We invite you to attend Dr. Tracy Centanni’s talk as part of the psychology colloquium Wednesday, October 14th at 3:30pm via Zoom. Dr. Tracy Centanni, assistant professor from Texas Christian University will be presenting her talk titled "Acquisition of print specificity and novel methods for improving plasticity". We hope that you will join us!
Abstract: Reading is a critical skill for everyone in the modern world, yet since reading is a human invention, the brain must create the circuits to support this skill from scratch in every child learning to read. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that up to 15% of children fail to acquire reading. Research over the past several decades has made incredible progress in not only understanding the varying behavioral symptoms of dyslexia, but also the differences in the genetic and neural correlates of reading failure. One well-replicated difference is in development of the brain’s recognition of print in a region known as the visual word form area (VWFA). In many kids who go on to reading failure, the VWFA exhibits signs of hypoactivation from an early age. In this talk, I’ll present an overview of the VWFA’s development and how it differs in those who go on to dyslexia. Then, I’ll discuss new work from my lab investigating the use of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation as a possible tool to enhance neural plasticity for novel letter-sound pairings and the implications of this new approach.
Event address for attendees:
https://zoom.us/j/6884899144?pwd=THFzczdDZmx1TlczNEZxeWo1dlJHdz09
Meeting ID: 688 489 9144
Passcode: 2020
Dr. Centanni will be available for individual Zoom meetings, please contact Shu at shu.2.jiang@uconn.edu to request an individual meeting.
The remaining colloquium scheduled is listed below. All talks will take place via Zoom at 3:30pm on Wednesdays unless otherwise noted.
October 21st, 2020
Dr. Mark Hatzenbuehler, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
November 11th, 2020
Dr. Dr. Robin Vallacher, Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University
March 24th, 2021
Dr. Victor Ferreira, Department of Psychology, UCSD
April 14th, 2021
Dr. Sapna Cheryan, Department of Psychology, University of Washington
For more information, contact: Shu Jiang at shu.2.jiang@uconn.edu