Valerie L. Shafer, Ph.D.

EDUCATION:

Professional Experience:

Grants and Contracts:

Principal Investigator.  
The Neurophysiological Basis of Speech Processing. .  NIHDH, August 1, 2004-July 31, 2009.

Co-Investigator (Co-PIs: Klara Marton, Richard Schwartz). 
Working Memory for Structural-Linguistic Information in Adults and Children.  CUNY COLLABORATIVE INCENTIVE GRANTS PROGRAM, Nov 1, 2001- Nov 1, 2003

Principal Investigator.  
The functional significance of the infant positive component. PSC-CUNY Grant, July 1, 2003-2004. 

Principal Investigator.  
ERPs to verbal morphology in children. PSC-CUNY Grant, July 1, 2002-2003.

Principal Investigator. 
Electrophysiological indices of regular and irregular morphology in school-age children.  PSC-CUNY Grant, July 1, 2001-2002.

Principal Investigator. 
Electrophysiological correlates of word perception in spoken discourse PSC-CUNY Grant, July 1, 2000-2001.

Co-investigator, (R. Schwartz, P.I.)
Physiological and behavioral dynamics of children's linguistic processing., NIDCD, July 1, 1997-2002.

Co-investigator, (D. Kurtzberg, P.I.)  Electrophysiological probes of phonological processing deficits,  NIDCD, July 1, 1997-2002..

Principal Investigator.  
Evoked Potentials to function words in SLI children .  Small Grant Program (R03), NIDCD.    August 1, 1997- 2000.

Publications (* indicates Conference Proceeding and Chapters):  

Shafer, V.L., Kessler, K.L.,  Morr, M.L. , Schwartz, R.G., &, Kurtzberg, D.  Spatiotemporal brain activity to “the” in discourse.  Accepted with revisions to Brain and Language.

Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, R.G., & Kurtzberg, D. (2004). Language-specific memory traces of consonants in the brain. Cognitive Brain Research, 18. 242-254.

Martin, B.A., Shafer, V.L.,  Mara L. Morr, M.L., Kreuzer J. A., & Kurtzberg D. (2003). Maturation of the mismatch negativity:  A scalp current density analysis.  Ear and Hearing. 24. 463-471.  

*Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, R.G.,, &, Kessler, K.L (2003). ERP Indices of Phonological and Lexical Processing in Children and Adults. Proceedings of the 27th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Somerville, MA:  Cascadilla Press.  751-761.

Morr, M.L., Shafer, V.L., Kreuzer, J., & Kurtzberg, D. (2002). Maturation of mismatch negativity in infants and pre-school children.  Ear and Hearing. 23, 118-136.

*Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, R.G., Morr, M.L., Kessler, K.L., Kurtzberg, D., and Ruben, R.J. (2001). Neurophysiological indices of language impairment in children. Acta Otolaryngol, 121.

Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, R.G., Morr, M.L., Kessler, K.L., Kurtzberg, D. (2000). Deviant neurophysiological asymmetry in children with language impairment.  Neuroreport 11, 3715-3718.

Shafer, V.L., Morr, M.L., Kreuzer, J., & Kurtzberg, D. (2000).  Maturation of mismatch negativity in school-age children. Ear and Hearing.  21(3). 242-251.

Shafer, V.L., Shucard, D.W., & Jaeger, J.J.  (1999).  Cerebral specialization and the role of prosody in language acquisition in three-month-old infants.  Journal of Developmental Neuropsychology, 15. 73-110.

Shafer, V.L., Shucard, D.W., Shucard, J.L., & Gerken, L.A.  (1998). An electrophysiological study of infants' sensitivity to the sound patterns of English.  Journal of Speech, Language, Hearing Research, 41. 874-886.

*Shafer, V.L. & Shucard, D.W.  (1995). Is the right hemisphere of the brain functionally specialized to process prosodic information?  In D. MacLaughlin. & S. McEwen, (Eds.) Proceedings of the 19th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Vol. 2 (pp. 563-574) Somerville, MA:  Cascadilla Press.

