CARTE Academy
Dr. Andrea Chiba with members of the Chiba lab, Estelita Leija and Emmanuel Gygi, in UCSD's Department of Cognitive Science

Research Highlights

TDLC's science is based on over a decade of research that was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Our mission is to achieve an integrated understanding of the role of time and timing in learning, across multiple scales, brain systems, and social systems. The scientific goal of TDLC is therefore to understand the temporal dynamics of learning, and to apply this understanding to improve educational practice. The following links highlight some of the research projects that have been part of TDLC. They are representative of the vast portfolio of remarkable discoveries and an accomplished, ingenious, and effective community of scientists.

 

2017-2018 Highlights





The Deep Learning Revolution by Dr. Terrence J. Sejnowski (The MIT Press)
In his recently released book, The Deep Learning Revolution, Dr. Terrence Sejnowski describes the way deep learning is changing our lives and transforming our economy. He explains the history and people who have led the deep learning revolution, how the field is evolving, and where it is heading. Dr. Sejnowski devotes one chapter to his research funded by the National Science Foundation through its Science of Learning Center, the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (TDLC). TDLC emphasizes machine learning and brain learning, two areas that are converging. Examples of research by TDLC include the automatic recognition of facial expressions, social robots for classrooms, and learning how to learn. These advances are being supercharged with deep learning and could soon lead to personalized tutors. Listen to a fascinating interview with Dr. Sejnowski about Deep Learning (The Verge, 10/16/18). Click here to read more about this and other 2018 TDLC Research Highlights, and here to view the book on Amazon.


Internship


Internship program taps into the talents of autistic youth
A new internship program at UC San Diego taps into the talents of autistic youth to develop therapeutic video games. The video games, which use eye movement to train attention, are based on research performed through the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center. Dr. Leanne Chukoskie, a neuroscientist at UC San Diego, came up with the idea of offering a paid summer internship program for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). With support from the San Diego Foundation and the Legler Benbough Foundation, she established the program through the Power of Neurogaming Center (PoNG) at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute. The eight-week program is mutually beneficial - Dr. Chukoskie gains the students’ coding talent, and interns improve their social skills by working in creative groups and making professional connections.
Click here to read more about this and other 2018 TDLC Research Highlights Read more about this exciting program in the article, "Tapping Untapped Talent." (UC San Diego News Center, 10/11/18)

Internship


Therapeutic Games for Improving Low-Level Attention
The ability to orient and focus one’s attention appropriately is an important ingredient for effective learning. Dr. Jeanne Townsend and Dr. Leanne Chukoskie saw the need to take research findings about attention and to translate them into effective, affordable and readily available interventions. Through their new company, BrainLeap Technologies, they have created interventions in the form of fun games, aimed at improving attention. These games, using eye movements, gradually shape behavior using visual and auditory feedback provided in real time. They are designed to improve the speed, accuracy and control of eye movement, and in doing so they improve the speed, accuracy and control of attention. Townsend and Chukoskie are currently working to take these games from the lab and into homes and schools, to improve attentional skill and increase classroom readiness. Click here to read more about this and other 2018 TDLC Research Highlights Read more about BrainLeap games in an article, "Scientists Harness the Power of Neurogaming" (CalIT2, UC San Diego, 9/19/18) and "Can science-based video games help kids with autism?" (Spectrum, 6/22/18)

Listening to Waves


The Role of Music in Science Education
Listening to Waves is an educational program that seeks to engage youth in STEM by teaching them the science of waves through the creation of electronic sounds and musical instruments. The program, developed by Dr. Victor Minces and Dr. Alexander Khalil through their work at TDLC investigating the role of music in education, is now supported by the EHR division of the National Science Foundation. Since its inception, Listening to Waves has served more than 1500 students (largely from low SES populations) across San Diego County, including students in the High Tech High School System, the Boys and Girls Club of San Diego, the Museum School, and the Sweetwater School District. Click here to read more about this and other 2018 TDLC Research Highlights


Very high density EEG


Very high density EEG elucidates spatiotemporal aspects of early visual processing
TDLC's Dr. Marlene Behrmann and Dr. Michael Tarr at Carnegie Mellon University (with Pulkit Grover, Shawn Kelly, and Amanda Robinson as lead author) showed that whereas standard human EEG systems based on spatial Nyquist estimates suggest that 20-30 mm electrode spacing suffices to capture neural signals on the scalp, “super-Nyquist” density EEG (“SND”) with Nyquist density (“ND”) arrays can capture neural signals, especially in the high frequency range, with greater accuracy. Click here to read more about this and other 2018 TDLC Research Highlights


