Broad Area Colloquium for Artificial Intelligence,
Geometry, Graphics, Robotics and Vision
Visual Neuroscience: Reverse Engineering the Brain
David J. Heeger
Stanford University
Monday, May 6th, 2002, 4:45PM
Gates B01 http://robotics.stanford.edu/ba-colloquium/
Abstract
Recent advances in magnetic resonance imaging have made it
possible for us to measure neuronal activity in the human brain while
the subject is awake and performing any of a variety of tasks. Armed
with this new tool, called functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI), we are in the midst of a revolution in neuroscience. In vision
research, in particular, never before have we had the opportunity to
link "what you see" with "what your brain is doing". I will review the
anatomy and physiology of the visual pathways in the human brain, and
describe a series of experiments and computational models pertaining
to visual pattern discrimination.
About the Speaker
David J. Heeger is an Associate Professor of Psychology,
Neuroscience, Biophysics, Electrical Engineering (by courtesy), and
Computer Science (by courtesy) at Stanford University. He received his
Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania. He was
a postdoctoral fellow at MIT and a research scientist at the NASA-Ames
Research Center, before coming Stanford. His research spans an
interdisciplinary cross-section of engineering, psychology, and
neuroscience, the current focus of which is to use functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) to quantitatively investigate the
relationship between brain and behavior. He was awarded the David Marr
Prize in computer vision in 1987, an Alfred P. Sloan Research
Fellowship in neuroscience in 1994, and the Troland Award in
psychology from the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.
Contact: bac-coordinators@cs.stanford.edu
