Buyun Xu

Program affiliation: Cognition and brain science

Research interests

I am a PhD student from Shanghai, China on a fellowship from the Chinese Scholarship Council. My research examines how individual life experiences shape and modify the processes of high-level vision. I am especially interested in the face recognition abilities of people from special populations, such as individuals with hearing-impairments and individuals with autism. Cognitive deficits could have negative impacts on their social interactions, and due to their unique, day-to-day social interactions, the face strategies of these individuals might differ from the face strategies of typically developing people. By employing eye-tracking and event-related potential methods, my research focuses on the behavioral markers and cognitive and neural mechanisms that characterize normative and non-normative face processes. It is my belief that an understanding of face processing strategies in typical and atypical populations will lead to the development of effective social and cognitive interventions for people with special needs.

Representative publications and presentations

Xu.B. (in press). Chapter 5. Social Development of Deaf Children. Book chapter from The Development and Education of Deaf Children, Beijing University Press.

Xu. B. (April, 2009). The Study on the Peer Relationship of Young Primary Deaf School Students: A Social Network Analysis Approach The Conference of Development of Special Education Under the Background of Inclusive Education.

Xu. B. and He.H. (2009). A Review on Western Literatures of Volunteer Behaviors China Youth Study. Vol.4, p75‐p80.