One outstanding question in the visual sciences is how different types of visual stimuli are recognized and processed. Humans rely heavily on vision and much of the cerebral cortex in involved with processing visual information. This project examines how adults recognize two classes of visual objects, faces and words, which on the surface seem rather different but may actually share some of the same underlying processes. The work also explores what goes wrong in individuals who have greater than typical difficulties with recognizing faces or words, arising from developmental or congenital problems. To address this, the investigators will explore both the behavioral skills and the brain systems involved in visual recognition of faces and words, in normally skilled individuals and in who have difficulty with face recognition or with word recognition.
This research is highly significant for a number of reasons. First, the research has the potential to contribute to our broad understanding of the brain and the processes that permit normal face and word recognition. Second, new techniques, software and analytical methods for measuring the brain and behavioral processes will be developed, and these new methods will be made available to other scientists and can be applied to studying other cognitive abilities, as well. Third, the studies will provide a better understanding of the processes that are affected when someone has difficulty learning to read or to recognize faces and thus may point to improved techniques for the diagnosis and remediation of such developmental deficits. Fourth, the project offers the opportunity for students to be trained in the field of cognitive neuroscience and to develop skills that will allow them to become independent scientific investigators in future. Finally, the investigators will use the research to teach middle school students about the brain and infuse them with an interest in scientific discovery from an early age.