Mindshift MOOC


Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Learning How to Learn and Mindshift
Dr. Terrence Sejnowski and Dr. Barbara Oakley have created a new Mindshift course, and it is already on the list of the top 50 MOOCS! This MOOC provides important mental tools and practical insights from science so that participants can learn how to learn and change effectively. Because of the success of their MOOCS (Learning How to Learn and Mindshift), Drs. Sejnowski and Oakley wanted to broaden access to this important knowledge. Click here to read more about this and other 2018 TDLC Research Highlights Click here to read more about the history of the MOOC. In addition, Dr. Oakley presented a Webinar for TDLC on March 12, 2013: How to Learn More Deeply and Creatively: Concrete Tools from Neuroscience and from Zombies. Click here to read a summary of the presentation, and HERE to view the Webinar!

CARTE Academy


CARTE Academy for Children on the Autism Spectrum
In the fall of 2017, the Centre for Autism Research, Technology, and Education (CARTE) at the University of Victoria launched a new (FREE) monthly series of half-day camps for children on the autism spectrum. These monthly camps, called CARTE Academy, are run by CARTE Director Dr. Jim Tanaka from the Department of Psychology and student volunteers who are passionate about learning, playing, community building, and supporting children on the autism spectrum and their families. Click here to read more about this and other 2018 TDLC Research Highlights Click here to view their website!

2016-2017 Highlights



Video Game Training to Improve Eye Gaze Behavior in Children with Autism
Year: 2016-2017; Principal Investigator: Leanne Chukoskie
Network: Interacting Memory Systems Network (IMSN)
Researchers devise experiments to improve the motor planning and execution capabilities of children with autism. Using eye tracking technology, they collaborated with a developer to create a set of video games which use eye gaze as the controller to steer spaceships, blow up mushrooms and play whack-a-mole. So far, preliminary results have been promising. Subjects have shown improvements in other fixation and spatial attention tasks after daily videogame training. Click here to read more about this and other 2017 TDLC Research Highlights




TDLC researchers teach science through making music, and receives continued support from the National Science Foundation

Year: 2016-2017; Principal Investigator: Victor Minces and Alex Khalil
Network: Social Interaction Network (SIN)
If you live in San Diego and you noticed a surge in metalophonic sounds in your neighborhood, this might be the reason: as part of TDLC's commitment to bring high quality science education to the community, cognitive scientists Victor Minces and Alexander Khalil have been working with K-12 schools to teach science through the science of music. In this program, called Listening to Waves, the students actively learn the science of waves and perception as they create electronic music and build musical instruments. Click here to read more about this and other 2017 TDLC Research Highlights




Domain-specific and domain-general individual differences in visual object recognition

Year: 2016-2017; Principal Investigator: Isabel Gauthier
Network: Perceptual Expertise Network (PEN)
Researchers found that performance on Novel Object Memory Tests (NOMTs) varied just as much as on familiar object, but showed more shared variance across each other (about 25%) than is typically observed among familiar object tests (about 11%). Importantly, they verified that the ability measured in the NOMTs is not explained by cognitive skills, because shared variance between NOMTs remained unchanged after controlling for performance on various measures of general intelligence. Click here to read more about this and other 2017 TDLC Research Highlights




Using game-based technology to enhance real-world interpretation of experimental results
Year: 2016-2017; Principal Investigator: Leanne Chukoskie
Network: Interacting Memory Systems Network (IMSN)
Research on how the brain combination of visual, auditory and movement information are typically conducted in a tightly controlled albeit rather impoverished environment. Virtual reality (VR) presents a unique opportunity to maintain stimulus control in a way that places the observer in a truly immersive environment. Click here to read more about this and other 2017 TDLC Research Highlights




Neuromodulator Acetylcholine increases the capacity of the brain perceive the world
Year: 2016-2017; Principal Investigator: Victor Minces and Andrea Chiba
Network: Interacting Memory Systems Network (IMSN)
Members of TDLC worked synergistically to unveil a surprising effect of acetylcholine: When acetylcholine is very active, the neurons in the visual cortex of an animal become more independent of each other. This increased independence boosts the capacity of the visual cortex to represent visual stimuli. Click here to read more about this and other 2017 TDLC Research Highlights




