Lab Director
Jennifer Steeves, PhD
Dr. Steeves is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and also serves as Associate Vice President Research, York University. Her research examines how the brain adapts to changes in sensory input with the loss of one eye or to direct brain damage. She uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to reverse engineer the brain. Her lab uses TMS to transiently disrupt discrete nodes within the brain and observe changes in behaviour and brain activity.
Affiliations:
Adjunct Scientist, Neurosciences and Mental Health, Sick Kids Research Institute
Adjunct Professor, Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Adjunct Professor, School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, University of Waterloo
Core Member, Centre for Vision Research, York University
Core Member, Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA), York University
Member, Centre for Integrative and Applied Neuroscience (CIAN), York University
Member, Connected Minds, York University
Member, Canadian Action and perception Network, CAPnet
Research Scientist
Stefania Moro, PhD
Dr. Moro is an Assistant Professor at York University and a Research Scientist in the lab. Stefania completed her PhD in psychology at York University specializing in auditory and visual processing and the underlying neural correlates in individuals who are unilaterally enucleated (one eye removed). In general, Stefania is interested in neural plasticity, specifically how the brain is able to compensate for changes in the sensory systems and how disruptions to brain activity can influence behaviour. She has special interests in working with various patient populations including those with sensory deficits and stroke. Stefania uses a variety of methods including behavioural psychophysics, structural, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in her research.
Graduate Students
Aysha Kinakool
Aysha Kinakool, BPT, MScNPT, is a PhD candidate in the Brain, Behaviour & Cognitive Sciences (BBCS) Program. She is currently working on a project involving visual hallucinations in patients with Charles Bonnet Syndrome.
Faizaan Qureshi
Faizaan Qureshi completed his BSc in Biology in 2020 and is currently a MSc student. He is studying audiovisual processing in people who had one eye removed earlier versus later in their lives.
Remy Cohan
Remy is a PhD candidate whose research centres around the application of various non-invasive neuromodulation and neuroimaging techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), functional MRI, and MR spectroscopy, to study the brain’s ability to change and reorganize both in health and disease.
Matthew Macdonald-Dale
Matt is a Master’s student in the Psychology field of Cognitive Sciences. He is using methods such as fMRI and TMS to study Visual Snow Syndrome and the neurological processes which occur in vision.
Undergraduate Students
Allison Sletcher
Allison is undergraduate student earning a BA Spec. Honours degree in Psychology at York University. She is conducting her thesis on Audio Expertise in Audiovisual Person & Object Recognition under the supervision of Dr. Steeves.
Matthew Mazza
Matthew is an undergraduate student earning a BSc Spec. Honours degree in Neuroscience at York University. He is working in the lab as a research assistant for the 2022 CVR Fellowship Program.
Andrew Kim
Andrew is an undergraduate student earning a BSc Spec. Honours degree at York University. He is working in the lab as a research assistant for the 2023 CVR Fellowship Program.