Understanding the Organisational Principles of Visual Cortex
Retinotopy is a fundamental organising principle of visual cortex. Adjacent points on the retina project to adjacent neurons in cortex, creating a spatial map between the retina and the brain. Historically, retinotopy was considered independent from category-selectivity, but recent work from our group (& others) highlights their co-localisation. Many category-selective regions of cortex spatially overlap distinct retinotopic maps. Understanding the role that these retinotopic maps play in complex visual processing is a crucial goal of our group.
Visual Field Biases &
Category-Selectivity
Recent fMRI work by our group (& others) demonstrates that category-selective regions of high-level visual cortex exhibit systematic visual field biases. In many cases, these biases are for portions of the visual field in which that regions preferred stimulus appears during normal viewing. Understanding the functional significance of these visual field biases is a key goal of our research.
Distinct Cortical Regions for Remembering People & Places
Remembering a specific person, place or event vividly is something most of us do everyday. But where in the brain does this process take place? We asked this question in a recent fMRI study in which participants recalled specific people and/or places from memory. We identified distinct regions of medial parietal cortex that were preferentially recruited during either people or place recall. Such an organisation is reminiscent of perceptual regions for people and places in ventral temporal cortex and suggests a common representational framework.
Preprints
2022
Groen, I. I., Dekker, T. M., Knapen, T., & Silson, E. H. (2022). Visuospatial coding as ubiquitous scaffolding for human cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(1), 81-96
SIlson, E. H., & Morland, A. B. (2022). The search for shape-centered representations. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 1-3
2021
Silson, E. H., Groen, I.A.I., & Baker, C.I. (2021). Direct comparison of contralateral bias and face/scene selectivity in human occipitotemporal cortex. Brain Structure and Function.
2019
2018
Zeidman, P., Silson, E. H., Schwarzkopf, D. S., Baker, C. I., & Penny, W. (2018). Bayesian population receptive field modelling. Neuroimage, 180, 173-187.
Silson, E. H., Reynolds, R. C., Kravitz, D. J., & Baker, C. I. (2018). Differential sampling of visual space in ventral and dorsal early visual cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 38(9), 2294-2303.
Silson, E. H., Aleman, T. S., Willett, A., Serrano, L. W., Pearson, D. J., Rauschecker, A. M., ... & Ashtari, M. (2018). Comparing clinical perimetry and population receptive field measures in patients with choroideremia. Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 59(8), 3249-3258.
Malcolm, G. L., Silson, E. H., Henry, J. R., & Baker, C. I. (2018). Transcranial magnetic stimulation to the occipital place area biases gaze during scene viewing. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 189.
Woodall, R., Gale, R. P., Gouws, A., Scott, M., Silson, E.H., Bell, K., & Morland, A. (2018). Reductions in primary visual cortex volume in patients receiving long-term treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 59(9), 5021-5021.
2017
Strong, S. L., Silson, E. H., Gouws, A. D., Morland, A. B., & McKeefry, D. J. (2017). Differential processing of the direction and focus of expansion of optic flow stimuli in areas MST and V3A of the human visual cortex. Journal of neurophysiology, 117(6), 2209-2217.
Groen, I. I., Silson, E. H., & Baker, C. I. (2017). Contributions of low-and high-level properties to neural processing of visual scenes in the human brain. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 372(1714), 20160102.
Strong, S. L., Silson, E. H., Gouws, A. D., Morland, A. B., & McKeefry, D. J. (2017). A direct demonstration of functional differences between subdivisions of human V5/MT+. Cerebral Cortex, 27(1), 1-10.
2016
Silson, E. H., Groen, I. I., Kravitz, D. J., & Baker, C. I. (2016). Evaluating the correspondence between face-, scene-, and object-selectivity and retinotopic organization within lateral occipitotemporal cortex. Journal of vision, 16(6), 14-14.
Steel, A., Silson, E. H., Stagg, C. J., & Baker, C. I. (2016). The impact of reward and punishment on skill learning depends on task demands. Scientific reports, 6(1), 1-9.
2015
Silson, E. H., Chan, A. W. Y., Reynolds, R. C., Kravitz, D. J., & Baker, C. I. (2015). A retinotopic basis for the division of high-level scene processing between lateral and ventral human occipitotemporal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(34), 11921-11935.
2013
People
Dr. Ed Silson
Dr. Catriona Scrivener
Principal Investigator
Postdoc
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