Ales Harris EastBIO studentship 2014

Neural Correlates of Human Motion Processing

 Supervisor 1 (Lead)           Dr. Justin Ales, Psychology and Neuroscience

Supervisor 2                     Prof. Julie Harris, Psychology and Neuroscience

One of the core functions of vision is to allow our interaction with the world, by monitoring our own motion, and the motion of other objects.  In this project, we will use a range of modern human neuroscience techniques to reveal, and understand, the pathways that underlie our ability to perceive motion.

In the primate visual system a hierarchy of areas have been shown to be involved in processing motion, with cortical area MT given central status.  This assertion is based on a body of non-human electrophysiological research that focused on correlating activity between area MT activity and behavioral responses. But recent work has challenged this, suggesting that MT might be engaged in lower-level computations. This leaves open the question as to the true locus of the “top” of the motion pathway. We will investigate the hierarchical organization of motion processing in human visual cortex using both neuroimaging and psychophysics.

The student will have the opportunity to learn classic human behavioural measures of perception, and state-of-art methods that combine multiple neuroimaging modalities. The student will join a multidisciplinary group, with members trained in biology, neuroscience, medicine, psychology, maths, physics and engineering. We welcome potential students from these and related disciplines.