Gerald Westheimer

Professor in the Graduate School (Molecular & Cell Biology)

Email: gwestheimer@berkeley.edu

Research areas: Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience

The processing of visual information by the human brain is the subject of study in this laboratory. Human visual spatial and temporal responses are analyzed according to the neural mechanism involved. The approach involves psychophysical experimentation with the use of advanced visual display devices controlled by computers. Of particular current interest are responses classed as "hyperacuities," i.e., responses which apparently exceed the processing capabilities of the mosaic of retinal elements. Here properties of neural ensembles must be involved. Our research concentrates on the experimental delineation of the performance of the human observer, and we interact strongly with findings from neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and with developments in the theory of neural circuits. There is a collaborative arrangement with the Laboratory of Neurobiology, The Rockefeller University, for a study of plasticity in the primate visual cortex, approached by psychophysical and other neural probing techniques.
 

Selected Publications

Westheimer, G. (2008) Was Helmholtz a Bayesian? Perception 39, 642-650 [doi:10:1068/p5973].

Westheimer, G. (2008) Geometrical-optical illusions and the neural representation of space. Vision Research 48, [doi:10.1016/j.visres.2008.05.016].

Westheimer, G. (2008) The Visual System and Its Stimuli. In R. Masland (Ed.) The Senses. A comprehensive Reference Vol. 6. Oxford: Academic Press.

Malania, M., Herzog, M.H., and Westheimer, G. (2007) Grouping of contextual elements that affect vernier thresholds. Journal of Vision 7 (2), 1-7.

Westheimer, G. (2007) The ON-OFF dichotomy in visual processing: from receptors to perception. Prog Retin Eye Res. 26, 636-48.

Westheimer, G. (2007) Irradiation, border location, and the shifted-chessboard pattern. Perception 36, 483-94.

Westheimer, G. (2006) Specifying and controlling the optical image on the retina. Progress in Retinal and Eye Research 25, 19-42.

Westheimer, G. (2004) Center-surround antagonism in spatial vision: Retinal or cortical locus? Vision Research 44, 2457-2465.

Gilbert, C., Ito, M., Kapadia, M. and Westheimer, G. (2000) Interactions between attention, context and learning in primary visual cortex. Vision Research 40, 1217-1226.