Seminars & Events
Monday, February 11, 2013: Dr. Daphne Soares (University of Maryland College Park) will speak on "The Sensory World of Cavefishes" at 4:45 pm in Goodpaster Hall 195.
Monday, March 4, 2013: Dr. Joe Cheer (University of Maryland Baltimore) will speak on "Endogenous Cannabinoids and the Pursuit of Reward" at 4:45 pm in Goodpaster Hall 195.
Friday, April 12, 2013: Dr. Jill McGaughy (University of New Hampshire) will speak on "The Role of Cortical Norepinephrine in the Ontogeny of Executive Function" at 3:00 pm in Schaefer Hall 106.
Alumni Highlight
Dr. Erin Johnson '02 recently received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester School of Medicine, and was inducted as an alumni member of Nu Rho Psi.
SMP Spotlight
Ron Saul, "Chronic activation of the substantia nigra nociceptin/orphanin receptor induces motor deficits similar to Parkinson's disease," 2008. Saul, the 2008 winner of the Neuroscience Award, infused a drug into the substantia nigra of rats and measured the resulting motor behaviors, mood disturbances, and cognitive abilities.
Lewis, Christopher (2010). The Influence of Voice Gender on the Perceived Sex of Biological Motion. (Mentor: E. Hiris)
Abstract
Integrating information from multiple modalities allows us to live in an environment without being constantly confronted with perceptual ambiguity. I studied how visual and auditory information is integrated in making judgments about sex. Observers were shown a series of point-light walkers (PLWs) which each varied in the gender information they contained. Presenting those stimuli with unambiguous male, female, and neutral gender voices, each of which either addressed the stimuli or created the perception of being from the stimuli, had no effect on the visually perceived gender if the voice addressed the stimuli. However, when the voice was coming from the stimuli, the gender information carried by the voicer influenced the visually perceived gender. These data suggest auditory sex cues influenced the perceived sex of biological motion, but only when the voice was coming from the biological motion. Thus, audiovisual integration of biological motion is processed at a level that can differentiate if the auditory information is related to the visual stimuli.
