Spero Nicholas
Senior Programmer-Analyst
Degrees: MS Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh
BS Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
BS Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
As a core member of the Smith-Kettlewell Brain Imaging Center, I support various labs in the analysis and collection of fMRI, EEG, oculomotor, and psychophysical data, as well as programming multi-sensory dynamic stimuli for these types of experiments.
Tabs
Journal Articles
. (2019). Differential Experience-Dependent Plasticity of Form and Motion Mechanisms in Anisometropic Amblyopia. Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science, 60, 4109. http://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.19-27005
. (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
. (Feb 14 2016). The Cortical Network for Braille Writing in the Blind. Electronic Imaging, 2016, 1–6. http://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2470-1173.2016.16.HVEI-095 PMID: 28890944 PMCID: PMC5589194
. (2016). Fundamental anti-symmetries in the brain organization of conceptual knowledge representation help resolve long-standing controversies. Journal Of Vision., (16(12).
. (2015). Analysis of Neural-BOLD Coupling Through Four Models of the Neural Metabolic Demand. Frontiers In Neuroscience, 9. http://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2015.00419
. (2015). Consequences of Traumatic Brain Injury for Human Vergence Dynamics. Frontiers In Neurology, 5. http://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2014.00282
. (2015). Deficits in the activation of human oculomotor nuclei in chronic traumatic brain injury. Frontiers In Neurology, 6(173), 9. http://doi.org/doi: 10.3389/fneur.2015.00173
. (2015). Effect of familiarity on Braille writing and reading in the blind: From graphemes to comprehension. Journal Of Vision, 15, 920–920. http://doi.org/10.1167/15.12.920
. (2012). Analysis of human vergence dynamics. Journal Of Vision, 12(11)(21), 1-19. http://doi.org/10.1167/12.11.21
. (2006). A proposed role for all-trans retinal in regulation of rhodopsin regeneration in human rods. Vision Research, 46, 4449-4463. http://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2006.07.035
. (7AD). Toward a unified model of vertebrate rod phototransduction. Visual Neuroscience, 22, 417-436. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0952523805224045
. (2003). Multiple Steps of Phosphorylation of Activated Rhodopsin Can Account for the Reproducibility of Vertebrate Rod Single-photon Responses. The Journal Of General Physiology" Volume = "122, 419-444. http://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.200308832
. (1998). A Link-Segment Model of Upright Human Posture for Analysis of Head-Trunk Coordination. Journal Of Vestibular Research, 8, 187-200. http://doi.org/10.3233/VES-1998-8301
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). Audio-Visual Interactions in The Visual and Auditory Cortices. Date Published 10/2019, Society for Neuroscience Conference: Chicago, IL.
. (2019). Is the face schema innate? Evidence from learning faces in the congenital blind. Retrieved from SfN
. (2019). Top-down control of spatial memory visualization in early visual cortex. Retrieved from VSS, Fl
. (2017). Top-down working memory reorganization of the primary visual cortex: Granger Causality analysis. http://doi.org/10.1167/17.10.594
. (2016). High-order multisensory mechanisms: Insights from Braille writing and reading. Retrieved from IS&T Int Symp Electron Imaging
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...
Likova Lab
The main areas of my research are learning and brain plasticity of multimodal sensorimotor processing in the blind and the sighted.
Tyler Lab
Our work centers on human visual neuroscience and computational vision, especially in the areas of stereoscopic depth, form, symmetry, and motion perception in adults, and the development of tests for the diagnosis of eye diseases in infants and adults. The current focus of the lab is on...
Active
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.
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.
Active
Multisensory Interactions Between the Primary Sensory Cortices
Under construction!
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.
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.
Active
Alleviating interocular suppression by high-attention demand training in amblyopia
The goal of this project is to test a hypothesis that whether or not training patients to pay more attention to the input from the amblyopic eye can overcome interocular suppression to treat amblyopia.
Completed
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. It addresses the important issue of how the brain learns complex skills, specifically the process of drawing, through two different sensory modalities. Visual art, and drawing in particular, engages an orchestrated...
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.
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
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
Contact Information
2318 Fillmore St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
Email:
spero@ski.org