The Neural Imaging Laboratory, headed by Prof. Hamutal Slovin of the Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, is dedicated to the study of visual processing, decoding of visual content, and artificial vision. Slovin’s long term goals are to provide novel insights into perceptually guided behavior, facilitate the development of a useful cortical visual neuroprosthesis, and improve treatment of visually impaired subjects.
Slovin and her team aim to understand the neuronal mechanisms mediating visual processing and visual perception. When a visual image is presented, it is broken down to its stimulus features – e.g. color, orientation, spatial frequency etc. – within each point in the visual field.
Slovin’s group is investigating the mechanisms behind this process in the primary visual cortex. They are also trying to shed light on the “binding problem”, namely, how spatially separated neural activity bind together to generate the perception of a coherent object. Slovin’s group is also attempting to decipher neuronal mechanisms mediating higher brain functions such as visual attention, perceptual learning and visual awareness.
Another research goal of Slovin’s is to understand the decoding (or “mind reading”) of visual stimuli content in the brain. Using a brain model, she is applying a set of algorithms to decipher and reconstruct the visual content of simple basic stimuli into complex images.