Pei Francesca Curriculum Vitae Personal details Citizenship: Italian Date of birth: October 6th, 1973 Place of birth: Arezzo (Italy) Contact Address: Stanford University, Department of Psychology, Jordan Hall, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, USA 94305 Telephone: +415 8062556 e-mail: fpei@stanford.edu, pei73.pei@gmail.com Education and professional experiences in details 09/2013-10/2015: - Translational fellowship on Autism Research from the Bass Society of Pediatric Scholars. Stanford Autism Center at Stanford University Department of Psychiatry. 06/2011-10/2013: - Post Postdoctoral Fellow Stanford University, SVNDL lab. Department of Psychology. 2007-2011: - Adjunct Professor of Perception, New York University, Florence campus. The course is aimed at NYU undergraduate students and includes class and laboratory activities on the sensory systems with particular emphasis on the visual system. - External collaborator at the Visual Perception and Attention Lab of the Department of Psychology, University of Florence run by Prof. Stefano Baldassi. My support to the lab consisted in coordinating the clinical research project, the VEP setup and in supervising student s projects within this area of development of visual crowding and aging. 2006-2007: - External collaborator at the Visual Perception and Attention lab of the Dept. Of Psychology, University of Florence. - Chair of the 30 th European Conference on Visual Perception, Arezzo, 27-31 August 2007. 2003-2006 : - PhD in Basic and Developmental Neuroscience, Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, University of Pisa, Italy. Projects executed at the Stella Maris Neuropshychiatric Hospital for children, Calambrone, Pisa, Italy and at the Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San 1
Francisco, California, USA. Project title: Neural correlates of the perception of complex patterns during normal and abnormal development (autism). 2002-2003 : - Rachel C. Atkinson Fellow continuing the projects reported below with dr. Anthony Norcia and to work on a new project with dr. William Good (SKERI, San Francisco) and Dr. Ashima Madan (Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA) on visual acuity and contrast sensitivity in children with Cerebral Vision Impairment (CVI) and in premature children. 2001-2002 : - Research fellow at the Infant lab of The Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA supervised by dr. Anthony Norcia. Experiment on low- and middle-level function in infants and new born using VEPs techniques working on grating and Vernier acuity, contour and texture integration, symmetry, Glass patterns and attention. - Team member of a project on the sensory and cross-modal perceptual functions of autism in collaboration with the University California San Francisco (San Francisco, CA, USA; prof. Michael Merzenich) and the Cure Autism Now foundation (Los Angeles, CA, USA). 9/2000-1/2001: - Visitor scientist at the Infant lab of the Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA. Use of VEP techniques to study the neural correlates of motion coherence. 4/2000-7/2000: - Research experience at the Institute of Neurophysiology of the Italian National Research Council, Pisa, Italy. VEP recordings from newborns attending complex motion displays. 1999-2000: - Professional practice at the Psychology Unit of the Italian Public Health Service, Pisa (Italy) working with children with neurodevelopmental disorders. -Professional practice at the Stella Maris Neuropsychiatric Hospital for children, Language Development Department, School-age Clinical Psychology Department and in the Psychiatric department working with children with neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular working on family movie for early diagnosis of Autism, Calambrone, Pisa, Italy. 1998: - Italian laurea in Clinical Psychology. Faculty of Psychology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy. Final mark: 110/110. Grants held and Awards - Translational fellowship on Autism Research from the Bass Society of Pediatric Scholars 09/2013-10/2015. Stanford Autism Center at Stanford University, Department of Psychiatry - Italian PRIN 2007 titled La percezione della forma tridimensionale: integrazione di informazioni visive e multimodali. (35.500. Role: external collaborator. PI: Corrado Caudek) - Research grant from the "Cure Autism Now" foundation, Los Angeles, CA, USA for the two years project Neural and behavioral correlates of visual integration and visual search in 2
autism. A probe for early assessment. 2004. (120.000 USD. Role: Co.PI) - Equipment grant from the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA as a start-up for setting up a VEP laboratory in Italy, 2003. (10.000 USD. Role: PI) - ARVO 2002 Travel Grant from the Fondazione Bietti per l oftalmologia to partecipate at ARVO 2002, Ft.Lauderdale. - Rachel C. Atkinson Fellowship awarded by The Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute for one year (2001). - Cure Autism Now Travel Grant to participate at the IMFAR and the Society for Neuroscience meetings, San Diego, CA, USA, 2001. Full length publications in ISI journals 1) Pei F., Norcia A.M. and Baldassi S. Psychophysiological measures of low-level vision reveal spatial processing deficits and hemispheric asymmetry in Autism Spectrum Disorder under review 2) Pei F, Baldassi S, Procida G, Igliozzi R, Tancredi R, Muratori F, Cioni G. (2009) Neural correlates of texture and contour integration in children with autism spectrum disorders. Vision Research 49(16):2140-50. Epub 2009 Jun 11. 3) Baldassi S, Pei F, Megna N, Recupero G, Viespoli M, Igliozzi R, Tancredi R, Muratori F, Cioni G. (2009) Search superiority in autism within, but not outside the crowding regime. Vision Research 49(16):2151-6. Epub 2009 Jun 12. 