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Daniel J. Kersten, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychology E-mail: kersten@umn.edu Kersten Computational Vision Lab (www.kersten.org)

Research Interests:

The human visual system may be the most complex pattern recognition
device known. In ways yet to be fully understood, the visual brain
arrives at interpretations of the retinal image data that are useful
for the decisions and actions of everyday life. Exactly how the brain
translates retinal image intensities to useful actions is a tough
problem requiring multiple approaches. A major theoretical challenge is
to discover the computational principles required to estimate object
properties and determine motor output from image features.
Computational vision searches for these solutions (Kersten and Yuille,
2003). The experimental challenge is to discover how our visual systems
and those of other animals are built to achieve useful actions from the
images received. My lab uses behavioral and and brain imaging to
investigate how the visual pathways of the brain transform image
information into useful actions (Bloj et al., 1999, Murray et al.,
2002).

Selected Publications:

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

Green CS, Benson C, Kersten D, Schrater P. Alterations in choice behavior by manipulations of world model. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Sep 14;107(37):16401-6. Epub 2010 Aug 30.

Kersten D, Murray SO. Vision: when does looking bigger mean seeing better? Curr Biol. 2010 May 11;20(9):R398-9.

Hegdé J, Fang F, Murray SO, Kersten D. Preferential responses to occluded objects in the human visual cortex. J Vis. 2008 Apr 22;8(4):16.1-16.

Hegdé J, Bart E, Kersten D. Fragment-based learning of visual object categories. Curr Biol. 2008 Apr 22

Boyaci H, Fang F, Murray SO, Kersten D. Responses to lightness variations in early human visual cortex. Curr Biol. 2007 Jun 5;17(11):989-93.

Yuille A, Kersten D. Vision as Bayesian inference: analysis by synthesis? Trends Cogn Sci. 2006 Jul;10(7):301-8.

Murray SO, Boyaci H, Kersten D. The representation of perceived angular size in human primary visual cortex. Nat Neurosci. 2006 Mar;9(3):429-34.

Murray SO, Olman CA, Kersten D. Spatially specific FMRI repetition effects in human visual cortex. J Neurophysiol. 2006 Apr;95(4):2439-45.

Fang F, Murray SO, Kersten D, He S. Orientation-tuned FMRI adaptation in human visual cortex. J Neurophysiol. 2005 Dec;94(6):4188-95.

Hartung B, Schrater PR, Bulthoff HH, Kersten D, Franz VH. Is prior knowledge of object geometry used in visually guided reaching? J Vis. 2005 Jun 10;5(6):504-14.

Knill, D. C., & Kersten, D. (2004). Visuomotor sensitivity to visual information about surface orientation. J Neurophysiol, 91(3), 1350-1366.

Current Graduate Students:

Robert Shannon (Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Former Graduate Students:

Mark Brady (Ph.D. 1999, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Wendy Braje (Cognitive and Biological Psychology, University of Minnesota).

Pascal Mamassian (Ph.D. 1995, University of Minnesota).

Cheryl Olman (Ph.D. 2003, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Jennifer Schumacher (Ph.D. 2010, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Serena Thompson (Ph.D. 2009, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).