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, Ph.D.

Academic Role: Associate Professor

Faculty Appointment(s) In:
   Psychiatry

Other Affiliation(s):
   Program in Neuroscience

Visual Neural Development in Human Infants

Photo: Ann M. SkoczenskiDr. Skoczenski's research is designed to advance our understanding of visual neural development in human infants, through a series of experiments that record and analyze infants' (age 1-12 months) electrophysiological responses to visual patterns. These experiments will build upon each other to address the following questions: (a) what is the developmental timecourse of visual position sensitivity (the ability to discern differences in the relative position of pattern elements)? (b) how does sensitivity to luminance contrast and pattern size affect visual position sensitivity at different ages? (c) How is the development of orientation sensitivity related to the development of relative position sensitivity? The general hypothesis motivating these experiments is that the development of specificity of infants' neural responses proceeds from basic responses (e.g. detection of contrast) to more complex responses (e.g. discrimination of relative position), and that the development of these complex responses reflects maturation of cortical interactions between different basic mechanisms.


Additional Pages About More Infant Vision Topics:

Ongoing Projects


Representative Publications

Skoczenski, A.M. and Norcia, A.M. (in press) Late maturation of visual hyperacuity. Psychological Science.

Skoczenski, A.M. (in press) Limitations on visual sensitivity during infancy: Contrast sensitivity, vernier acuity and orientation processing. In: Progress in Infancy Research, Vol. 2. Hayne, H. and Fagen, J. (Eds.), Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Candy, T.R., Skoczenski, A.M. and Norcia, A.M. (2001) Normalization models applied to orientation masking in the human infant. J. Neuroscience, 21, 4530-4541. (featured on journal cover)

Good, W.V., Jan, J.E., Burden, S. Skoczenski, A.M. and Candy, T.R. (2001) Recent advances in cortical visual impairment. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 43, 56-60.

Skoczenski A.M. and Norcia A.M. (1999) The development of VEP Vernier acuity and grating acuity in human infants. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 40, 2411-2417. (featured on journal cover)

Skoczenski A.M. & Norcia A.M. (1998) Neural noise limitations on infant visual sensitivity. Nature, 391, 697-700.

Shannon E.S., Skoczenski A.M. & Banks M.S. (1996) Retinal illuminance and contrast sensitivity in human infants. Vision Research, 36, 67-76.

Skoczenski A.M. & Aslin R.N. (1995) Assessment of vernier acuity development using the “equivalent intrinsic blur” paradigm. Vision Research, 35, 1879-1889.

Skoczenski A.M. & Aslin R.N. (1992) Spatiotemporal factors in infant position sensitivity: single-bar stimuli. Vision Research, 32, 1761-1770.


Academic Background

Education

    B.A. Boston College; Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Human Development, 1986
    M.A. University of Rochester; Rochester, New York. Psychology, 1988
    Ph.D. University of Rochester; Rochester, New York. Psychology, 1992

Postdoctoral training:

    University of California, Berkeley, 1992-1993
    New York University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1993-1996
    The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, 1996-1999

Current Appointments:

    Associate Professor of Psychiatry, UMass Medical School
    Associate Professor, Psychological Sciences Division, Shriver Center
    Bunting Fellow, Radcliffe Institute For Advanced Studies, Harvard University

Manuscripts in Preparation:

Skoczenski, A.M and Good, W.V. Selective degradation of Vernier acuity in children with cortical visual impairment. In preparation.

Skoczenski A.M., Kiorpes L. and Movshon J.A. Development of VEP acuity and contrast responses in infant pigtail macaques. In preparation.

Skoczenski A.M., O’Keefe L.P., Kiorpes L., Hawken M.J., Tang C., Graham N.V. and Movshon, J.A. Visual sensitivity of neurons in the macaque’s lateral geniculate nucleus. In preparation.

Additional Publications/Abstracts

Skoczenski, A.M., Surti, H.S., and Nelson, A.D. (2001) Crowding in infants' VEP vernier responses. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Sarasota, Florida.

Skoczenski, A.M. and Norcia, A.M. (2001) A developmental study of multiple mechanisms in spatial vision. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, NY.

Skoczenski, A.M., Norcia, A.M. and Good, W.V. (2000) Evidence for multiple mechanisms in the spatial vision of normal and cortically impaired children. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 41, S1723.

