Van Essen Lab
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Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology
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Van Essen Lab |
Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology |
Our laboratory uses physiological, anatomical and computational approaches to study information processing in the nervous system. Our main emphasis is on the primate visual system, particularly extrastriate visual cortex, in monkeys and humans.
Neurophysiology
Our physiological studies focus on mechanisms of form processing and pattern recognition in visual cortex of the macaque monkey. We are interested in how neuronal receptive field characteristics are transformed at early and intermediate stages of the visual hierarchy (areas V1, V2, and V4), and in how these transformations contribute to the analysis of surface characteristics and object boundaries
Cortical Cartography.
We have developed an integrated software suite for surface-based analyses of cerebral cortex. This includes SureFit (used for automated segmentation and surface reconstruction), Caret (used for surface visualization and analysis), SuMS (a web-accessible database), and surface-based atlases of macaque and human cortex that contain extensive information about cortical areas, functional organization, and connectivity.
Neural Computation.
We are developing a unified mathematical framework for modeling large scale neurobiological systems, including the primate visual system. This framework, developed by Charles Anderson and the Computational Neuroscience Research Group (CNRG), is grounded in well-established principles of signal processing, statistical inference, and good engineering design. It provides a rational and robust strategy for simulating and evaluating the function of a wide variety of specific neural circuits. http://compneuro.uwaterloo.ca
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