Explore projects in Perception, Action, an Cognition!
Projects in perception, action, and cognition investigate how individuals interpret sensory information, interact with their environment, and engage in complex mental processes. These interdisciplinary studies explore how perception (e.g., vision, hearing, touch) guides actions like reaching, grasping, and navigating space, and how these processes are linked to higher-level cognition such as memory, decision-making, and language. Researchers often use behavioral experiments, computational modeling, and neuroscience methods to study the dynamic relationship between sensory input, motor output, and cognitive function. Many projects also examine developmental changes, individual differences, and the effects of learning, aging, or neurological conditions. This research advances our understanding of how people experience and act on the world around them.
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- CAREER: Unique brain structures in human cortex: From structure to function and cognitionProject Abstract/Summary The human brain contains unique neuroanatomical structures and cortical convolutions that are absent in the brains of other mammals. Studying these structures relative to human brain function and cognition is especially important as it provides insight regarding the contributions of distinctive parts of the brain that distinguish humans. Although scientists have been studying the human brain for over a century, we still lack basic knowledge about these “unique brain structures” or UBS, that are specific to the human… Read more: CAREER: Unique brain structures in human cortex: From structure to function and cognition
- Hemispheric and topographic neural organization of high-level visual representationsProject Abstract/Summary People recognize faces, words, and other common objects with remarkable speed and accuracy. This project addresses the way that visual knowledge of faces, words, and objects becomes organized in the brain through learning. Prior research has shown that the right cerebral hemisphere is specialized for the representation of faces, whereas the left cerebral hemisphere has a stronger representation for words, with the representation of objects approximately balanced across both hemispheres. These differences in hemispheric specialization are a matter… Read more: Hemispheric and topographic neural organization of high-level visual representations
- CompCog: Computational Models of Plasticity and Learning in Speech PerceptionProject Abstract/Summary When it comes to speech perception, listeners are lifelong learners. Although infants’ perception becomes tuned to their native language in their first year of life, their speech sound categories continue to change well into childhood and adolescence. Adults also continue to show substantial capacity for perceptual learning, particularly in settings that involve feedback or rewards. This project uses computational modeling to investigate the learning mechanisms that allow listeners to adapt their speech perception to particular languages and environments.… Read more: CompCog: Computational Models of Plasticity and Learning in Speech Perception
- CAREER: Studying the effects of task goals on brain representations of visual motionProject Abstract/Summary People do not always notice the same things when they look at the same scene, because perception depends on the goal. At the neural level, many perceptual regions in the brain do not necessarily respond the same way to the same stimuli-activity depends on both the stimulus and on task goals. The ability to focus on task-relevant features and thereby change activity in the brain is called top-down attention. Attention is affected in many neurological disorders, including ADHD… Read more: CAREER: Studying the effects of task goals on brain representations of visual motion
- CAREER:Single-neuron mechanisms of social attention in humansProject Abstract/Summary The ability of people to focus visual attention on salient objects or people in our visual field is one of the most fundamental cognitive functions in humans. This ability is critically important in order to learn and interact socially with others. In particular, visual attention to social stimuli (i.e., social attention) plays a vital role in guiding social behaviors. Impaired social attention underlies many psychiatric and neurological disorders, such as autism and ADHD. However, very little is known… Read more: CAREER:Single-neuron mechanisms of social attention in humans