Grill-Spector Vision & Perception Neuroscience Lab     (Directions)
Jordan Hall, Building 420
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2130
ph: (650) 723-1750
fax: (650) 725-5699

Our research utilizes functional imaging (fMRI), computational techniques and behavioral methods to investigate visual object recognition and other high-level visual processes. For humans, object recognition is a natural, effortless skill that occurs within a few hundreds of milliseconds, yet, it is one of the least understood aspects of visual perception. We are interested in investigating the underlying representations and cortical mechanisms that subserve recognition, and the relation between these neural processes, and our visual perception of the world

Experimental questions

• What are the processing stages that underlie object and face perception?
• How are shapes, objects and faces represented in the human brain?
• How does this representation deal with the large variability in the appearance of objects, but retain the ability to discriminate between objects that are similar?
• To what extent are cortical representations dynamic and how are they modified by learning?
• What are mechanisms underlying development of cortical circuits for face and object perception?
• How does maturation of cortical circuits affect perception?
• How do different tasks modulate cortical circuits?