractors need to be calibrated for accommodation and gaze position for individual participants. Calibration however can be time consuming. We look at different conditions in which calibration is necessary or preferable.
This project is now completed. Please see the...
Completed
Parafoveal Crowding
Crowding increases with eccentricity, and is most readily observed in the periphery. During natural, active vision however, central vision plays an important role. Measures of critical distance to estimate crowding are difficult in central vision, as these distances are small. Any overlap of...
Completed
SKERI-VF
Walker et al (Renninger, Psomadakis, Dang & Fletcher, 2008) suggested a novel method to estimate the monocular scotoma area from perimetry data in macular degeneration based on (i) an optic-disc based estimation of the location of the fovea and (ii) the increase...
Completed
Impact of Eye Movements on Reach Performance
Aim 2 of Reaching with Central Field Loss
Completed
Reaching with Central Field Loss
Parent R01
Completed
Strategies for Efficient Visual Information Gathering
Active visual search
Completed
Target Selection in the Real World
Attention and Segmentation
Contact Information