Research Interests
At the highest level, I am interested in how "thinking" is accomplished by humans. In order to make the jump from philosophy to neuroscience (although I am still informally interested in philosophy of the mind), I have narrowed my formal research interests to the following question(s): How does the human brain (a) extract information from the environment, (b) store and process that information, and (c) output behaviors, possibly as a function of the information that has been collected? In order to study information extraction, I have focused on the visual system. In order to explore how information is stored and processed, and what sorts of behaviors come from studying that information, I am focusing on learning and memory.
How do we learn and remember?
I'm now working in the Kahana Lab. I am working on two main projects:
- A
major goal (that will probably become my thesis project) is to be able
to interpret the electrical activity of someone's brain (hopefully in real time).
I'm currently working on this problem by analyzing intracranial EEG recorded from patients who participate in various memory-related experiments. You can read a recent paper here.
- I am involved in a joint project with the Sekuler Lab at Brandeis University. The goal of the project is to design and implement a computational model which will mimic human subjects who played a virtual taxicab game. You can read more about my research here. Please excuse the horrendous photo. If you want to review the technical details of the project, you can check out this paper.
How do we see?
In the Brainard Lab, I'm working on a Bayesian model for vision.
We know that photoreceptors cannot capture all photons which hit the retina.
More
formally, the activation of photoreceptors undersamples the light
reflected off objects in one's environment. Plus, there's all kinds of
blurring and other sources of noise that make photoreceptor measurements unreliable. All of this means
that, in order to estimate what's actually "out there" in the world,
the brain needs to do some guesswork, which is where Bayes' Theoremcomes in, hence "Bayesian". We've implemented a Baysian estimator for
images which explicitly represents the photoreceptor layout
on the retina -- this allows us to test how "good" different retinal
designs are at guessing about the visual world. So far, we're using
this model to answer questions how and why the visual system might have
evolved
as it did. This research is ongoing in parallel with my thesis work. If you're interested, check out this paper.
How do our developing brains know how to wire themselves?
My Spring, 2007 rotation was in the Raper Lab. I studied axon guidance in E7 chick DRG's in vitro. It turns out that there are all these chemical cues that tell neurons how and where to grow, and where to link up with other neurons. I worked with a simple assay to measure the effectiveness of various signalling molecules. In parallel, I developed a (cross platform) computer program to automate the image analysis component of my experiment and some other experiments in the lab.
Other interests
My other research interests include artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks, knowledge representation, database systems, and computer graphics.
Aside from being a student:
- I really like to read. Science fiction has always held a special place in my heart, although I enjoy a good thriller, mystery, or adventure book, too. In general, if a book makes me think about the world in a way that I hadn't before, I'll love it.
- Modular origami is is one of my longest-standing hobbies. The best book for learning how to do this stuff is Unit Origami, by Tomoko Fuse.
- I am also a PADI certified open water diver. I have been on some neat dives, including a shipwreck dive. I enjoy other water-related activities such as sailing, snorkling, swimming, jet-skiing, water-skiing, etc. as well.
- As an undergrad at Brandeis I started learning Okinawan Uechi-Ryu karate. I haven't been keeping up with this formally while in Philadephia, although I've been practicing my kata (forms) and drills when I can.
- I also like playing chess (untimed). If you ever want an easy match, let me know and I'll be glad to play (even over the internet via email) provided I don't have a myriad of other pressing things to do (although I can be easily distracted from my work for a good game).
- I enjoy playing the trumpet. In high school I played in the school's jazz band, although
since then I've played only infrequently. More recently, I've been trying to teach myself to play the guitar. A long time ago, I played the viola and the piano as well.
- I have been making computer art for a while now. I used to be a big 2D fan (using Photoshop, Photopaint, Illustrator, Draw, etc.), however In the past couple years I've started to move into the 3D world (Dream3D, Blender, Cinema4D, Lightwave, Maya, etc.).
- A few of my favorite video games are Unreal Tournament, Freelancer, Tribes, BZFlag, Grand Theft Auto, and Frozen Bubble.
- Near the end of my senior year in college, I started getting interested in Rubik's Cubes. I am more interested in generalizeable puzzle-solving algorithms than speed-solving. You can watch a movie of me solving a Rubik's cube using the layer-by-layer method. I also enjoy writing and reading about puzzle-solving computer algorithms.