*Shafer, V.L.  (1992). Modality in the Romance Conditional Sentence.  In F. Li, H. L. Weber, L. Whaley, and R. VanValin  (Eds.) Buffalo Working Papers, Linguistics Department, SUNY at Buffalo.

*Shafer, V.L. (1990). [Review of the book Cognitive Psychology:  A Student's Handbook]. Journal of Minds and Machines, 1991.

Submitted Papers

Shafer, V.L , Morr, M.L., Datta H. & Kurtzberg, D. Neurophysiological indices of speech processing deficits in children with specific language impairment.  Under review to Journal of Cognitive Neurosciences.

Invited Presentations

Neurophysiological indices of speech processing in bilinguals.  International Acoustical Society, Kyoto, Japan, April 4-6, 2004.

Pre-attentive processing in children with SLI. Paper to be presented in the session: Pre-attentive speech perception.  XIII International Conference of Event Related Potentials of the Brain. Leipzip, Germany, March 29-31, 2004.  

ERP indices of phonological processing in children with SLI.  Rutgers University. October 28, 2003.

ERP methods in studying language development.  Presented to the Oxford Study of Children’s Communication Impairments Group, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, December, 2002.

Using ERPs to Study Language. Cognitive Science Symposium. The Graduate School and University Center, CUNY, November, 2002.

Using ERPs to Study Language Acquisition. Invited presentation in the symposium “Application of neuroimaging in language research” Session chair E. Plante, IX International Congress for the Study of Child Language and the Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI. July, 2002.

ERPs to language in natural discourse contexts.  Paper presented to the Program in Linguistics, Psycholinguistic Supper Club, The Graduate School and University Center, CUNY, Fall, 1999.

Using mismatch negativity to investigate phonological processing.  Presented at Neurosciences Colloquia Series, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York. October, 1998.

Using ERPs to study language acquisition and processing.  Presented at Program in Speech and Hearing Sciences, The Graduate Center, CUNY. December, 1997.

Methodological issues in choosing stimuli in ERPs studies of language.  Presented at Program in Speech and Hearing Sciences Colloquia Series, The Graduate Center, CUNY, October, 1997.

Presented Papers and Published Abstracts

Shafer, V.L.  The allocation of attentional resources in the development of speech perception. Paper to be presented to XIII International Conference of Event Related Potentials of the Brain. Leipzip, Germany, March 29-31, 2004.

Shafer, V.L. Garrido, K. Datta, H., MacRoy, M. &MacDonald, Neumann, Y., ,Martin B.  Electrophysiological Methods:  Future clinical application. Educational session to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, November, 2003.

Schwartz, R.G. Gross M. & Shafer, V.L.  Working memory comparison processes in lexical access. Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, November, 2003.

MacRoy, M. Maxfield, N. Gross M, Kessler, K.L., Schwartz, RG, Shafer, V.L.  ERP indices of phonological and morphophonological processing.  Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, November, 2003.

Garrido K., Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, RG., Francis A.L. Cantonese and English Speakers identification of tone contrast. Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, November, 2003.

Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, R.G & Kessler, K.L.  ERP evidence of phonological and lexical processing children with SLI.  To be presented at Boston University Conference on Language Development.  Oct. 31- Nov 2, 2003.

Kessler, K.L, Martohardjono, G. & Shafer, V.L.  ERP correlates of age and proficiency effects on L2 processing of syntactic and inflectional information.  To be presented at Boston University Conference on Language Development.  Oct. 31- Nov 2, 2003.

Kessler, K.L, Martohardjono, G. & Shafer, V.L.  Effects of  age and proficiency on work order and inflectional processing in L2 English:  An ERP Study.  Paper presented at the 13^th Annual EuroSLA Conference. Edinburgh, Scotland.  Sept. 2003..