Face Camp: A chance for children to explore the science of face recognition

Year: 2016-2017; Principal Investigator: Jim Tanaka
Network: Perceptual Expertise Network (PEN)
Researchers at the University of Victoria have developed an innovative model in STEM education blending scientific research with scientific outreach. At their annual summer Face Camp, children are introduced to the psychology and neuroscience of face recognition. Conducted at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and organized by TDLC's Dr. Jim Tanaka, Face Camp is a free, one day workshop where typically developing and special needs children learn about the "science, art, and fun" of human face recognition. Click here to read more about this and other 2017 TDLC Research Highlights Here are some brief summaries of various Face Camps: 2016 Face Camp, 2014 Face Camp, and 2011 Face Camp!





Brain waves during sleep in human infants are differentially associated with measures of language development in boys and girls

Year: 2016-2017; Principal Investigator: Sue Peters and April Benasich
Network: Sensorimotor Network (SMN)
TDLC researchers, Drs. Sue Peters and April Benasich, at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University-Newark, have shown that brain rhythms in the sleep spindle range, differ between boys and girls, this difference is prominent on the left side of the brain, and is associated with language measures. Click here to read more about this and other 2017 TDLC Research Highlights



Making Games with Movement

Year: 2016-2017
Thirty-five high school and college students participated in a "Making Games with Movement" Hackathon, held June 22-23, 2017. The students made video games that required movement as input. Click here to read more about this and other 2017 TDLC Research Highlights Read more about the Hackathon here!




SIMPHONY Study - Studying the Influence Music Practice Has On Neurodevelopment in Youth (SIMPHONY)
Year: 2016-2017; Principal Investigator: John Iversen
Network: Social Interaction Network (SIN)
How does musical training influence the child's brain and the development of skills like language and attention? The Neurosciences Institute, UC San Diego, and the San Diego Youth Symphony have formed a new partnership to address these questions. They are recruiting children between 5 to 8 years of age who receive or plan to receive instrumental/vocal music instruction to participate in the SIMPHONY study. Click here to read more about this and other 2017 TDLC Research Highlights Click here to read a more in depth article about the study!




Understanding how the brain represents and processes complex, time-varying streams of sensory information
Year: 2016-2017; Principal Investigator: Dan Feldman
Network: Sensorimotor Network (SMN)
Dan Feldman and his team at UC Berkeley, members of the NSF-funded TDLC, have made an important advance in understanding how the brain represents and processes complex, time-varying streams of sensory information. This issue is central for understanding how organisms recognize temporal patterns of sensory input, including in speech perception. Click here to read more about this and other 2017 TDLC Research Highlights


 

2015-2016 Highlights



Thickness of Cortical Grey Matter Predicts Face and Object Recognition
Sophisticated techniques allowed for segmentation of human grey matter and estimates of regional cortical thickness. Individual differences in the cortical thickness of pea-sized regions in the inferior temporal could be predicted by behavioral recognition performance on faces and objects. While subjects with a thicker cortex performed better with vehicles, those with a thinner cortex performed better with faces and living objects. Click here to read more about this and other 2016 TDLC Research Highlights




Understanding the neural code that supports the individuation of similar faces
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have shown that it is possible to reconstruct a novel face image based on the observer's behavioral or neural response to a very large set of homogeneous faces (Nestor, A., Plaut, D. C. and Behrmann, M.). From a practical perspective, these findings make possible a broad range of image-reconstruction applications via a straightforward methodological approach and, from a theoretical perspective, the current results provide key insights into the nature of high-level visual representations. Click here to read more about this and other 2016 TDLC Research Highlights

 




Training Facial Expressions in Autism
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) learn to produce accurate facial expressions and remediate expression skills by playing FaceMaze-- a fun, gamified expression training platform utilizing real faces and Emotient's real-time facial expression recognition feedback. After FaceMaze training, preliminary analysis shows that participant improve in their abilities to perceive and produce facial emotions. Click here to download the TDLC 2016 Research Highlights




TDLC Researchers Advocate for Science of Learning in Washington DC (2015-16)
In June and September 2015, TDLC sscientists and trainees met with various elected officials and federal agency leadership to advocate for support for Science of Learning research, training, translation and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and diversity initiatives. Click here to read more about this and other 2016 TDLC Research Highlights To read more about the visit, click here. Due to the visit in September, Dr. Paula Tallal was invited to testify before the Committee on Science, Space and Technology for the U.S. House of Representatives on H.R. Bill 3033, the READ Act. In her oral and written reports, she highlighted the Science of Learning Centers (SLCs), specifically suggesting that NSF develop mechanisms to capitalize on the advances from the SLCs.  (Video of testimony, Dr. Tallal begins at 1 hr 32 min mark).

