Visual information processing is one of the most important cognitive functions. Significant advances have been made in the understanding of the human visual system, but basic questions of resolution, depth, and motion perception have not been satisfactorily answered. Where is the bottlenect that limits the ability to visually resolve spatial and temporal details? How is depth and motion information constructed in the visual system?
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has become an increasingly important tool for studying cognitive functions. In collaboration with researchers at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Professor He is using fMRI to study the cortical neural mechanisms of visual perception. In particular, he is focusing on neural mechanisms that underlie the spatial and temporal visual resolution, visual motion processing, and stereo depth generation in normal human observers.
fMRI experiments generate very large and complex data sets. Processed results are difficult to represent because of the complex nature of the human brain. Fortunately, some software (e.g., brainvoyager, AFNI) has recently been developed specifically for the purpose of fMRI data analysis. The attractive feature of this software is its capacity to transform a crumpled three-dimensional cortex into a flat two-dimensional form or inflated smooth three-dimensional form, making the visualization of cortical activity much easier.
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URL: http://www.msi.umn.edu/about/publications/annualreport/ar2000/depts/MedSchool/Psychiatry/he.html |
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