[Greater-baltimore] FW: pls proof-RE: blind volunteer recruitment for neuroscience research

Wed Aug 8 20:07:07 UTC 2012

Hello everyone,
Please participate in this study if you are interested.
Thanks,
Melissa

-----Original Message-----
From: Blount, Monica [mailto:MBlount at nfb.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012 1:37 PM
To: Baron, Carolyn
Cc: State President, Maryland
Subject: pls proof-RE: blind volunteer recruitment for neuroscience research

Dear JK:

Thank you for your e-mail to the National Federation of the Blind.  I am forwarding your e-mail and my response to the presidents of our Maryland, D.C., and Virginia affiliates.  

Melissa Riccobono, President

National Federation of the Blind of Maryland

E-mail: Melissa at riccobono.us 

Shawn Callaway, President

National Federation of the Blind of the District of Columbia

E-mail: callaway.shawn at gmail.com 

Fred Schroeder, President

National Federation of the Blind of Virginia

E-mail: fschroeder at sks.com 

I am certain that they will get the information out to the members of the chapters in the states.

Sincerely,

(Mrs.) Patricia A. Maurer

Director of Reference

Jacobus tenBroek Library

Jernigan Institute

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

200 East Wells Street

     at Jernigan Place

Baltimore, Maryland 21230

(410) 659-9314, extension 2272

E-mail: communityrelations at nfb.org

P.S. You can subscribe to the Jernigan Institute's monthly e-mail newsletter, Imagineering Our Future, by sending an e-mail to JerniganInstitute at nfb.org 

From: kim.jungkyong at gmail.com [mailto:kim.jungkyong at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Jung-Kyong Kim

Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012 12:14 PM

To: NFB Information

Subject: blind volunteer recruitment for neuroscience research

Hello,

My name is JK Kim and I am a researcher in the neuroscience department at Georgetown University, Washington, DC.  I am currently conducting an fMRI experiment with Dr. Josef Rauschecker that involves blind participants and would like to recruit volunteers who would be interested in participating in our study.  Below is the ad explaining details about the study and I would greatly appreciate if you could distribute it to the members of your organization.  Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or require more information.  Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

JK Kim

-- 

Jung-Kyong Kim, PhD

Postdoctoral fellow

Medical Center, Georgetown University

--

Participate in a paid research study on blindness!

About the study:

The brain of blind individuals is different from that of the sighted in that part of the brain called the occipital cortex which normally processes visual information in the sighted is involved in processing of information gathered from other senses such as touch and hearing.  This phenomenon, called crossmodal plasticity, is understood as changes resulting from long-term visual deprivation in the blind and has been shown in performance of non-visual tasks such as Braille reading, verbal tasks, shape discrimination, and sound localization.  We hope to further our understanding of crossmodal plasticity by examining other behavioral domains that have not yet been investigated.  Findings of our studies will not only have potential implications for blindness rehabilitation but also contribute significantly to our understanding of how the human brain works.

We are currently looking for blind volunteers who would be interested in participating in the study that will examine melody processing in the blind, more specifically, how long-term visual deprivation affects the way blind people process sound in general and pitch in particular.  This study will consist of one behavioral and one functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session.  During both of these sessions, you will be asked to listen to sequences of tones and make simple perceptual judgments on them.  Findings of this study will help understand superior pitch abilities that the blind possess compared to the sighted, and further knowledge on musical processing in the blind.

Each of these sessions will last approximately 2 hours, and all the participants will be reimbursed for travel expenses (provided that they reside in areas of or nearby Washington, DC) and participation in the studies.  MRI has been shown to be a safe imaging technique as no known side effects have been reported.

Who we are looking for: Blind individuals who are ages between 18 and 65 and have no residual vision or light sensitivity. 

Location: The study will take place at the Medical Center of Georgetown University located in Washington DC.

Contact Us: If you are interested, please email JK Kim at crossmodal.plasticity at gmail.com or call (202) 687-8358.

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