Dr Kami Koldewyn

• Visual Motion Processing in Autism PhD (University of California, Davis)
• Music and Philosophy BA (Pomona College, Claremont, California)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy FHEA Professional

Kami earned a dual BA degree in Music and Philosophy at Pomona College in California. After several years teaching children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders, she returned to graduate school and completed a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of California, Davis. She then spent four years as a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Nancy Kanwisher. She joined the faculty at Bangor in 2013.

Kami is a Reader in the school of Psychology and part of the Social Neuroscience research group in the school. She is Quality Assurance Director for Teaching, Co-director for Research at Tir Na n'Og and a member of the Bangor Imaging Centre steering group. 

Her research interests include: The development of social perception and social cognition across the lifespan, Autism Spectrum Disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders that affect social perception and cognition and the brain bases of social perception and social cognition.

Kami supervises undergraduate and Masters students on projects that encompass a broad range of topics in social perception and social neuroscience.

She is currently supervising three PhD students: Jon Walbrin, Ioana Mihai and Rachel Newey.

Her supervision includes one current postdoctoral scholar: Julia Landsiedel

https://sites.google.com/view/devsocialvislab/people 

She teaches a specialist 3rd-year module: Brain Development and Degeneration and co-teachers Biological Bases of Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the Masters level.

Our current research program addresses three intertwined questions:

1. How is social perception and its development altered in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and what are the neural bases of these social differences?
2. How does the social perception system arise and change across typical development?
3. What is the cognitive and neural architecture of social perception in typical adults?

To address these questions, we use a variety of methods, including behavioral and eye-tracking paradigms, visual psychophysics and both structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in individuals with developmental disorders as well as typical children and adults.

Many of the current project in the lab are focused on the perception and understanding of social interactions viewed from a 3rd-person perspective.

2019

• Electro-cortical correlates of multisensory integration using ecologically valid emotional stimuli
  
  Stefanou, ME, Dundon, N, Bestelmeyer, P, Koldewyn, K, Saville, C, Fleischhaker, C, Feige, B, Biscaldi, M, Smyrnis, N & Klein, C 2019, 'Electro-cortical correlates of multisensory integration using ecologically valid emotional stimuli: Differential effects for fear and disgust', Biological Psychology, vol. 142, pp. 132-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.01.011
• The influence of prosocial priming on visual perspective taking and automatic imitation
  
  Newey, R, Koldewyn, K & Ramsey, R 2019, 'The influence of prosocial priming on visual perspective taking and automatic imitation', PLoS ONE, vol. 14, no. 1, 0198867. https://doi.org/10.1101/333880, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198867

2018

• High-level language processing regions are not engaged in action observation or imitation
  
  Pritchett, BL, Hoeflin, C, Koldewyn, K, Dechter, E & Fedorenko, E 2018, 'High-level language processing regions are not engaged in action observation or imitation', Journal of Neurophysiology. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00222.2018
• Adaptation to vocal expressions and phonemes is intact in autism spectrum disorder
  
  Bestelmeyer, P, Williams, B, Lawton, J, Stefanou, M-E, Koldewyn, K, Klein, C & Biscaldi, M 2018, 'Adaptation to vocal expressions and phonemes is intact in autism spectrum disorder', Clinical Psychological Science, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 372-381. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617748401
• Neural Responses to Visually Observed Social Interactions
  
  Walbrin, J, Downing, P & Koldewyn, K 2018, 'Neural Responses to Visually Observed Social Interactions', Neuropsychologia, vol. 112, no. April, pp. 31-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.02.023

2017

• Perceiving social interactions in the posterior superior temporal sulcus
  
  Isik, L, Koldewyn, K, Beeler, D & Kanwisher, N 2017, 'Perceiving social interactions in the posterior superior temporal sulcus', PNAS, vol. 114, no. 43, pp. E9145-E9152. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1714471114
• The neuroscience of people watching
  
  Quadflieg, S & Koldewyn, K 2017, 'The neuroscience of people watching: how the human brain makes sense of other people's encounters', Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1396, no. 1, pp. 166-182. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13331

2016

• U Can Touch This
  
  Semmelmann, K, Nordt, M, Sommer, K, Röhnke, R, Mount, L, Prüfer, H, Terwiel, S, Meissner, TW, Koldewyn, K & Weigelt, S 2016, 'U Can Touch This: How Tablets Can Be Used to Study Cognitive Development', Frontiers of Psychology, vol. 7, 1021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01021

