Psychophysical studies of memory representations and colour processing

我研究的总体目标是进一步了解人类大脑中调节我们对视觉世界感知的机制。我的研究主要集中在两个主要领域：1)通过研究视觉纹理感知、周边视觉中的颜色处理和颜色在记忆中的作用，提高我们对颜色的作用和处理的理解；2)通过研究我们感知场景变化的能力和研究对颜色的记忆来探索我们记忆表征的本质。在这些调查中，测量人类能力的极限，以评估大脑使用什么信息以及大脑如何处理这些信息。这些研究包括对能力完好的个体和能力受损的个体的评估。我们探测光的能力是由视觉系统中三个独立的通路或机制的反应决定的：亮度通路；红绿通道；还有一条蓝黄色的小路。在视觉系统的最底层，有明确的证据表明这些通路是独立的。第一个系列的研究是针对这些通路是否在更高层次的视觉系统（即负责纹理感知的那些）中是独立的。第二组研究旨在探索周边视觉的颜色处理，这可能会提高我们检测和监测与青光眼等疾病相关的视力丧失的能力。第三条研究方向是理解我们对记忆的编码，以及我们对周围世界的表征。最后的研究调查了我们将颜色信息编码到记忆（和/或从记忆中检索）的条件，以及在负责人类记忆的大脑区域中是否存在颜色类别的功能专一化。这些研究将增加我们对正常视觉处理的理解，提高我们对大脑中负责视觉的区域组织的理解，提高我们对周围世界的表征的认识，并为我们提供检测视觉疾病和功能障碍的有用信息。

The general aim of my research is to further our understanding of the mechanisms in the human brain that mediate our perception of the visual world.  My research focuses on two main areas: 1) improving our understanding of the role and processing of colour through studies of visual texture perception, colour processing in peripheral vision, and the role of colour in memory; and 2) exploring the nature of our memory representations through studies of our ability to detect changes in scenes and studies of memory for colour.  In these investigations, the limits of human abilities are measured to assess what information the brain uses and how that information is processed by the brain.  These studies include assessments of individuals with intact abilities as well as those whose abilities are impaired.        Our ability to detect light is determined by the responses of three separate pathways or mechanisms in the visual system: a brightness pathway; a red-green pathway; and a blue-yellow pathway.  At the lowest levels of the visual system, there is clear evidence that these pathways are independent.  The first series of studies is directed at whether these pathways are independent at higher levels of the visual system (i.e., those responsible for texture perception).  The second set of studies aims to explore colour processing in peripheral vision, which may improve our ability to detect and monitor visual losses associated with diseases such as glaucoma.  The third line of studies is directed at understanding what we encode into memory and can access from the representations about the world around us.  The final studies investigate the conditions under which we encode into memory (and/or retrieve from memory) information about colour and whether there is functional specialization of colour categories in areas of the brain responsible for human memory.      These studies will increase our understanding of normal visual processing, improve our understanding of the organization of areas in the brain responsible for vision, improve our knowledge of our representations of the world around us, and provide us with information useful in the detection of visual disease and dysfunction.