In this episode, Heather Kosakowski shares details about her current work at the MIT Brain and Congitive Sciences Department where she is a PhD candidate. Her dissertation research focuses on the development of higher-level visual processes in the awake infant brain. To this end, she invented techniques to increase the quality of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected from awake infants leading to the discovery of face-, body-, and scene-selective responses in infants' ventral visual stream. Kosakowski had a non-traditional career path that included foster care, the Marine Corps, Community College, and being a single mother. This trajectory left Kosakowski with a deep desire for people that feel like outsiders to know there is a place for them, anywhere they want to be. Heather blogs at heatherkosakowski.com/blog/. Information about her recently published paper can be found at https://news.mit.edu/2021/brain-region-faces-development-1115. Your host is Dana Attar.