I am faculty at the new UCSD MRI Center. Currently, my main interest is getting to the bottom of the relationship between BOLD  fMRI signal, neuronal responses to sensory stimuli, and modulatory influences (such as attention) on these neuronal responses. To this end I’m using novel MRI pulse sequences developed at the Center. More generally, I intend to use these new techniques for continued explorations of how we choose to attend to some objects at expense of others and how information processing in the visual system becomes a content of conscious perception.

 

   In addition, I am interested in:

The codes that the brain uses to represent the world.  I have used Shannon's information theory to quantify those representations in visual cortex. I have also explored how these codes can help understand the relationship between perceptual discrimination performance and fMRI responses.

Developing new approaches to functional brain imaging. I have been studying how to make event related fMRI really efficient. I have recently noticed that using m-sequences instead of randomized event sequences can dramatically improve efficiency. I have also been looking into functional imaging methods not based on blood flow.

Can the brain be understood by evoking certain fundamental principles like optimal wiring and information maximization? I believe that the answer is yes, otherwise there would be no hope to ever understanding how the brain works…

What neuro-scientific and information-theoretic principles govern conscious perception? Recently I have proposed that perceptual awareness is an outcome of the predictive mode of operation of the thalamo-cortical system, the phenomenal awareness being a subjective experience of a meta-cognitive signal validating a currently activated cortical model.