Shafer, V.L. Garrido, K. Datta, H., MacRoy, M. &MacDonald, T.  Electrophysiological Methods:  Future clinical application.  Seminar presented at New York State Speech Language Hearing Association Annual Meeting, March, 2003.

Maxfield, N. Shafer, V.L, Cairns, H. & Watson, B., Cortical indices of picture name encoding times in adults who stutter. Poster presentation to 8th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March, 2003.

Arild Hestvik, Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, RG. & Maxfield, N.  Event-related potentials to “filled gaps” reflects the parser’s construction of antecedent-trace relations. Poster presentation to 8th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March, 2003.

Karen Garrido, Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, RG. Francis, A. ERP correlates of pitch discrimination in English adults. Poster presentation to 8th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March, 2003.

Kamowski, M., Maxfield N. & Shafer, V.L. ERP correlates of syllable sequence discrimination in infants. Poster presentation to 8th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March, 2003.

Datta, H., Shafer, V.L. & Kurtzberg, D.  The effects of exposure to non-native speech contrasts on MMN. Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Atlanta GA, November, 2002.

Karen Garrido, Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, RG. Francis, A. ERP correlates of pitch discrimination in English adults. Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Atlanta GA, November, 2002.

Kamowski, M. Maxfield N. & Shafer, V.L. ERP correlates of syllable sequence discrimination in infants. Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Atlanta GA, November, 2002.

Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, R.G & Kessler, K.L.  ERP evidence of temporal aspects of phonological and lexical processing children.  To be presented at Boston University Conference on Language Development.  November, 2002.

Schwartz, R.G., Shafer, V.L., Gravel, J.S., & Ruben, R.J.  The Neurobiology of Auditory Precesses in Childhood Language Impairment.  IX International Congress for the Study of Child Language and the Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI, July, 2002.

Kessler, K.L., Shafer, V.L., & Schwartz, R.G.  ERP evidence of temporal aspects of phonological and lexical processing in adults. Poster presentation to 9th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Franscisco, March, 2002.

Shafer, V.L., Kessler, K.L. & Schwartz, R.G.  ERP evidence of temporal aspects of phonological and lexical processing children. Poster presentation to 9th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Franscisco, March, 2002.

Datta, H., Shafer, V.L. & Kurtzberg, D.  The effects of exposure to non-native speech contrasts on MMN.  Poster presentation to 9th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Franscisco, March, 2002.

Morr, M.L., Shafer, V.L., & Kurtzberg, D. MMN to short and long vowels in children with SLI.  Poster presentation to 9th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Franscisco, March, 2002.

Schwartz, R.G., Shafer, V.L., & Kurtzberg, D.  Paper presentation to XIII International Conference of Event Related Potentials of the Brain, Paris, France, July, 2001.

Schwartz, R. G., Shafer, V.L., Gravel, J., Kurtzberg, D. & Ruben, R. Neurophysiological indices of language processing in children with SLI. Paper presentation to ISAPL.  Montreal, Canada, August, 2001.

Morr, M.L., Shafer, V.L., Kurtzberg, D. & Schwartz, R. G. Attention effects on MMN to vowels in children and adults. Paper presentation to ISAPL.  Montreal, Canada, August, 2001.

Scheffler, F.L.V., Schwartz, R.G., Raphael, L., Gravel, J.S., & Shafer, V.L. Vowel duration and lexical knowledge: effects on perception in SLI:  preliminary findings.  Poster presentation to 8th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March, 2001.

Morr, M.L., Shafer, V.L., & Kurtzberg, D.  Attention effects on MMN to vowels in children and adults.  Poster presentation to 8th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March, 2001.

Maul, K.K., Morr, M.L., Shafer, V.L., & Kurtzberg, D.  Attention effects on MMN to consonants in children and adults.  Poster presentation to 8th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March, 2001.