Skoczenski, A.M., Candy, T.R. and Norcia, A.M. (2000) Electrophysiological evidence for late development of form processing in human infants. Paper presented at the bi-annual meeting of the International Conference on Infant Studies, Brighton, England.

Skoczenski, A.M., Candy, T.R., Good, W.V and Norcia, A.M. (1999) Developmental vernier blindness. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 40, S395.

Skoczenski, A.M. and Good, W.V. (1999) Selective damage to vernier acuity responses in children with cortical visual impairment. Perception (Child Vision Research Society Abstracts), in press.

Candy, T.R. Skoczenski, A.M. and Norcia, A.M. (1999) Paradoxical orientation masking in human infants. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 40, S349.

Good, W.V., Skoczenski, A.M., Candy, T.R. and Norcia, A.M. (1999) Evaluation of a VEP grating acuity measure in children with cortical visual impairment. Perception (Child Vision Research Society Abstracts), in press.

Norcia, A.M., Pettet, M.W., Candy, T.R., Skoczenski, A.M. and Good, W.V. (1999) Optimizing the stimulus for sweep VEP acuity estimation. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 40, S820.

Candy, T.R., Skoczenski, A.M. and Norcia, A.M. (1998) Strong temporal frequency dependence of orientation masking in infancy. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 39, S1089.

Skoczenski, A.M., Candy, T.R. and Norcia, A.M. (1998) Orientation masking identifies a late immaturity in infant pattern vision. Invest. Ophth. and Visual Science, 39, S1089.

Movshon J.A., Kiorpes L., Hawken M.J., Skoczenski A.M., Cavanaugh J.C. and Graham, N.V. (1997) Sensitivity of LGN neurons in infant macaque monkeys. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 38, S498.

Skoczenski A.M., Norcia A.M. and Hamer, R.D. (1997) A developmental study of visual noise masking and VEP contrast sensitivity. Invest. Ophth. and Visual Science, 38, S499.

Skoczenski A.M. and Norcia A.M. (1997) Visual noise masking and contrast gain control in human cortex. Optical Society of America Abstracts.

Skoczenski A.M. and Norcia A.M. (1997) Visual noise masking and the development of VEP contrast sensitivity in infants. Perception (Child Vision Research Society Abstracts), 26, 759.

Skoczenski A.M., Norcia A.M. and Movshon J.A. (1996) VEP measures of visual efficiency in human observers. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 37, S707.

Kiorpes L., Skoczenski A.M. and Movshon J.A. (1995) Visual efficiency in young macaque monkeys. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 36, S442.

Skoczenski A.M., Brown C., Kiorpes L. and Movshon J.A. (1995) Development of contrast sensitivity and visual efficiency in macaque monkeys measured with sweep VEPs. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 36, S442.

Movshon J.A., Hawken M.J., Kiorpes L., Skoczenski A.M., Tang C., and O’Keefe L.P. (1994) Visual noise masking in macaque LGN neurons. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (Suppl), 35, 1662.

Skoczenski A.M., O’Keefe L.P., Kiorpes L., Tang C., Hawken M.J. and Movshon J.A. (1994) Visual efficiency of macaque LGN neurons. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, Vol. 1, 7.

Skoczenski A.M. and Norcia A.M. (1994) VEP measurements of form discrimination in human infants. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (Suppl), 35, 2028.

Skoczenski A.M., Banks M.S. and Candy T.R. (1993) Contrast sensitivity and equivalent noise in infants and adults, Invest. Ophth. and Visual Science (Suppl), 34, 1355.

Skoczenski A.M. and Aslin R.N. (1992) The role of intrinsic blur in the development of vernier acuity. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (Suppl), 33, 1352.

Aslin R.N. and Skoczenski A.M. (1990) Periodic vernier acuity in 3-month-old human infants. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (Suppl), 31, 8.

Skoczenski A.M. and Aslin R.N. (1990) Infant "hyperacuity:" what develops? Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (Suppl), 31, 9.

Skoczenski A.M. and Aslin R.N. (1989) Spatiotemporal influences on infant vernier acuity. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (Suppl), 30, 312.

Skoczenski A.M. (1988) Visual representations of rotated objects in 4-month-olds. Infant Behavior and Development, 11, 292.


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