Visual Neuroscience

Immunostaining of a locust visual system with antibodies for synapsinFrom the eye to the brain, from behaviour to cognition, we study how the visual system works. We use cellular electrophysiology and molecular techniques to probe visual cortex as well as retinal development, psychophysical techniques for understanding human and animal visual perception, and computational modelling and engineering to make artificial visual systems. We employ advanced neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG, MEG) and eye tracking to measure neural activity and behaviour in patients and healthy volunteers. We work closely with ophthalmology and in translational research, we focus on the mechanisms underlying attention deficit disorders, ophthalmological disorders, developmental disorders, dementia, ageing, neurological lesions, and retinal colour blindness.  Applications of our research include: retinal prostheses to help restore sight, robots for collision avoidance, improved visual information displays, and algorithms for image colour correction.

Staff:

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Professor Anya Hurlbert
Director of Institute of Neuroscience

Dr Gabriele Jordan
Senior Lecturer

Dr Marcus Kaiser
Reader in Neuroinformatics

Dr Thomas Meyer
Senior Lecturer (Clinical Psychology)

Dr Jennifer Read
Royal Society Research Fellow

Dr Deborah Riby
Lecturer

Dr Claire Rind
Reader in Invertebrate Neurobiology

Dr Evelyne Sernagor
Reader in Developmental Neuroscience

Dr Peter Simmons
Reader in Neurobiology & Behaviour

Dr Yoav Tadmor
Lecturer

Professor Alexander Thiele
Professor of Visual Neuroscience

Dr Martin Tovee
Reader in Visual Cognition

Selected Publications:

  • Herrero JL, Roberts MJ, Delicato LS, Gieselmann MA, Dayan P, Thiele A (2008) Acetylcholine contributes to attentional modulation in V1 by muscarinic receptors. Nature (in press)
  • Binzegger T, Douglas RJ, Martin KA (2007) Stereotypical bouton clustering of individual neurons in cat primary visual cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 27: 12242-1254 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17989290)
  • Schultz J, Chuang L, Vuong QC (2008) A dynamic object-processing network: metric shape discrimination of dynamic objects by activation of occipitotemporal, parietal, and frontal cortices. Cerebral Cortex 18: 1302-1313 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17962220)
  • Ling Y, Hurlbert A (2004) Color and size interactions in a real 3D object similarity task. Journal of Vision 4:721-734 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15493966)
  • Hood SM, Mollon JD, Purves L, Jordan G (2006) Color discrimination in carriers of color deficiency. Vision Research 46: 2894-2900 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16690099)
  • Read JC, Cumming BG (2007) Sensors for impossible stimuli may solve the stereo correspondence problem. Nature Neuroscience 10: 1322-1328 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17828262)
  • Roberts M, Delicato LS, Herrero J, Gieselmann MA, Thiele A (2007) Attention alters spatial integration in macaque V1 in an eccentricity-dependent manner. Nature Neuroscience 10: 1483-1491 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17906622)
  • Mosimann UP, Mather G, Wesnes KA, O'Brien JT, Burn DJ, McKeith IG (2004) Visual perception in Parkinson disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. Neurology 63: 2091-2096  (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15596755)
  • Santer RD, Rind FC, Stafford R, Simmons PJ (2006) Role of an identified looming-sensitive neuron in triggering a flying locust's escape. Journal of Neurophysiology 95: 3391-3400 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16452263)
  • Leitch E, Coaker J, Young C, Mehta V, Sernagor E (2005) GABA type-A activity controls its own developmental polarity switch in the maturing retina. Journal of Neuroscience 25: 4801-4805 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15888655)