91ÉçÇø

The Feindel Brain and Mind Seminar Series will advance the vision of Dr. William Feindel (1918–2014), Former Director of the Neuro (1972–1984), to constantly bridge the clinical and research realms. The talks will highlight the latest advances and discoveries in neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroimaging.

Speakers will include scientists from across The Neuro, as well as colleagues and collaborators locally and from around the world. The series is intended to provide a virtual forum for scientists and trainees to continue to foster interdisciplinary exchanges on the mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of brain and cognitive disorders.

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Glimpses Into the Social Mind: Decoding Messages From Faces and Eyes

Abstract: Human brain is fundamentally a social brain, with its perceptual and cognitive systems evolved to support a diverse set of processes aimed at enabling our complex social functions. While in the last decades the field has advanced considerably in understanding the mechanisms by which the perceptual and cognitive faculties support our social behavior, there remains a lack of knowledge about how social information is communicated between individuals nonverbally. Here, Jelena Ristic will present results which show that limiting face visibility limits its social value, eyes transmit key social messages, and social group size modulates how we interact with others. Together, these data show that visual signals from faces and eyes convey complex social messages and represent key vehicles for human social communication.

Jelena Ristic

Professor, Department of Psychology 91ÉçÇø

Jelena Ristic is a Professor of Psychology at 91ÉçÇø. She is an international expert in the field of social cognition and cognitive neuroscience with over 110 scholarly contributions, appearing in prominent journals like Nature Communications Psychology, Nature Reviews Psychology, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Current Directions in Psychological Science, iScience, Cognition, and Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. Ristic graduated with a BA, MA, and PhD from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara California. Ristic won national and international awards for academic and mentorship success, including a Mid-career Award from the Canadian Society for Brain Behaviour and Cognitive Science (2023), Best Article Awards from the American Psychological Association (2018) and the Canadian Psychological Association (2019), and a Mentorship Award (2017) from Women in Cognitive Science (WiCS). Ristic is an elected Fellow of the Psychonomic Society internationally and the Canadian Society for Brain Behaviour and Cognitive Science nationally and serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance and Visual Cognition. At 91ÉçÇø, Ristic serves as the Vice President-Internal for the 91ÉçÇø Association of University Teachers and nationally as a member-at-large for the Canadian Society for Brain Behavior and Cognitive Science.