Study explains why the brain can robustly recognize images, even without color
The findings also reveal why identifying objects in black-and-white images is more difficult for individuals who were born blind and had their sight restored.
Mapping the brain pathways of visual memorability
For the first time, researchers use a combination of MEG and fMRI to map the spatio-temporal human brain dynamics of a visual image being recognized.
Professor Emeritus Peter Schiller, a pioneer researcher of the visual system, dies at 92
His wide-ranging and influential career included fundamental discoveries about how visual scenes and stimuli are processed from the retina through the cortical visual system.
Image recognition accuracy: An unseen challenge confounding today’s AI
“Minimum viewing time” benchmark gauges image recognition complexity for AI systems by measuring the time needed for accurate human identification.
Elly Nedivi receives 2023 Kreig Cortical Kudos Discoverer Award
The neuroscientist is recognized for her ongoing work to understand molecular and cellular mechanisms that enable the brain to adapt to experience.
Four from MIT awarded National Medals of Technology, Science
James Fujimoto, Eric Swanson, and David Huang are recognized for their technique to rapidly detect diseases of the eye; Subra Suresh is honored for his commitment to research and collaboration across borders.
Retraining the brain for better vision
Professor Mark Bear's research on brain plasticity spins off a promising candidate to treat amblyopia, or lazy eye.
Study advances understanding of visual recognition memory
Scientists have invested decades in piecing together how our vision is so good at recognizing what’s familiar. A new study overcomes an apparent discrepancy in data to reveal a new insight into how it works.
Improving accessibility of online graphics for blind users
Open-source software by MIT MAD Fellow Jonathan Zong and others in the MIT Visualization Group reveals online graphics’ embedded data in the user’s preferred degree of granularity.
James Fujimoto, Eric Swanson, and David Huang win Lasker Award
Professor and two additional MIT affiliates honored for influential work on optical coherence tomography, which allows rapid detection of retinal disease, among other applications.
Scientists discover anatomical changes in the brains of the newly sighted
Following cataract removal, some of the brain’s visual pathways seem to be more malleable than previously thought.
Sparse, small, but diverse neural connections help make perception reliable, efficient
First detailed mapping and modeling of thalamus inputs onto visual cortex neurons show brain leverages “wisdom of the crowd” to process sensory information.
Study: Zebrafish are smarter than we thought
Researchers have discovered that the brains of these simple fish can create three-dimensional maps of their surroundings.
After a lifetime of blindness, newly sighted can immediately identify human locomotion
Study on blind patients who recovered their sight suggests rethinking the belief that babies learn to recognize human movement through visual exposure.
When Alzheimer’s degrades cells that cross hemispheres, visual memory suffers
Research reveals cells that span brain hemispheres to coordinate activity in visual processing centers, shows Alzheimer’s degrades their structure and function.