 

2014-2015 Highlights



Using Automated Facial Expression Recognition Technology to Distinguish Between Cortical and Subcortical Facial Motor Control
Researchers at UC San Diego, University at Buffalo, and University of Toronto, have developed a computer vision system that distinguishes faked from genuine facial expressions of pain. The system outperformed human observers, who had at most a 55 percent success rate, even with training, whereas a computer vision and pattern recognition system was accurate about 85 percent of the time. Click here to read more about this and other 2015 TDLC Research Highlights




Brain Research Shows Different Pathways Are Responsible for Person and Movement Recognition

Researchers from University College London (UCL), Carnegie Mellon University and UC San Diego have found that the ability to understand different movements, such as walking and jumping, engages different brain mechanisms from those that are used to recognize who is initiating the action (Gilaie-Dotan, S., Saygin, A.P., Lorenzi, L.J., Rees,G. and Behrmann, M). In the study, individuals with lesions to the ventral aspects of the visual pathway evinced normal biological motion perception despite their marked impairments in form perception. Click here to read more about this and other 2015 TDLC Research Highlights





Teaching Emotional Skills to Children with Autism

Jim Tanaka at the University of Victoria is partnering with Marni Bartlett at the University of Victoria to create an exciting, innovative software game to help children with autism spectrum with their facial emotions using a state-of-the-art computer technology. Click here to read more about this and other 2015 TDLC Research Highlights



Plasticity in Developing Brain:
Active Auditory Exposure Impacts Prelinguistic Acoustic Mapping

Researchers at the Infancy Studies Laboratory at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, using a series of 8-10 minute experimental sessions with babies ages four to seven months, discovered a way to help them organize the brain pathways that will help them perceive language. Click here to read more about this and other 2015 TDLC Research Highlights




TDLC's First MOOC Yields a Staggering Number of Students on Coursera!
TDLC's Dr. Terry Sejnowski and Visiting Scholar Dr. Barbara Oakley have put together a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) for Coursera on "Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects." Click here to read more about this and other 2015 TDLC Research Highlights Click here to read more about the history of the MOOC. In addition, Dr. Oakley presented a Webinar for TDLC on March 12, 2013: How to Learn More Deeply and Creatively: Concrete Tools from Neuroscience and from Zombies. Click here to read a summary of the presentation, and HERE to view the Webinar!





A New Test for Individual Differences Research in Face Recognition

Researchers at TDLC have developed a new task for measuring individual differences in holistic face processing, The Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test (VHPT-F). Click here to read more about this and other 2015 TDLC Research Highlights



TDLC Researchers Advocate for Science of Learning in Washington DC (2014)
During the week of Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Washington DC in November 2014, TDLC scientists and trainees met with various elected officials and federal agency leadership to advocate for support for Science of Learning research, training, translation and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and diversity initiatives. Click here to read more about this and other 2015 TDLC Research Highlights and here to read a brief article about the trip.




Cortical Thickness in Fusiform Face Area Predicts Face and Object Recognition Performance
New research from a team of researchers at Vanderbilt University, part of the Temporal Dynamics Learning Center supported by NSF, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the structural correlates of face and object recognition ability. Click here to read more about this and other 2015 TDLC Research Highlights




A New Method Applied to Kinematic Data Reveals Hidden Influences on Reach and Grasp Trajectories
Researchers at the University of Victoria (Canada) have developed new statistical procedures that allow them to measure the influence of competing action intentions on the execution of a reach and grasp response. This method is capable of detecting perturbations as small as a fraction of a degree in the rotation of the hand and as little as a few millimeters in its position.

