How are our rich perceptual experiences (e.g., an appreciation of a beautiful sunset) generated by the neural activity in the brain? What neuro-computational processes generate our subjective impression that we can intentionally control our mind and body? How does “intentional effort” interact with perceptual, attentional, and motor processes? Although we primarily focus on the visual modality in tackling these questions, building on the extensive knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the visual system, we have more recently become interested in understanding interactions between the visual, auditory, and tactile modalities.

Some more specific research questions our lab focuses on:

How do we perceive scenes, space, faces, objects, form, motion and time?

How do awareness, intention, and short/long-term experience influence perception and attention?

How does auditory, tactile, and visual information integrate to generate coherent perceptual experience?

What are the neural (EEG) correlates of dynamic perceptual and attentional states as measured by ERPs, time-frequency analyses, and pattern classification? 

What mechanisms keep our mind in a balanced (metastable) state, enabling us to generate different perceptual interpretations?

How do people differ in their abilities to control attention?