Dr. Gustafson was awarded a Ph.D. in Visual Electrophysiology in 1994 for describing abnormalities in retinal signal processing in human subjects with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and mouse models with dystrophin mutations. This work led to the co-discovery of a new dystrophin isoform found only in retina (Dp260).
Prior to joining the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, she was the Director of the Vision Science Laboratory at The Children's Mercy Hospital and Assistant Professor of Rehabilitative Medicine, University of Missouri School of Medicine for 19 years. She is the Associate Director of the fetal MEG program and is also responsible for research investigations related to Vision Science.
Dr. Gustafson was awarded a patent for her involvement in a multi-center trial that showed the nutritional content of a new premature infant formula was essential for optimal infant visual development. She has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, co-authored two book chapters, and is currently funded to study visual and stereo acuity development in full-term infants fed different diets, the effects of maternal smoking on fetal cardiac and brain neurophysiology and cortical mapping in human ON-pathway disorders.
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