 

2013-2014 Highlights



Personalized Review Improves Students’ Long-Term Knowledge Retention
A software tool that provides individualized review of course material to middle-school students produces a 16.5% boost in retention of complete course content one month after the term’s end, relative to current educational practice. Individualized review also leads to a 10% improvement over a more generic one-size-fits-all review strategy. Click here to read more about this and other 2014 TDLC Research Highlights




Face Perception
TDLC's Kao-Wei Chua, Jennifer Richler and Isabel Gauthier from Vanderbilt University have discovered that the special strategy used to look at faces can be altered in just a few hours of training. Click here to read more about this and other 2014 TDLC Research Highlights






Neural Systems for the Visual Processing of Words and Faces
Using behavioral and electrophysiological measures, in adults, Eva Dundas, David Plaut, and Marlene Behrmann observed the standard finding of greater accuracy and a larger N170 ERP component in the left over right hemisphere for words, and conversely, greater accuracy and a larger N170 in the right over the left hemisphere for faces. Click here to read more about this and other 2014 TDLC Research Highlights





Improving Memory Using Real-Time EEG and Spacing Analysis
TDLC's Dr. Eunho Noh and Dr. Virginia de Sa at UC San Diego and Dr. Grit Herzmann* and Dr. Tim Curran at the University of Colorado, Boulder have found that they can predict (with accuracy of 57.2%) whether someone will remember an upcoming picture from the voltage recorded at the scalp (electroencephalography (EEG)) prior to the picture presentation. Click here to read more about this and other 2014 TDLC Research Highlights



Temporal Coding in the Dentate Gyrus
TDLC's Lara Rangel, Andrew Alexander, Brad Aimone, Janet Wiles, Rusty Gage, Andrea Chiba, and Laleh Quinn have discovered that granule cells in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus encode the temporal separation between experiences that occur over long periods of time. Click here to read more about this and other 2014 TDLC Research Highlights




Attention in Children is Related to Interpersonal Timing
TDLC researchers led by Victor Minces and Alexander Khalil, have found that children’s ability at interpersonal timing, or synchrony, is related to attention as measured by cognitive tests and teacher questionnaires.




Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) as a Tool to Monitor Socio-Emotional Development in Early Childhood Education
TDLC scientists Moshen Malmir, Deborah Forster and Javier Movellan in the Machine Perception Laboratory, in collaboration with Kathryn Owens and Lydia Morrison from UC San Diego’s Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC), demonstrated (Malmir et al., 2013; Movellan et al., 2014) the potential of using social educational robots in the classroom, not only successfully matching staff’s independent evaluation of children’s game preference, by successfully capturing affective behavior (via facial expression recognition,) but also monitoring relational aspects of spontaneous behavior among young children.


Tarr and Lebrecht


Micro-valences: perceiving affective valence in everyday objects
Sophie Lebrecht, Moshe Bar, Lisa Feldman Barrett, and Michael J. Tarr (2013)

New research from Carnegie Mellon University's Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) shows that the brain's visual perception system automatically and unconsciously guides decision-making through something called valence perception. Valence — defined as “the positive or negative information automatically perceived in the majority of visual information” — is a process that allows our brains to quickly make choices between similar objects. The researchers conclude that “everyday objects carry subtle affective valences – ‘micro-valences’ – which are intrinsic to their perceptual representation.”


Gary Behrmann, Dundas, Plaut


Learning to read may trigger right-left hemisphere difference for face recognition
Marlene Behrmann, Eva Dundas, David Plaut - Carnegie Mellon University

Whereas, in this study, adults showed the expected left and right visual field superiority for face and word discrimination, respectively, the young adolescents demonstrated only the right field superiority for words and no field superiority for faces. Although the children's overall accuracy was lower than that of the older groups, like the young adolescents, they exhibited a right visual field superiority for words but no field superiority for faces. Interestingly, the emergence of face lateralization was correlated with reading competence, measured on an independent standardized test, after regressing out age, quantitative reasoning scores and face discrimination accuracy.


Paula Tallal and Beth Rogowsky


Computer-Based Cognitive and Literacy Skills Training Improves Students' Writing Skills
B. Rogowsky, P. Papamichalis, P., L. Villa, S. Heim, P. Tallal (2013)

A study conducted at Rutgers University finds that cognitive and literacy skills training improves college students' basic writing skills.


 

2013 and earlier

Gary Cottrell


Toward optimal learning dynamics
Garrison W. Cottrell and the TDLC

As outlined in a recent Science article coauthored by members of the TDLC and LIFE centers, transformative advances in the science of learning require collaboration from multiple disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, machine learning, and education. TDLC has implemented this approach through the formation of research networks, small interdisciplinary teams focused on a common research agenda. 