2015

• Functional Organization of Social Perception and Cognition in the Superior Temporal Sulcus
  
  Deen, B, Koldewyn, K, Kanwisher, N & Saxe, R 2015, 'Functional Organization of Social Perception and Cognition in the Superior Temporal Sulcus', Cerebral Cortex, vol. 25, no. 11, pp. 4596-4609. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhv111
• Structural Connectivity of the Developing Human Amygdala
  
  Saygin, ZM, Osher, DE, Koldewyn, K, Martin, RE, Finn, A, Saxe, R, Gabrieli, JD & Sheridan, M 2015, 'Structural Connectivity of the Developing Human Amygdala', PLoS ONE, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125170
• Structural connectivity fingerprints predict cortical selectivity for multiple visual categories across cortex
  
  Osher, DE, Saxe, RR, Koldewyn, K, Gabrieli, JD, Kanwisher, N & Saygin, ZM 2015, 'Structural connectivity fingerprints predict cortical selectivity for multiple visual categories across cortex', Cerebral Cortex, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 1668-1683. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhu303

2014

• Visual adaptation of the perception of “life”: Animacy is a basic perceptual dimension of faces
  
  Koldewyn, K, Hanus, P & Balas, B 2014, 'Visual adaptation of the perception of “life”: Animacy is a basic perceptual dimension of faces', Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 969-975. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0562-5
• Fear-Specific Amygdala Function in Children and Adolescents on the Fragile X Spectrum: A Dosage Response of the FMR1 Gene
  
  Kim, SY, Burris, J, Bassal, F, Koldewyn, K, Chattarji, S, Tassone, F, Hessl, D & Rivera, SM 2014, 'Fear-Specific Amygdala Function in Children and Adolescents on the Fragile X Spectrum: A Dosage Response of the FMR1 Gene', Cerebral Cortex, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 600-613. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs341
• Spurious group differences due to head motion in a diffusion MRI study
  
  Yendiki, A, Koldewyn, K, Kakunoori, S, Kanwisher, N & Fischel, B 2014, 'Spurious group differences due to head motion in a diffusion MRI study', Neuroimage, vol. 88, pp. 79-90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.11.027
• Unimpaired Attentional Disengagement and Social Orienting in Children With Autism
  
  Fischer, J, Koldewyn, K, Jiang, YV & Kanwisher, N 2014, 'Unimpaired Attentional Disengagement and Social Orienting in Children With Autism', Clinical Psychological Science, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 214-223. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613496242
• Differences in the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus but no general disruption of white matter tracts in children with autism spectrum disorder
  
  Koldewyn, K, Yendiki, A, Weigelt, S, Gweon, H, Joshua, J, Richardson, H, Malloy, C, Saxe, R, Fischl, B & Kanwisher, N 2014, 'Differences in the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus but no general disruption of white matter tracts in children with autism spectrum disorder', PNAS, vol. 111, no. 5, pp. 1981-1986. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1324037111
• Domain-specific development of face memory but not face perception
  
  Weigelt, S, Koldewyn, K, Dilks, DD, Balas, B, McKone, E & Kanwisher, N 2014, 'Domain-specific development of face memory but not face perception', Developmental Science, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 47-58. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12089

2013

• Fragile X Syndrome and Autism
  
  Farzin, F & Koldewyn, K 2013, Fragile X Syndrome and Autism. in Comprehensive Guide to Autism. 2014 edn, pp. 2743-2754.
• Early visual ERP sensitivity to the species and animacy of faces
  
  Balas, B & Koldewyn, K 2013, 'Early visual ERP sensitivity to the species and animacy of faces', Neuropsychologia, vol. 51, no. 13, pp. 2876-2881. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.09.014
• Male carriers of the FMR1 premutation show altered hippocampal-prefrontal function during memory encoding
  
  Wang, JM, Koldewyn, K, Hashimoto, RI, Schneider, A, Le, L, Tassone, F, Cheung, K, Hagerman, P, Hessl, D & Rivera, SM 2013, 'Male carriers of the FMR1 premutation show altered hippocampal-prefrontal function during memory encoding', Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 6, pp. 297. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00297
• Global/Local Processing in Autism: Not a Disability, but a Disinclination
  
