Jennifer K Steeves

Faculty & School/Dept.

Faculty of Health - Department of Psychology

Degrees

PhD - 2001
York University
Toronto

Selected Publications

Kelly, K.R., McKetton, L., Schneider, K.A., Gallie, B.L. & Steeves, J.K.E. (2014). Altered anterior visual system development following early monocular enucleation. Neuroimage: Clinical, 4, 72-81.

Mullin, C. & Steeves, J.K.E. (2013). Consecutive TMS-fMRI reveals an inverse relationship in BOLD signal. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(49), 19243-9.

Moro, S.S. & Steeves, J.K.E (2013). No Colavita effect: Increasing temporal load maintains equal auditory and visual processing in people with one eye. Neuroscience Letters, 556, 186-90.

Solomon-Harris, L., Mullin, C.R. & Steeves, J.K.E. (2013). TMS to the “occipital face area” affects face recognition but not categorization. Brain and Cognition. 83(3), 245-51.

Verdichevski, M. & Steeves, J.K.E. (2013). Own-age and own-sex biases in recognition of aged faces Acta Psychologica. . 144(2):418-23

Kelly, K.R., Zohar, S., Gallie, B.l. & Steeves, J.K.E. (2013). Impaired speed perception but intact luminance contrast perception in people with one eye. Investigative Ophthalmology and Vision Science, 54(4), 3058-64.

Ganaden, R., Mullin, C.R. & Steeves, J.K.E. (2013) TMS to the TOS impairs scene but not object categorization. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, (6):961-8.

Hoover, A.E.N., Harris, L.R. & Steeves, J.K.E. (2012) Sensory compensation in sound localization in people with one eye. Experimental Brain Research, 216, (4), 565-574. pdf

Moro, S.S. & Steeves, J.K.E (2012). No Colavita effect: equal auditory and visual processing in people with one eye.  Experimental Brain Research, 216(3), 367-373. pdf

Kelly, K., Gallie, B.L. & Steeves, J.K.E. (2012) Impaired face processing in early monocular deprivation from enucleation. Optometry and Vision Science, 89(2), 137-47. pdf

Mullin, C.R., & Steeves, J.K.E. (2011). TMS to lateral occipital cortex disrupts object processing but facilitates scene processing Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(12):4174-84. pdf

Hoover, A.E.N, Demonet, J.F. & Steeves, J.K.E. (2010) Superior voice recognition in a patient with prosopagnosia and object agnosia. Neuropsychologia, pdf

Brewster, P.W.H., Dobrin, R.A., Mullin, C.R. & Steeves, J.K.E. (2010). Sex differences in face processing are mediated by handedness and sexual orientation. Laterality pdf

Mullin, C.R., Demonet, J.F., Kentridge, R.W., Heywood, C.A., Goodale, M.A. & Steeves, J.K.E (2009). Preserved striate cortex is not sufficient to support the McCollough Effect: Evidence from two patients with cerebral achromatopsia. Perception, 38, 1741-48. pdf

Steeves, J.K.E., Dricot L., Goltz H.C., Sorger B., Peters J., Milner A. D., Goodale M. A., Goebel R., Rossion B. (2009) Abnormal Face Identity Coding in the Middle Fusiform Gyrus of Two Brain-Damaged Prosopagnosic Patients. Neuropsychologia, 47(12):2584-92. pdf

 

Other Research Outputs

1. CBC Radio’s “Spark”, interview Oct 2, 2011, “Facial Recognition”, http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2011/09/spark-157/
2. CBC Radio’s “Quirks & Quarks”, interview Oct 30, 2010, “The man who mistook every face” http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/episode/2010/10/30/october-30-2010/
3. “Have we met? Women, gay men know best” by Jeffrey Kluger, Time.com, June 24, 2010. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1998848,00.html
4. “Face it, girls are better at recognizing people” by Lois Rogers, The Sunday Times, UK, June 27, 2010.
5. “Gay men are good at remembering faces. They use both sides of their brains more than their heterosexual counterparts: York U study finds.” MacLeans.ca, June 22, 2010. http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/06/22/gay-men-are-good-at-recognizing-faces/ 

Affiliations

Canadian Action and Perception Network (CAPnet)
Member

Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences, University of Toronto
Adjunct AssociateProfessor

Centre for Vision Research, York University
Member

Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute
Adjunct Scientist

York Autism Alliance Research Group
Member

Neuroscience Graduate Diploma Program
Program Coordinator

Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
Adjunct Scientist

Supervision

Currently available to supervise graduate students: Yes

Currently taking on work-study students, Graduate Assistants or Volunteers: Yes

Available to supervise undergraduate thesis projects: Yes

Current Research

In broad strokes, our lab studies brain plasticity. We are asking questions such as, how does the brain adapt to changes in sensory input or to direct brain damage. We use converging techniques such as psychophysics, eye movement measurement, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine the brain and behaviour. We have three separate but interrelated lines of research:

1. We study rare neurological patients with acquired brain damage resulting in visual object agnosia (the inability to visually recognize objects) or prosopagnosia (the inability to visually recognize a face). Using image-guided TMS, we are able to create temporary lesions in neurologically-intact participants to better understand object and face processing by transiently disrupting processing in various cortical regions of the face, object and scene processing networks.
2. We are one of the few labs in the world to study multisensory (visual and auditory) processing in unique ophthalmological patients who have had one eye surgically removed (enucleated) early in life, thereby disrupting binocular input to the visual system. We are examining low-level form vision and motion processing as well as higher-level face, object and scene processing. We also measure multisensory adaptation through behaviour and neuroimaging. This approach can reveal coding mechanisms in the brain that inform us about how intact sensory systems function.
3. We are examining sex and sexual orientation differences in perceptual and spatial cognitive processing. We are currently measuring similarities and differences in behaviour as well as brain structure and function.