Dan Feldman


A review of STDP by TDLC Investigator Feldman is featured in Neuron
The Spike-Timing Dependence of Plasticity (Neuron, 8/23/12)
It has been 15 years since the discovery of spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), which has become a leading candidate mechanism for information storage and learning in the nervous system. This review summarizes our current understanding of STDP, from its varied forms and cellular mechanisms to theoretical properties and to the evidence that it contributes to plasticity and learning in vivo.



Isabel Gauthier


"Sex matters: Guys recognize cars and women recognize birds best" - September 17, 2012
Results published online in the Vision Research journal describe research by Isabel Gauthier and her colleagues that reveal sex effects in object recognition. (The Vanderbilt Expertise Test Reveals Domain-General and Domain-Specific Sex Effects in Object Recognition.) More



ESconS



Cortical Rhythms in the Human Brain During Free Exploration are Linked to Spatial Memory

TDLC researcher Joe Snider, trainee Markus Plank and PI Howard Poizner, along with colleagues Gary Lynch and Eric Halgren, are participating in exciting work in the Motion Capture Lab at UC San Diego. By combining motion capture, virtual reality and high density electroencephalographic recordings (EEG), their goal is to identify neural processes, based on EEG temporal dynamics, that underlie active spatial exploration and memory. In a study funded by a grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), subjects actively explore an environment on a virtual aircraft carrier deck presented with a lightweight head-mounted display (HMD) having a total of 12 miniature monitors. The researchers are finding that cortical rhythms in the human brain recorded as subjects freely walk about a large-scale virtual environment predict future memory for the environment. https://vimeo.com/28649538.





Different kinds of visual learning reflect different patterns of change in the brain
In two recent articles, Yetta Wong, Jonathan Folstein and Isabel Gauthier, members of the Temporal Dynamics Learning Center supported by NSF, compared two different kinds of learning traditionally called “perceptual expertise” and “perceptual learning”.



LFI!



Let's Face It! and CERT help autistic children (2012)
TDLC researcher Jim Tanaka (University of Victoria) and Marni Bartlett (UC San Diego's Machine Perception Lab) have joined forces to develop a new state-of the-art intervention treatment to help children with autism.






Early Interventions: Baby Brains May Signal Later Language Problem (2011)
Research by TDLC investigator April Benasich and team suggests that the way infants only a few months old process sound in their brains is highly predictive of later language development in normally developing children as well as children at risk for language disorders.

 

 





 

 

 





The Gamelan Project: The ability of a child to synchronize correlates with attentional performance(2011)
The gamelan project pilot study demonstrates that the ability of a child to synchronize with an external source in a group setting correlates significantly with established measures of attentional performance.





Computer-Based Cognitive and Literacy Skills Training Improves Students' Writing Skills(2011)
Research by TDLC investigator April Benasich and team suggests that the way infants only a few months old process sound in their brains is highly predictive of later language development in normally developing children as well as children at risk for language disorders.





TDLC, Music and the Brain (2011)
There is growing interest among TDLC scientists in the effects of music on the brain.

Recently, TDLC members were involved in organizing two conferences about music and the brain. The first, held on March 24, 2011 -- the Newark Workshop on Music, Brain and Education at Rutgers University -- was sponsored by TDLC and organized by TDLC co-Director Paula Tallal. The second -- the New York Academy of Science multidisciplinary conference on "Music, Science and Medicine" -- occurred the next day, on March 25, 2011. TDLC PIs, Paula Tallal and Gyorgy Buzsáki, were involved in organizing the NYAS conference, with the main organizer being Dr. Dorita Berger, Editor-In-Chief at on-line Journal of BioMusical Engineering. This landmark meeting explored the connection between recent scientific findings and their possible application to clinical music and physiological function. The ultimate goal of the conference was to bring together experts studying music in human adaptive function, physiological sciences, neuroscience, neurology, medical research, psychology, music education, and other related disciplines, and to promote collaborative research, communication, and translation of scientific research into music-based clinical treatments of disease. Click here to learn more about TDLC's interest in music and the brain!





Partnership between UC San Diego, The Neurosciences Institute, and the San Diego Youth Symphony - Fall 2011.

 

 







SCCN and Music/Brain Research - 2011

TDLC investigator Scott Makeig, Director of Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience (SCCN), is interested in integrated music into his research. He uses the Brain Computer Interface to read emotions and convert those emotions into musical tones.






