Visual Perception and Plasticity Lab
The Visual Perception and Plasticity (VPP) Lab studies neuroplasticity in healthy and clinical populations across the lifespan. We use a combination of psychophysics, eye tracking, 3T fMRI and 7T layer fMRI, brain stimulation (tDCS, tRNS, and/or TMS), computational modeling, online crowdsourcing “big-data”, developmental and neuropsychological approaches in our research. The lab's current focus is to integrate visual behavior, neuroimaging, and neurorehabilitation to achieve precision vision recovery in patients with lesions in the visual cortex.
Who we are
We are a Translational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab in the Department of Neurology and Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery at Georgetown University Medical Center led by Dr. Tina Liu. Our research group shares a common passion to understand the core principles of neuroplasticity in humans. Our long-term goal is to leverage this knowledge to develop precision vision rehabilitation strategies for patients with brain lesions, such as stroke, epilepsy surgery, traumatic brain injury, and brain tumors.
Latest lab news
The Visual Perception and Plasticity (VPP) Lab is recruiting Graduate Students through the Georgetown Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (IPN), a Postdoctoral Researcher, and multiple Undergraduate Research Interns to study visual plasticity in stroke patients for precision recovery.
July 2024:
Lab publication alert!
Liu, T.T. (2024). Unraveling nature and nurture in cortical (re)organization. Nature Review Neuroscience. 25, 451, DOI: 10.1038/s41583-024-00825-x.
June 18th, 2024:
During the 10th Annual BRAIN Initiative Conference (BRAIN Conference 2024), I was delighted to be matched with Cansu Erkan as my mentee. Cansu is a rising senior at the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, majoring in psychology and minoring in neuroscience. She did an excellent job presenting her first-authored conference poster!
May 19th, 2024:
Bing nailed her Sunday afternoon talk in the 'Plasticity and Learning' session at VSS 2024!
May 9th, 2024:
Congratulations to Tori Gobo for submitting her first-authored abstract entitled "Visual evoked pupil, blink, and eye movements in cortical blindness" to the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago. Tori will soon pursue her PhD degree at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX.
May 8th, 2024:
Congratulations to Elena Younhye Ock for accepting the offer to pursue her MD/PhD degree at the University of Colorado Boulder. Elena is an NIH postbac working with Eli Merriam (primary mentor and lab PI) and Tina Liu (co-mentor). Elena regularly shadows Dr. Benjamin Osborne in his eye clinic at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
April 4th, 2024:
Congratulations to Bing Li, who has been awarded the 2024 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her outstanding proposal developed during her time as an NIH postbac under the mentorship of Tina Liu (primary mentor) and Eli Merriam (co-mentor and lab PI). Bing will soon embark on the next chapter as a neuroscience graduate student at Princeton University.
April 1st, 2024:
The VPP lab is now officially open!
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