Dana Kuefner
Postdoctoral Researcher
Research Interests
I have a general interest in the developmentof visual processing and the underlying neural mechanisms.
I also have a great interest in how experience can effect the development of cognitive skills, neural plasticity, and how these two factors may co-vary throughout development.
During my graduate studies at the University of Milan-Bicocca, I studied the development, in the first year of life, of the basic cognitive processes underlying illusory contour perception, such as visual segmentation and binding.
As a graduate student, I also worked on studies that looked at the how experience, or lack thereof, influences the ability of both children and adults to recognize certain types of faces (i.e. faces of newborn infants).
As a post-doc at the University of Louvain, I focused on using event-related potentials (ERPs) to better understand the developmental trends that may occur throughout childhood in the electrophysiological signals typically associated with face processing (i.e. the N170).
Publications
Kuefner, D., de Heering, A., Jacques, C., Palmero-Soler, E., Rossion, B. (2010). Early visually evoked electrophysiological responses over the human brain (P1, N170) show stable patterns of face-sensitivity from 4 years to adulthood. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 3:67. doi:10.3389/neuro.09.067.2009 [PDF]
Kuefner, D., Jacques, C., Prieto, E.A., Rossion, B. (2010). Electrophysiological correlates of the composite face illusion: disentangling perceptual and decisional components of holistic face processing in the human brain. Brain and Cognition, 74, 225-238. [PDF]
Macchi Cassia, V., Picozzi, M., Kuefner, D., Bricolo, E. & Turati, C. (2009). Holistic processing for faces and cars in preschool-aged children and adults: evidence from the composite effect. Developmental Science, 12, 236-248 .
Kuefner, D., Macchi Cassia, V., Picozzi, M.,Bricolo, E. (2008). Do all kids look alike? Evidence for an other-age effect in adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 34, 811-817.
Macchi Cassia, V., Kuefner, D., Westerlund, A., & Nelson, C.A. (2006). Modulation of face-sensitive event-related potentials by canonical and distorted human faces: the role of two visual structural properties. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 1343-1358.
Macchi Cassia, V., Kuefner, D., Westerlund, A., & Nelson, C.A. (2006). A behavioral and ERP investigation of 3-month-olds' face preferences. Neuropsychologia, 44, 2113-2125.