  Koldewyn, K, Jiang, YV, Weigelt, S & Kanwisher, N 2013, 'Global/Local Processing in Autism: Not a Disability, but a Disinclination', Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 43, no. 10, pp. 2329-2340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1777-z
• Face Recognition Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorders Are Both Domain Specific and Process Specific
  
  Weigelt, S, Koldewyn, K & Kanwisher, N 2013, 'Face Recognition Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorders Are Both Domain Specific and Process Specific', PLoS ONE, vol. 8, no. 9, pp. e74541. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074541
• Multiple Object Tracking in Autism Spectrum Disorders
  
  Koldewyn, K, Weigelt, S, Kanwisher, N & Jiang, Y 2013, 'Multiple Object Tracking in Autism Spectrum Disorders', Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 1394-1405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1694-6

2012

• Face identity recognition in autism spectrum disorders: A review of behavioral studies
  
  Weigelt, S, Koldewyn, K & Kanwisher, N 2012, 'Face identity recognition in autism spectrum disorders: A review of behavioral studies', Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 1060-1084. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurbiorev.2011.12.2008
• Anatomical connectivity patterns predict face selectivity in the fusiform gyrus
  
  Saygin, ZM, Osher, DE, Koldewyn, K, Teynolds, G, Gabrieli, JD & Saxe, RR 2012, 'Anatomical connectivity patterns predict face selectivity in the fusiform gyrus', Nature Neuroscience, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 171-337. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3001

2011

• Investigation of amygdala volume in men with the fragile X premutation
  
  Selmeczy, D, Koldewyn, K, Wang, JM, Lee, A, Harvey, D, Hessl, DR, Tassone, F, Adams, P, Hagerman, PJ & Rivera, SM 2011, 'Investigation of amygdala volume in men with the fragile X premutation', Brain Imaging and Behavior, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 285-294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-011-9132-5
• Decreased Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein Expression Underlies Amygdala Dysfunction in Carriers of the Fragile X Premutation
  
  Hessl, D, Wang, JM, Schneider, A, Koldewyn, K, Le, L, Iwahashi, C, Cheung, K, Tassone, F, Hagerman, PJ & Rivera, SM 2011, 'Decreased Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein Expression Underlies Amygdala Dysfunction in Carriers of the Fragile X Premutation', Biological Psychiatry, vol. 70, no. 9, pp. 859-865. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.05.033
• Neural correlates of coherent and biological motion perception in autism
  
  Koldewyn, K, Whitney, D & Rivera, SM 2011, 'Neural correlates of coherent and biological motion perception in autism', Developmental Science, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 1075-1088. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01058.x

2010

• Cross-Category Adaptation Reveals Tight Coupling of Face and Body Perception
  
  Weigelt, S, Koldewyn, K & Doerhrmann, O 2010, 'Cross-Category Adaptation Reveals Tight Coupling of Face and Body Perception', Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 104, no. 2, pp. 581-583. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00288.2010
• Psychological symptoms correlate with reduced hippocampal volume in fragile X premutation carriers
  
  Adams, PE, Adams, JS, Nguyen, DV, Brunberg, JA, Tassone, F, Zhang, W, Koldewyn, K, Rivera, SM, Grigsby, J, Zhang, L, DeCarli, C, Hagerman, PJ & Hagerman, RJ 2010, 'Psychological symptoms correlate with reduced hippocampal volume in fragile X premutation carriers', American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, vol. 153B, no. 3, pp. 775-785. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.31046
• The psychophysics of visual motion and global form processing in autism
  
  Koldewyn, K, Whitney, D & Rivera, SM 2010, 'The psychophysics of visual motion and global form processing in autism', Brain: A journal of Neurology, vol. 133, no. 2, pp. 599-610. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awp272

2008

• Reduced Hippocampal Activation During Recall is Associated with Elevated FMR1 mRNA and Psychiatric Symptoms in Men with the Fragile X Premutation
  
  Koldewyn, K, Hessl, D, Adams, J, Tassone, F, Hagerman, PJ & Hagerman, RJ 2008, 'Reduced Hippocampal Activation During Recall is Associated with Elevated FMR1 mRNA and Psychiatric Symptoms in Men with the Fragile X Premutation', Brain Imaging and Behavior, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 105-116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-008-9020-9
• Brief Report: Aggression and Stereotypic Behavior in Males with Fragile X Syndrome—Moderating Secondary Genes in a “Single Gene” Disorder
  
