Interviu cu Assist. Prof. Leslie Carver, California, USA, Mai 2006

Intersele mele de cercetare vizeaza dezvoltarea si plasticitatea sistemelor cerebrale implicate in cognitie si cognitie sociala in primii doi ani de viata.

In principal, cercetarea mea vizeaza doua domenii specifice.

Unul dintre acestea se refera la dezvoltarea abilitatii sugarilor de a reprezenta informatia si de a retine reprezentarile pentru perioade lungi de timp. Sunt in mod special interesata de modul in care aceste sisteme apar in primii ani de viata si care sunt factorii predictivi pentru diferentele individuale in dezvoltarea sistemelor reprezentationale. In acest domeniu am realizat o serie de cercetari care combina metode de masurare a imitatiei pentru memoria de lunga durata – reactualizare cu masuratori ale potentialelor evocate (ERP) pentru memoria de lunga durata – recunoastere. Rezultatele indica existenta unei baze neuronale pentru tranzitiile de la sfarsitul primului an de viata, care au loc la nivelul abilitatilor bebelusilor de a reactualiza informatiile dupa intervale lungi de timp. In plus, am realizat o serie de studii care examineaza dezvoltarea si modificarile ce apar la nivelul raspunsurilor cerebrale ale bebelusilor fata de stimuli familiari si nefamiliari reali si imaginile bi-dimensionale ale acestor stimuli.

Cel de-al doilea domeniu de cercetare vizeaza modul in care dezvoltarea cognitiei sociale interactioneaza cu modificarile la nivelul creierului, in special in ceea ce priveste procesarea fetelor si a emotiilor. Programul meu de cercetare se centreaza pe combinarea masuratorilor comportamentale si electrofiziologice pentru a raspunde la intrebarile legate de dezvoltarea si diferentele individuale ce apar la nivelul acestor sisteme in cazul copiilor cu dezvoltare tipica sau a celor ce prezinta risc pentru autism.

In continuare va invitam sa parcurgeti interviul cu Prof. Leslie Carver realizat de Mihaela Chraif studenta anul III (F.P.S.E).                      

APR: Prof. Carver, it is your first time in Romania?

Prof. Carver: Yes.

APR: Can you tell us about your research area in California?

Prof. Carver: My interested is in brain bases in cognitive social development of children, children developing normally, children who have autism, and children at risk for autism. I also study memory development, the nature of early impairments in social cognition in autism, neural correlates of face object recognition in young children with autism spectrum disorder, and now I’m studying how babies and young children process faces and how the processing faces are related with social development.

APR: What can you tell us about latest your studies in autism in USA?

Prof. Carver: Well, mostly what I am doing right now is a kind of work with children developing autism and behavior characteristic of autism. We are interested in how to early diagnosis early autism and to understand the things are involved in developing autism. I am also interested in face processing- inattention to faces is one of the most reliable early predictors of autism, emotion recognition- people with autism have difficulty understanding and identifying others’ emotions and social cognition- people with autism do not effectively regulate their behavior according to feedback from social interactions.

APR: What can you tell us about face processing in autism?

Prof. Carver: In typically developing infants, the face holds particular significance and provides non verbal information important for communication and survival. The neural systems that mediate face processing and recognition rapidly develop during the first 6 months of life. This ability offers the possibility that face recognition impairments may be one of the earliest indicators of abnormal brain development in autism. Throughout development, children with autism attend to faces less, and differently than other children normal developing.

APR: About your research projects in Romania? Can you tell us about the latest studies?

Prof. Carver: I’m not doing any research in Romania right now. So, I would be interested in doing research with my colleagues here probably in the future. 

APR: What are the tendencies in the study of the autism and emotions in U.S.A., now?

Prof. Carver: Autism is a disorder characterized by specific impairments in processing social and emotional information, evident in social orienting, attention and emotional responses to the others. Now, the recent studies are based on processing the emotional expression using electrical brain responses to an emotional facial expression; measures of brain electrical activity in response to specific stimulus; emotion recognition and autism spectrum disorders; and emotion recognition and typically development of children.

APR: Are you planning future collaboration between University of California-San Diego, U.S.A.University of Psychology from Bucharest/Cluj – Romania? and

Prof. Carver: We haven’t done anything yet, but we are open for mutual collaboration between the institutions.