Topic: active vision

Human vision relies on rapid eye movements (saccades) 2-3 times every second to bring peripheral targets to central foveal vision for high resolution inspection. This rapid sampling of the world defines the perception-action cycle of natural vision and profoundly impacts our perception. Marmosets have similar visual processing and eye movements as humans, including a fovea that supports high-acuity central vision. Here, I present a novel approach developed in my laboratory for investigating the neural mechanisms of visual processing using naturalistic free viewing and simple target foraging pa

n natural vision, active vision refers to the changes in visual input resulting from self-initiated eye movements. In this talk, I will present studies that show that the stimulus-related activity during active vision differs substantially from that occurring during classical flashed-stimuli paradigms. Our results uncover novel and efficient mechanisms that improve visual perception. In a general way, the nervous system appears to engage in sensory modulation mechanisms, precisely timed to self-initiated stimulus changes, thus coordinating neural activity across different cortical areas and se