  Hessl, D, Tassone, F, Cordeiro, L, Koldewyn, K, McCormick, C, Green, C, Wegelin, J, Yuhas, J & Hagerman, RJ 2008, 'Brief Report: Aggression and Stereotypic Behavior in Males with Fragile X Syndrome—Moderating Secondary Genes in a “Single Gene” Disorder', Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 184-189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-007-0365-5

2007

• Volumetric brain changes in females with fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS)
  
  Adams, JS, Adams, PE, Nguyen, D, Brunberg, JA, Tassone, F, Zhang, W, Koldewyn, K, Rivera, SM, Grigsby, J, Zhang, L, DeCarli, C, Hagerman, PJ & Hagerman, RJ 2007, 'Volumetric brain changes in females with fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS)', Neurology, vol. 69, no. 9, pp. 851-9. https://doi.org/10.1212/01.wnl.0000269781.10417.7b
• Independent coding of object motion and position revealed by distinct contingent aftereffects
  
  Bulakowski, PF, Koldewyn, K & Whitney, D 2007, 'Independent coding of object motion and position revealed by distinct contingent aftereffects', Vision Research, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 810-817. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2006.10.020

2019

• Social Interaction in the Brain
  29 Apr 2019
  Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
• External Examiner for PhD Thesis: "Mentalizing during communicative acts"
  5 Apr 2019
  Activity: Examination (Examiner)
• Social Interaction Perception in the Social Brain
  8 Mar 2019
  Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
• Grant Review
  2019 →
  Activity: Other (Reviewer)
• Grant Review for British Academy
  2019 →
  Activity: Other (Reviewer)

2018

• Social Interaction and Social Cognition: the brain bases
  30 Oct 2018
  Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
• The Science of Social Interaction
  11 Sep 2018 – 12 Sep 2018
  Activity: Participation in workshop, seminar, course (Organiser)
• Vision Sciences Society. Florida
  18 May 2018 – 23 May 2018
  Activity: Participation in conference (Speaker)
• Perspectives in Neuroscience, the case of social perception
  8 Mar 2018
  Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
• External Examiner for PhD Thesis: "Development of face recognition and category representations in human ventral temporal cortex"
  25 Jan 2018
  Activity: Examination (Examiner)

2017

• Vision Sciences Society. Florida
  18 May 2017 – 25 May 2017
  Activity: Participation in conference (Participant)
• Joint UK/Iran Mental Health and Resilience Workshop
  24 Apr 2017 – 27 Apr 2017
  Activity: Participation in workshop, seminar, course (Speaker)
• Social Interactions in the Social Brain
  14 Feb 2017
  Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
• Boosting social skills with brain scanning
  2017
  Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor)
• Grant Review
  2017 – 2019
  Activity: Other (Reviewer)

2016

• Social Perception and the Brain
  Public Lecture
  28 Apr 2016
  Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Speaker)

2015

• Social Interaction Perception
  27 Aug 2015 – 28 Aug 2015
  Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
• Fresh Perspectives on Social Perception: Social Interaction
  28 Mar 2015 – 31 Mar 2015
  Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
• Understanding Attention in Autism Spectrum Disorder
  12 Feb 2015
  Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Invited talk (Contributor)
• Brain's social 'river' carries clues about autism
  2015
  Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor)

2014

• Soapbox Science, Swansea Edition
  5 Jul 2014
  Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Speaker)
• Social Perception and Attention in Autism Spectrum Disorder
  Talk given at at Durham University, UK
  May 2014
  Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
• Social Perception in Autism
  29 Apr 2014
  Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
• Excellent science should not have to be a solitary pursuit
  Online article
  2014
  Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor)

• Social Interaction Perception and the Social Brain Across Typical and Atypical Development - Becoming Social (Grant No. 716974)
• Developmental Change in the Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus
• Person perception in typical and atypical development

Social Interaction Perception and the Social Brain Across Typical and Atypical Development - Becoming Social 

ERC Starting Grant: £1,157,461.00

30/03/17 - 30/03/22

Developmental Change in the Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Royal Society: £14,929.00

1/11/14 → 31/10/15

Person Perception in Typical and Atypical Development

British Academy: £9,681.00

1/10/14 → 30/09/16