Russ HamerI received my Ph.D. in Sensory Neuroscience at Syracuse University in 1979. My post-doctoral research focused on visual development of infants at the University of Washington, Seattle, using forced-choice preferential looking methods, and then at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco using swept-parameter visual evoked potentials. In addition to the visual development research, I developed detailed computational models of vertebrate rod and cone phototransduction, addressing the decades-long conundra regarding the biochemical bases for the surprising reproducibility of rod single-photon responses. Between 2007-2014 I continued my research in visual development at the Institute of Psychology at the University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. Since 2014, I have been studying and writing about the Surreal Art of the Belgian artist, René  Magritte and what his art can reveal about visual processing.

Collaborators

Ronald T. Verrillo – 1971-1979 (Ph.D. advisor, co-author)
Josef Z. Zwislocki – 1971 – 1979 (Ph.D. advisor, co-author)
Anthony J. Capraro – 1971 – 1975
George A. Gescheider – 1971 – 1975

  • Studies in vibrotactile sensitivity, vibrotactile channels, vibrotactile masking, modeling vibrotactile masking data

Davida Y. Teller – 1978-1982
Kenneth R. Alexander – 1978-1982
Velma Dobson  – 1978-1982
Marilyn Schneck – 1979-1982

  • Development of (night, rod-mediated) scotopic vision in young human infants (Schneck)
  • Development of color vision in 1,2 and 3-month-old infants s(Teller, Knoblauch)
  • Effects of lighting in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit on infant rod (night) sensitivity (Dobson)

Jay M. Enoch  – 1982-1983
Theodore Cohn – 1983-1984

  • Psychophysical measures of cone photoreceptor alignment via measurement of the Stiles-Crawford effect in normal subjects and patients with various retinal diseases (Enoch)
  • Measurement of spatial masking and visually-induced ambulatory instability associated with use of escalators (Cohn)

Anthony M. Norcia – 1984-1996
Christopher W. Tyler – 1984-present
Arthur Jampolsky – 1994-2007
Susan Day – 1997-1999
Charlene Hsu-Winges – 1997-1999
Spero C. Nicholas – 1995-2007
Wolfgang Wesemann – 1987-1991
Henrike Wesemann – 1987-1991

  • Studies of development of visual acuity and contrast sensitivity (Norcia, Tyler, Hsu-Winges, Day)
  • Elaboration of the newly-developed swept-parameter visual evoked potential technique (Sweep VEP or sVEP) with application to studies of human visual development (Norcia, Tyler, Hsu-Winges, Wesemann)
  • Developmental motion asymmetry in normal infants, strabismic infants and adults (Norcia, Jampolsky)
  • Spatiotemporal processing in adult vision and the Ferry-Porter Law (Tyler); Vertebrate phototransduction modeling (Tyler, Nicholas)
  • Development of efficient, noninvasive optical method for measuring eye refractive error in infants with the invention of a portable low-cost photorefractor (Norcia, the Wesemanns, Day)

Daniel A. Tranchina – 1995-2007

  • Modeling vertebrate rod phototransduction

Trevor D. Lamb – 2001 – 2005

  • Modeling vertebrate rod phototransduction

Paul A. Liebman – 1995-2007

  • Modeling vertebrate rod phototransduction

Dora Fix Ventura – 2007-2017
Mirella Gualtieri – 2007-2013
Valtenice de Cassia Rodrigues de Matos Franca – 2007-2013
Marina Von Zuben de Aruba Camargo – 2009-2013
Fabio A. Carvalho – 2008-2013
Thiago L. Costa – 2007-2013
Luiz Claudio Portnoi Baran – 2015-2017
Diego da Silva Lima – 2015-2017
Marcelo F. Costa– 2007-2013
Ana Laura Araujo Moura – 2007-2013
Mirella T. Barboni – 2007-2013
Marcio L. Bandeira – 2007-2013
Federico Sadun – 2007-2013
Paulo S. Boggio – 2007-2013
Balazs V. Nagy – 2007-2013
Adrianna Berezovsky – 2007-2013
Solange R. Salamao – 2007-2013
Valerio Carelli – 2007-2013
Anna M. de Negri – 2007-2013
Francisco Max Damico – 2007-2013
A.G. Oliveira – 2007-2013
Kallene Summer M. Vidal – 2015-2017
Sarah Leonardo Dias  – 2015-2017
Mayana Zatz – 2015-2017
Heydi Segundo Tabares – 2015-2017
Cristiane Maria Gomes Martins – 2015-2017
Ana Paula A P Bertozzi – 2015-2017
Rosa Estela Gazeta – 2015-2017
Saulo Duarte Passos – 2015-2017
Diego Decleva – 2015-2017

  • Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity development in very-low-birthweight healthy infants (Franca, Ventura)
  • Psychophysical measurement of magno- and parvocellular channel signals in detection of contrast increments in normal observers and patients with type-2 diabetes and in carriers of Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (Gualtieri, Ventura, Damico, Moura, Bandeira, M.F. Costa, Carelli, Salamao, Sadun, de Negri, Oliveira, Berezovsky)
  • Sweep-VEP measurement of Vernier Acuity in normal adults (Carvalho, Von Zuben, Ventura)
  • Effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on distinct visual channels (magno-parvo: T.L. Costa, Nagy, Barboni, Gualtieri, Boggio, Ventura)
  • Visual acuity screening in infants whose mothers had been infected with Zika virus during gestation (Baran, Lima, Ventura, Barboni, Vidal, Martins, Franca, Damico, Dias, Bertozzi, Gazeta, Passos, Decleva)

Givago Silva Souza – 2009-2013

  • Measurement of contrast sensitivity with Swept-Parameter Visual Evoked Potentials (sweepVEP) in normal adults and modeling magnocellular and parvocellular contributions (2009-2012)