Welcome to the Brain and Vision Laboratory at the University of Rochester, headed by Dr. Daphne Bavelier.

NEWS:

• 02-05: Two jobs available:
  
  Postdoc in MR Imaging of Brain Plasticity
  The Brain & Vision Laboratory and Rochester Center for Brain Imaging of the University of Rochester is seeking a postdoctoral fellow to work in the area of MRI data analysis & software development, applied to Cognitive Neuroscience research. The research foci of our lab center around neural plasticity in vision, language and working memory. The successful candidate would conduct research in collaboration with lab members as well as advising on data analysis issues and supervising research assistants involved in data analysis and the development of analysis tools. The candidate should have a background in neuroimaging of cognitive functions and ample experience in the processing and analysis of MR images (including Matlab, C++, packages such as AFNI, FSL, and/or SPM). The successful candidate will be appointed in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (http://www.bcs.rochester.edu) and working in the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging (http://www.rcbi.rochester.edu), a state-of-the-art facility equipped with a Siemens Trio 3T MR system and high-performance computing resources, with a full-time staff of cognitive neuroscientists, computer scientists, engineers, and physicists. Opportunities exist to collaborate with faculty in the departments of Brain & Cognitive Science, but also Center for Visual Science, the Center for Language Studies, Radiology, and Biomedical Engineering, among others.
  The appointment is for a minimum of two years, with possibility of extension - salary commensurate with experience. If interested, please send a CV and short statement of your interest, as well as the name and address of three references to Daphne Bavelier, daphne@bcs.rochester.edu
  
  Full Time Research Assistantship
  Applications are invited for a two-year research assistantship in The Brain and Vision Laboratory, department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, to work on a project designed to study the effects of video game playing on visual and cognitive skills. The position will involve a number of responsibilities including designing/programming experiments, scheduling/testing subjects, and analyzing data (behavioral, eye tracking and brain imaging-MRI). It is an excellent position for those interested in gaining experience in the field before entering a graduate program.
  Qualified applicants will have: 1)A BA/BS in a natural science; 2)Previous experience in programming (the majority of the programming in the lab is done in MATLAB, but other languages such as JAVA or C++ are also acceptable), 3) some knowledge of statistics.
  Interested individuals should send a vita as well the names/contact information of three references to Daphne Bavelier – daphne@bcs.rochester.edu. Start date flexible.
  
  
• 11-04: Download our latest paper, published in the September issue of Nature Neuroscience: Short-term memory span: insights from sign language

RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:

How plastic is the brain? How dependent are your cognitive skills on your previous experience? To address this issue, we examine the effect of altered experience early in life on the functional organization of the adult brain. For example, we ask whether early deafness leads to changes in vision or whether early exposure to ASL changes the cortical organization for language. We also study how videogame playing modifies visual skills. We determine the nature of the changes by comparing behavioral indices of vision or language processes in populations with different experience, and assess underlying changes in neural substrates with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).