Alumni
The PhD in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program opened its doors to the first class of Ph.D. students in Fall 2013. The ground-breaking program is thrilled to recognize the students who have graduated and/or successfully defended their dissertation and are on the way to graduation.
Dr. Geo Kartheiser
Alumnus, PEN
Dissertation: "The Neuroplasticity of Spatial Working Memory in Signed Language Processing”
Graduation: 2018
Current Position: Post-Doctoral Fellow under Dr. Matthew Dye in the DeafxLab at Rochester Institute of Technology
Dr. Kartheiser (Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto, Advisor) worked as a graduate research assistant in Dr. Petitto’s Brain and Language Laboratory for Neuroimaging (BL2).
While in PEN, he co-authored three peer-reviewed journal publications as well as two book chapters. He also co-authored and presented at 15 national and international scientific meetings, which included prestigious invited public science lectures at the University of Hong Kong and eight peer-reviewed professional presentations.
Dr. Kartheiser’s research interests center on how experience with a visuospatial language (e.g., American Signed Language) impacts the human brain and its development of visuospatial cognition (e.g., Spatial Working Memory).
He is certified in the use of fNIRS neuroimaging with infants, children, and adults and in advanced neuroimaging data analyses methods and tools.
He participated in pioneering research with Petitto’s BL2 on integrating fNIRS with other state-of-the-art scientific technology (eye tracking and thermal infrared imaging, which measures human attention and emotional engagement) in order to answer new scientific questions about language acquisition and reading development in infants and children with different language experiences.
Some of this research contributed to Dr. Petitto and team’s work to create a revolutionary robot-avatar translational learning tool for young babies who are deprived of early-life exposure to a signed language, called RAVE.
- Advantages of learning a signed language. In H. D. L. Bauman & J. Murray (Eds.), Deaf gain: Re-imagining human diversity
Hauser, P. C., & Kartheiser, G. (2014). Advantages of learning a signed language. In H. D. L. Bauman & J. Murray (Eds.), Deaf gain: Re-imagining human diversity. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. - Detecting the rhythmic temporal patterning of language: Infants’ neural, physiological, and behavioral sensitivity
(3/5) Stone, A., Manini, B., Kartheiser, G., Malzkuhn, M., Langdon, C., Merla, A., & Petitto, L.A. (April, 2017). Detecting the rhythmic temporal patterning of language: Infants’ neural, physiological, and behavioral sensitivity. In L.A. Petitto (Chair), Discoveries about infant language learning and “readiness to learn” from integrated fNIRS, thermal IR, robot, and avatar sciences. Symposium conducted at Society for Research on Child Development, Austin, TX. - Evidence of maturational processes in linguistic brain (fNIRS) and psychological emotional (Thermal IR) responses in hearing infants to signing virtual humans
Manini, B., Kartheiser, G., Stone, A., Merla, A., & Petitto, L.A. (November, 2017). Evidence of maturational processes in linguistic brain (fNIRS) and psychological emotional (Thermal IR) responses in hearing infants to signing virtual humans. Poster Presentation at Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC. View Poster. - Fingerspelling as a Gateway into Reading Fluency in Deaf Bilinguals
Stone, A., Kartheiser, G., Hauser, P.C., Petitto, L.A., & Allen, T.E., (2015). Fingerspelling as a Gateway into Reading Fluency in Deaf Bilinguals. PLoS ONE 10(10):e0139610. - Infants’ sensitivity to visual rhythmic-temporal patterning of language: An integrated fNIRS neuroimaging, thermal infrared imaging, and eye tracking investigation
Stone, A., Manini, B., Kartheiser, G., Langdon, C., Merla, A., & Petitto, L.A. (2016, San Diego). Infants’ sensitivity to visual rhythmic-temporal patterning of language: An integrated fNIRS neuroimaging, thermal infrared imaging, and eye tracking investigation. Poster presented at the meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA. - Integrating Diversity with Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods
Kartheiser, G. & Williams, F. (2015). Integrating Diversity with Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods. In Harris, R. & Williams, F. (Eds.), ASL Companion Volume: Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology. Austin, TX: ASLChoice. - Measuring visuospatial memory span in signers: Differences in the manual and computerized Corsi block tapping tests
Kartheiser, G., Stone, A., Petitto, L.A., & Allen, T. (January, 2016). Measuring visuospatial memory span in signers: Differences in the manual and computerized Corsi block tapping tests. 12th Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR), Melbourne, Australia. - The impact of age of language exposure on spatial working memory using fNIRS neuroimaging
Kartheiser, G. & Petitto, L.A. (November, 2017). The impact of age of language exposure on spatial working memory using fNIRS neuroimaging. Poster Presentation at Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC. View Poster. - Visual sign phonology: Insights into human reading and language from a natural soundless phonology
Petitto, L.A., Langdon, C., Stone, A., Andriola, D., Kartheiser, G., & Cochran, C. (2016). Visual sign phonology: Insights into human reading and language from a natural soundless phonology. WIREs Cognitive Science. - “Teaching language to deaf infants with a robot and a virtual human.” Proceeding of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems pp.553; 1–553:13
Scassellati, B., Brawer, J., Tsui, K., Nasihati Gilani, S., Malzkuhn, M., Manini, B., Stone, A., Kartheiser, G., Merla, A., Shapiro, A., Traum, D., & Petitto. L.A. (2018). “Teaching language to deaf infants with a robot and a virtual human.” Proceeding of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems pp.553; 1–553:13. New York, N.Y., USA: ACM. ISBN 123-4567-24- 567/08/06.