Research 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 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)

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)

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 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

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 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!

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

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).

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.