4) Tinelli F, Pei F, Guzzetta A, Bancale A, Mazzotti S, Baldassi S, Cioni G. The assessment of visual acuity in children with periventricular damage: a comparison of behavioural and electrophysiological techniques. Vision Research 2008 May;48 (10):1233-41. Epub 2008 Apr 1. 5) Bonneh YS, Belmonte MK, Pei F, Iversen PE, Kenet T, Akshoomoff N, Adini Y, Simon HJ, Moore CI, Houde JF, Merzenich MM.. Cross-modal extinction in a boy with severely autistic behavior and high verbal intelligence. Cognitive Neuropsychology 2008 Jul;25(5):635-52. 6) Pei F, Pettet MW, Norcia AM. Sensitivity and configuration-specificity of orientationdefined texture processing in infants and adults. Vision Research, 2007 Feb;47(3):338-48. Epub 2006 Dec 22. 7) Pei F, Pettet MW, Vildavski VY, Norcia AM. Event-related potentials show configural specificity of global form processing. Neuroreport. 2005. Sep 8;16(13):1427-30 3
8) Norcia AM, Pei F, Bonneh YS, Hou C, Sampath V & Pettet M. Development of sensitivity to texture and contour information in the human infants. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2005 Apr;17(4):569-79. 9) Pei, F., Pettet, M. W., & Norcia, A. M. (2002). Neural correlates of object-based attention. Journal of Vision, 2002; 2(9):588-96. http://journalofvision.org/2/9/1/ 10) Maestro S, Muratori F, Cavallaro M C, Pei F, Stern D, Golse B, Palacio-Espada F. Attentional skills during the first 6 months of age in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2002 Oct;41(10):1239-45. Book chapters Norcia AM and Pei F. Development of visual attention. In Neurological Assessment in the first two year of life. 2008. Cioni and Mercuri Eds. Mac Keith Press, London, UK. Refereed Conference Abstract Pei F. and A. M. Norcia Alterations of Visual Spatial Frequency Tuning in Autism Spectrum Disorders. IMFAR 2013 Pei F, Baldassi S. and Norcia AMN invited symposium Visual gain control abnormalities in Autism Spectrum Disorders, International Journal of Psychophysiology. Vol 85 issue 3 2012 Pei F, Baldassi S. and Norcia AMN Late development of contrast normalization mechanisms Perception 2012 in press Pei F, Gattulli G, Mangiabene A & Baldassi S. Texture and contour integration in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease: A VEP study. Perception. 2009, 38 ECVP Abstract Supplement Tinelli F, Pei F, Baldassi S, Guzzetta A, Bancale A & Cioni G. Evaluation of visual acuity in children with periventricular white matter damage: Comparing acuity cards and sweep VEPs. Perception. 2007, 36 ECVP Abstract Supplement Baldassi S, Pei F, Procida G, Igliozzi R, Muratori F, Tancredi R & Cioni G. Neural correlates of global form perception in autism. Perception. 2006, 35 ECVP Abstract Supplement Pei F & Norcia AM. VEP responses to different Glass pattern configurations. Perception. 2004, 33 ECVP Abstract Supplement Bonneh YS, Pei F, Iverson P & Merzenich MM. Cross-modal extinction in autism: A case 4
report. Perception. 2003, 32 ECVP Abstract Supplement Pei F, Hou C & Norcia AM. Texture thresholds in adults and infants. [Abstract]. Journal of Vision. 2003, 3(9), 617a, http://journalofvision.org/3/9/617/. Pei F, Bonneh Y, Sampath, V, Hou C & Norcia AM. Texture detection in infants. [Abstract]. Journal of Vision. 2002, 2(10), 88a, http://journalofvision.org/2/10/88/. Pei F, Bonneh Y, Sampath V, Hou C & Norcia AM. Development of visual integration of local features into uniform textures. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 2002 43: E- Abstract 3994. Norcia AM, Sampath V, Hou C & Pei F. Contour integration in human infants. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. 2002 43: E-Abstract 3993. Pei F, Pettet M & Norcia AM. Neural correlates of perceptual coherence in a multi-stable motion display [Abstract]. Journal of Vision, 2001. 1(3), 372a, http://journalofvision.org/1/3/372. Pei F & Norcia AM. Object-directed attention increases signal strength in human visual cortex. [Abstract]. Optics Express FV10, 9, (2001) Professional responsabilities and titles - ADOS clinical and research training (Minnesota University 2011-2012) - Enrolled in the Italian professional board of Psychologist (since 2005) - Vice-President of the Associazione Italiana di Scienze della Visione (AISV, Italian Association for Vision Science) - Referee for international ISI journals - Chair of 30 th European Conference on Visual Perception, Arezzo, Italy, 27-31 August 2007. Teaching experience - Course lecturer: Perception. New York University, Florence Campus, since Fall 2008 - Supervisions: Student thesis projects for the course of Psychophysiology of Perception, University of Florence, Psychology. Three of the students supervised co-authored my two most recent articles (G. Procida, G. Recupero, M. Viespoli), other two co-authored my ECVP 2009 project and an article in preparation (A. Mangiabene, G. Gattulli). Language 5
Mother language : Italian Other language: English proficient user; Spanish basic user. Short research statement I am strongly motivated in studying neuro-cognitive development. My main interests are the neural correlates of visual development in normal and clinical populations (including pre-term related impairment, genetic and degenerative disorders). I am interested on applying my knowledge to study development using and learning different physiological and imaging techniques (EEG, VEP, fmri and DTI). In particular I am interested in all the neurodevelopmental conditions with a special attention to Autism Spectrum Disorders that I have been paying for the last twelve years. I firmly believe that the functionality of the developing visual system may represent a major probe for several normal and abnormal neural and cognitive functions, at different stages, and that there is much left to be studied to make such a link more robust, both in basic and in translational science. 6