Dr. Shlomit Ben-Ami, M.D.

PI: Prof. Roy Mukamel

The need for developing research-driven rehabilitation to improve learning of visual shapes and patterns in individuals with perceptual difficulties

The Project

Our project addresses the need for developing research-driven rehabilitation to improve learning of visual shapes and patterns in individuals with perceptual difficulties. 

Our plan is to develop and validate an intervention for improving visual shape recognition through engagement in visuo-motor activity. We will conduct a perceptual learning study and examine the mechanisms of behavioral enhancements by measuring changes in neural activity associated with training. 

Our goal in the second phase is to implement acquired knowledge for training school-aged children, including patients in India that were born blind due to bilateral congenital cataracts and have undergone sight restoration late in life. 

About Me

I study plasticity and learning, with a focus on atypical sensory-motor processing. 

My background includes studying and treating neurological disorders and performing research in the fields of motor control and visual perception. 

My clinical experience includes a Medical Doctorate (M.D.) in The Tel Aviv University followed by a residency in Neurological Rehabilitation Medicine in the Loewenstein Hospital. 

My basic science experience includes post-doctoral research on the topic of sensory-motor aspects of Autism Spectrum Disorders, performed in Prof. Tamar Flash’s Motor-Control Lab (The Weizmann Institute of Science) and Prof. Dagmar Sternad’s Action Lab (Northeastern University), and on the topic of visual development, in Prof. Pawan Sinha’s Lab for Vision Research (MIT). 

I am part of Project Prakash, a dual-purpose initiative merging a humanitarian mission to identify and treat congenitally blind children from medically underserved communities in India, with a scientific goal of studying how their brain learns to interpret visual information when sight is restored after years of visual deprivation. Surprisingly, even after successful cataract-removal surgery, many of these children are not able to become integrated in school, partly due to difficulty with recognizing complex visual shapes and symbols. To address this, we initiated a research-driven school program in India in order to provide these kids with tailored education and explore the efficiency of different interventions for improving their scholastic skills.