Bavelier Daphne
Psychology
Forbes and Dunagan
France
Biography
A distinctive feature of the human brain is its capacity to learn and adapt to an ever-changing environment. What are the factors that promote such learning and brain plasticity? Are some parts of our nervous system more plastic than others, making some skills easier to acquire? Answers to these questions are central to basic science, education, clinical rehabilitation, and aging. To address these questions, her laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach (behavior, brain imaging, eye tracking, vital statistics) to study how individuals learn and adapt to changes in experience, whether induced by nature (deafness) or training (playing video games). Our work and that of others in the field highlights that, although possible, learning and brain plasticity tend to be highly specific. Overcoming this specificity would be advantageous. Their research focuses on characterizing the factors that may contribute to greater plasticity and wider transfer of learning, and understanding the mechanisms by which they act.
Research Interest
Psychology
