Tony Movshon

I am interested in the way the brain encodes visual information, and in the mechanisms that put that information to use in the control of behavior. I study the function and development of the visual system, especially the visual areas of the cerebral cortex, with a particular focus on the processing of signals about the motion and form of objects. I work mostly as a neurophysiologist recording the activity of single neurons, but much of my research draws on related areas of visual psychophysics, and on computational approaches to understanding brain organization and visual processing. I also study the functional development of the cortical visual system, and the way development is affected by early visual experience. Much of my work has sought to uncover the links between brain and behavior by studying the relationship between neuronal activity in the visual system and its perceptual and motor consequences. More recently, I have become interested in using theory and experiment to ask how information can be extracted from the activity of neuronal populations and used to support perceptual decisions and visually-guided action.