Position: Postdoctoral scholar
Contacts:
email: fpei@stanford.edu
phone : +1-415-806-2556 (mobile) +1-650-724-2550 (office)
BioSketch
I have a major degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" (1998) and a PhD in Developmental Neurosciences from the University of Pisa, Italy (2006). I have worked in the area of human development both as a clinician and as a researcher.I am a member of the Italian National Board of Psychologists. Before my PhD, I trained at the Infant Vision Laboratory at the Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute where I used EEG and VEP techniques to study the development of early- and middle level-visual functions.
I study the development of perceptual processes in typically developing infants and children, as well as in different neuro-developmental disorders, especially autism, my primary area of interest. Other areas of interest are learning disorders, dyslexia and the developmental aspects of attention and crowding.
My main interest is Autism Spectrum Disorders. My research is focalized on:
- Development and use of quantitative techniques to objectively measure different aspects of visual development in children with ASD.
- Use of low-level visual measures to understand and hopefully explain abnormalities of higher level processing like object and face recognition, attention and social interactions.
- Use of psychophysiological and imaging instruments as a tool for identifying sub-categories along the spectrum
- Create quantitative protocols for early assessment and for tracking improvements during and after treatments or clinical trials.
Full length publications in ISI journals
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pei F, Pettet MW, Norcia AM. Sensitivity and configuration-specificity of orientation-defined texture processing in infants and adults. Vision Research, 2007 Feb;47(3):338-48. Epub 2006 Dec 22.
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
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.
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/
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.