Martin, B.A., Shafer, V.L., Morr, M.L., Kreuzer, J. & Kurtzberg, D. Maturation of the mismatch negativity:  a topographic analysis.  Poster presentation to 8th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March, 2001.

Kessler, K.L., Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, R.G., Morr, M.L. & Kurtzberg, D. Attention effects on ERPs to function words and content words in discourse.  Poster presentation to 8th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March, 2001.

Datta, H., Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, R.G., & Kurtzberg, D.  MMN as an index of universal acoustic-phonetic properties of the auditory system.  Poster presentation to 8th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, March, 2001.

Slonim, D., Scheffler, F.L.V., Shafer, V.L, Schwartz, R.G.  Lexical decisions in children with typical language and SLI.  Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Washington, DC, November, 2000.

Scheffler, F.L.V., Schwartz, R.G., Raphael, L., Gravel, J.S., & Shafer, V.L. Vowel duration and lexical knowledge: effects on perception in SLI:  preliminary findings.  Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Washington, DC, November, 2000.

Morr, M.L., Shafer, V.L., & Kurtzberg, D.  Attention effects on MMN to vowels in children and adults.   Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Washington, DC, November, 2000.

Kessler, K.L., Shafer, V. L., Schwartz, R.G., Morr, M. L. & Kurtzberg, D.  Event-related potentials to the processing of "the" and “cats” in discourse. Poster presentation to 7th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, April, 2000.

Shafer, V. L., Schwartz, R.G., Morr, M. L., Kessler, K.L. & Kurtzberg, D.  Event-related potentials to the processing of "the" in discourse in children with SLI. Poster presentation to 7th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, April, 2000.

Shafer, V. L., Schwartz, R.G., Morr, M. L., Kessler, K.L. & Kurtzberg, D.  Neurophysiological indices to the processing of "the" in discourse in children with SLI. Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, San Francisco, November, 1999.

Liu, G., Lantos, G., Shafer, V., Knuth, K., Vaughan, H.  Cortical auditory phonological processing accessed by fMRI.  Abstract presented to the International Society for Magnetic Imaging in Medicine, Spring, 1999. 

Shafer, V.L. ERPs to language in natural discourse contexts.  Paper presented as part of the symposium, Neurophysiology of Typical and Atypical Language Processing (co-ordinators, D. Kurtzberg, & R.G. Schwartz) at IASCLI Meeting, San Sebastian, Spain. July 12-16, 1999. 

Liebenthal, E. Lee, W.T.  Shafer, V.L., Kurztberg D., Vaughan, H.  Electrophysiological correlates of the discrimination of speech segments within a syllable. Poster presentation to the 6th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Washington, April, 1999

Morr, M. L., Shafer, V. L. & Kurtzberg, D.  Mismatch Negativity to vowel stimuli in normal children and adults.  Poster presentation to 6th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Washington, April, 1999

Shafer, V. L., Morr, M. L., Schwartz, R.W. & Kurtzberg, D.  Event-related potentials to the processing of "the" in discourse in children. Poster presentation to 6th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Washington, April, 1999.

Shafer, V.L., Morr, M.L., Schwartz, R., & Kurtzberg, D.  Neurophysiological indices of processing of function words in discourse.  Poster presentation to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, November, 1998.

Vaughan, H. G., Hrabe, J., Knuth, K.H., Kurtzberg, D., Liu, G., & Shafer, V.L.  Timing is of the essence: spatiotemporal processing of tones and speech sounds examined with ERPs and fMRI.   Poster presentation to XII International Conference of Event Related Potentials of the Brain, Boston MA, July, 1998.

Shafer, V.L., Morr, M., Kurtzberg, D. The Development of the mismatch negativity to tone stimuli in children.   Poster presentation to XII International Conference of Event Related Potentials of the Brain, Boston MA, July, 1998.

Vaughan, H. G., Kurtzberg, D, Shafer, V.L.; Knuth, K.H., Hrabe, J., Liu, G., & Lantos, G.  When and where:  auditory/phonetic processing in four dimensions, 4th International Conference on Functional Mapping of the Human Brain, Montreal, June 1998.

