Bharathi Jagadeesh

bjag@u.washington.edu
Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology & Biophysics

Home Page     Community of Science     Contact Info

Neural basis of object perception and learning. When we look at a scene, we see a complicated mixture of what is actually in front of our eyes, what we know, what we remember, and what we are looking for. In my lab, we study the areas of our brain that transform the visual world around us into the neural code that is the basis of that perception. In primary visual cortex, the code is dominated by what is actually there, and the study of primary visual cortex has concentrated on understanding the cortical circuits that generate the basic visual code. But as visual information travels through the brain, more and more complex characteristics of the visual image are extracted, and active processes - such as learning, memory, and attention - dramatically modify the visual code. How are complex visual scenes and images represented in the brain, and how does the representation of that information change with experience and memory? In order to find out, in our lab, we record the neural activity of cells that respond selectively to different highly complex visual images, including objects, faces, and natural scenes, while new information is acquired about the images. This learning results a modification of the cortical circuit that codes both the images themselves and their relevance for behavior. In our lab, we will use a variety of techniques, including single and multiple unit neurophysiological recording in behaving animals to focus on the neural circuits that code complex visual information and the modification of those circuits by learning and memory.