U. professor develops new technique to study infant brains
Zoe ToledoPsychology professorLauren Emberson has developed a new technique to study how the portions of babies’ brains that respond to visual stimuli are the same portions of babies’ brains that respond to the expectation of a visual stimulus. The research in “Top-down modulation in the infant brain: Learning-induced expectations rapidly affect the sensory cortex at 6 months,” published June 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was conducted by Emberson, Richard Aslin and John Richards. Aslin is a professor at Rochester University for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science, and Richards is a professor at the University of South Carolina department of psychology. Emberson, who joined the University psychology department on September 1 as an assistant professor of psychology, was previously a postdoctoral associate at Rochester University for the department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences. Emberson explained that in the study, parents go into a room where there is a screen that will display a video to the baby.