Shafer, V.L., Morr, M., Kurtzberg, D. Electrophysiological indices of function words in natural discourse.  Poster presentation to the 5th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, April, 1998

Shafer, V.L.,  Karunakaran, B., Schwartz, R.G., & Kurtzberg, D.  Poster presentation to the 36th Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysical Research, Cape Cod, MA., October, 1997.

Liu, G., Lantos, G., Shafer, V., Knuth, K., Vaughan, H.  Cortical auditory and phonological prcessing:  an fMRI study.  3rd International Conference on Functional Mapping of the Human Brain, Copenhagen, May 1997.

Lantos, G., Liu, G., Shafer, V., Knuth, K., Vaughan, H.  Tonotopic organization of primary auditory cortex:  an fMRI study.  3rd International Conference on Functional Mapping of the Human Brain, Copenhagen, May 1997. 

Shafer V.L. Methodological issues concerning stimulus selection in language processing studies.  Poster presentation to the 1996 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Seattle, Washington, November, 1996.

Shafer V.L. & Shucard, D.W. Differences in maturation of the left and right cerebral hemispheres in male and female infants:  an electrophysiological study.  Poster presentation to the 35th Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysical Research, Toronto, Canada., October, 1995.

Shafer V.L.  Three-month-old infants' ability to discriminate their native from non-native languages:  an electrophysiological investigation.  Presented at Program in Speech and Hearing Sciences Colloquia Series, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 1994.

Shafer, V.L. & Jaeger, J.J. The acoustic cues infants use in identifying their native language.  Presented at the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Jan., 1994. 

Ferretti, L.E., Shucard, D.W., Shucard, J.L., Shafer, V.L. & Rogers, B.T.  Impact of perinatal asphyxia on the cortical auditory evoked potential in infants:  a longitudinal perspective.  Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Meetings, Washington, D.C., November, 1993. Neuroscience Abstracts, 19, 182.

Shafer, V.L. & Shucard, D.W. Auditory evoked potentials as an index of infants' ability to distinguish their native from non-native languages.  Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Meetings,  Washington, D.C., November, 1993.  Neuroscience Abstracts,19, 731.

Shucard D.W., Shucard,  J.L. & Shafer, V.L.  Auditory evoked potentials to probe stimuli:  possible implications for attention and allocation of cerebral resources in infants.  Presented at Developmental Neuropsychology Satellite Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana.  March, 1993.  Developmental Neuropsychology.

Shucard, J.L., Shucard, D.W., Shafer, V.L., Ferretti, L.E. & Kubow, S.A.  Fast habituation of scalp-recorded auditory evoked potentials to paired tone stimuli in infants.  Platform presentation at the Society for Neuroscience Meetings, Anaheim, California. November, 1993. Neuroscience Abstracts, 18, 584.

Shafer V.L., Gerken L.A, Shucard J.L. & Shucard D.W.  'The' and the brain:  An electrophysiological study of infants' sensitivity to English function morphemes.  Presented at the 17th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, October, 1992.

Shafer V.L., Shucard D.W., Shucard J.L. & Gerken L.A.  An electrophysiological study of infants' sensitivity to the sound structure of English function words.  Platform presentation at the Society for Neuroscience Meetings, Anaheim, California. November, 1992. Neuroscience Abstracts, 18, 584.

Shafer, V.L.  Home visits in the study of language acquisition.  Niagara Linguistics Society Working Papers Symposium, Buffalo, New York, April, 1992.

Shucard D.W., Shucard J.L., Rogers B.T., Shafer V.L. & Ram D.  A longitudinal study of neurocognitive functioning in two infants with perinatal brain insult.  Presented at the New York Neuropsychology Group Twelfth Annual Conference, New York, April, 1991.  Abstract in International Journal of Neuroscience.

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