Marina Bedny

The Neuroplasticity & Development Lab investigates the contributions of nature and nurture to human cognition. Areas of interest include the origins of conceptual representations, the contribution of linguistic and sensory experience to knowledge and the neurocognitive basis of cultural skills (e.g., reading, programming). We use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and behavioral measures to investigate these questions. One line of research in the lab compares the minds and brains of populations with different visual experiences e.g., congenitally blind, late blind and sighted individuals. Working with people who are blind enables disentangling the contributions of sensory and linguistic experience to conceptual representations. We investigate visual cortex plasticity in blindness as a window into the mechanisms and timing of neural specialization in humans.