Page 16 - RFCUNY Annual Report 2016

Tony Ro Rebecca Spokony

Presidential Professor, Psychology & Biology Assistant Professor, Natural Sciences
The Graduate Center Baruch College

How do we consciously experience the world? “Since every individual is different, their sensitivity to
Professor Ro investigates this mystery of visual per- a drug or a hormone would potentially be different,”
ception through his three-year, $550K NSF award, describes Professor Spokony. She seeks to understand
Cortical Mechanisms for Visual Perception. Using a how this natural variation in sensitivity to hormones is
variety of techniques, including EEG recordings and expressed and how the sensitivity variation relates to
MRI scans, Ro’s team tracks how people and their an animal’s genotype. Spokony’s three-year, $231K
brains respond to seeing something versus missing NSF award RUI: Genetic Architecture of Juvenile
something. Seeing in this case refers to the brain Hormone Sensitivity, allows her to examine the
consciously representing visual information. Missing juvenile hormone in the common fruit fly, a hormone
describes the brain not consciously representing critical for the species’ ability to grow into an adult.
visual information despite the presence of an image. “We are aware of juvenile hormone, but we don’t know
“We can detect changes in brain activity and assess all the genes that it regulates,” Spokony explains. By
how different brain areas are functioning when we’re using a chemical mimic of juvenile hormone known
having these different types of visual experiences,” as methoprene, Spokony and her class administer a
Ro explains. He endeavors to gain a basic under- hormone treatment and score for sensitivity based on
standing of the processes involved with vision and visible mutations in the development of the flies. “I
how this process unfolds over time, allowing us to hope to broaden our knowledge of the juvenile hor-
visually experience the world. “This knowledge will mone pathway and leverage that knowledge to assess
help us discover new methods for correcting impair- how the hormone actually regulates development.”
ments in perception caused by brain damage or loss
of vision.”

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