Patients with congenital face blindness outperform controls on face perception test
Manuscript under review, Neuropsychologia
Collaborators: Avidan, Tanzer & Behrmann

Individuals born with face-blindness (congenital prosopagnosia), while impaired at recognizing familiar faces and even making perceptual judgments about whether two unknown faces are the same or different, are better than matched controls at detecting similarities/differences between parts of two faces in a composite face comparison task.





Holistic Processing Predicts Face Recognition
Accepted 12/10/10 for publication in Psychological Science

Collaborators: Jennifer J. Richler, Olivia S. Cheung & Isabel Gauthier

The concept of holistic processing (HP) is a cornerstone of face recognition research. We demonstrate that HP predicts face recognition abilities on the Cambridge Face Memory Test and a perceptual face identification task. Our findings validate a large body of work on face recognition that relies on the assumption that HP is related to face recognition.

Palmeri



Inverted Faces are (Eventually) Processed Holistically
Collaborators: Jennifer J. Richler, Michael L. Mack, Thomas J. Palmeri & Isabel Gauthier -- Vanderbilt University

Face inversion effects are used as evidence that faces are processed differently from objects. Nevertheless, there is debate about whether processing differences between upright and inverted faces are qualitative or quantitative.

Pashler, Mozer, Movellan



Dr. April Benasich: Four new papers in press (November/December 2010)

  • Maturation of auditory evoked potentials from 6 to 48 months: Prediction to 3 and 4 year language and cognitive abilities
  • Source localization of event-related potentials to pitch change mapped onto age-appropriate MRIs at 6 months of age
  • Involuntary switching of attention mediates differences in event-related responses to complex tones between early and late Spanish-English bilinguals
  • Reduced sensory oscillatory activity during rapid auditory processing as a correlate of language-learning impairment
Pashler, Mozer, Movellan



Toward Better Recognition of Expressions by Children with Autism
Marian Bartlett, Jim Tanaka, Javier Movellan, and Robert Schultz UCSD, U. Victoria, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

TDLC researchers are collaborating on an exciting new project intended to enhance the facial expression production abilities of children with autism. The new project integrates the computer-based intervention known as Let’s Face It! (LFI!) with UCSD’s Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT). LFI! is a training program designed to improve the face processing skills of children with autism. CERT is a software package that performs real-time expression detection via web-cam input. Click here to download the TDLC 2010 Research Highlights and read more arrow

Pashler, Mozer, Movellan



The Power of Study and Testing Spacing (November 2010)

Pashler, Mozer, Movellan



Neurons cast votes to guide decision-making (October 2010)
(From Vanderbilt News, October 8, 2010)




Music helps explain a paradox in research on faces and Chinese characters (2010)




Recognizing Images Using Fixations (2010)




The Gamelan Project - Exploring music and temporal perception in children (June 2010)




Enhancing facial expression recognition and production in children with autism (May 2010)




A computer vision system automatically recognizes facial expressions of students during problem solving (May 2010)



Our Rich Cognitive Abilities (February 2010)

Ah to be an Expert (February 2010)


Visual Pathways Fine Tuned over Time (February 2010)

Entrainment of Hippocampal Neurons by Theta Rhythm

The Wiring is Not Right: Congenital Prosopagnosia

Adolescents with Autism process faces as wholes but are not sensitive to configuration

Size of Infant's Amygdala Predicts Language Ability


Can You Recognize a Face with a Single Glance?
Task-driven salience: Directing Gaze for Visual Search
Your Lips, Your Eyes, Your Face!


The representation of hand actions in auditory sentence comprehension

Effect Of Gamma Waves On Cognitive And Language Skills In Children

What do we know about the color of men and women?

 

 

Machine Perception Lab PhD Student Turns Face Into Remote Control



O'Reilly Workshop on Models of High-Level Vision
Faces Studied as Parts are Processed as Wholes
It's All Chinese to Me
Faces Equally Special in Different Spatial Formats
NSF Face Camp
NIMBLE Eyes
We Have A Memory Advantage for Faces
The Musical Brain Sees Faster
The Neural Basis of Audio/Visual Event Perception
Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center Promotes Discussions on Collaboration
Maturation of Psychological and Neural Mechanisms Supporting Face Recognition
Knowing An Object Is There Does Not Necessarily Mean You Know What It Is
Similar Faces Show Object-like Categorization
Distribution and Support of Face Recognition Training Software

Social Interaction and the Dynamics of Learning
Learning to Become an Expert