Gastgeber*innen während der Förderung
| Prof. Dr. Mark Greenlee | Lehrstuhl für Experimentelle Psychologie, Universität Regensburg, Regensburg |
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| Prof. Dr. Mark Greenlee | Institut für Psychologie, Universität Regensburg, Regensburg |
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| Beginn der ersten Förderung | 01.11.2005 |
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Projektbeschreibung der*des Nominierenden
| Dr. Tse graduated in physics and mathematics in 1984 from Dartmouth College. Afterwards, he spent a year at the University Konstanz, where he studied philosophy. He returned to Harvard to receive his doctoral degree in experimental psychology in 1998. His choice of academic supervisors, Prof. Patrick Cavanagh and Prof. Ken Nakayama, each leading figures in perceptual science and visual cognition, speaks for his dedication to excellence. As a postdoc, he worked in the renowned laboratory of Prof. Miko Logothetis, Max-Planck Institut, Tübingen, from the beginning of 1999 to September 2001. Dr. Tse took up his first professorship at Dartmouth College, where he is currently working in the Faculty of Psychology.
At his young age of 42 years, Dr. Tse enjoys an outstanding international reputation in the areas of perception, visual psychophysics and theoretical modelling. He has recently expanded his expertise to the area of functional neuroimaging. His skills in mathematics put him in an advantageous position to combine methods from cognitive neuroscience and perceptual theory to explore the neural processes underlying our ability to extract object information from noisy scenes.
His discoveries range from new insights into the neural mechanisms underlying object perception, figure-ground segmentation, from-from-motion, and the role of contour curvature in recovering 3D object information from 2D contour cues. Each of these achievements are documented by one or more publications in such international journals as Psychological Review, Psychological Science, Behavioral & Brain Science and Vision Research.
Dr. Tse's publications are always characterized by clarity and creativity. One example of his creativity is the work with Logothetis (Tse and Logothetis, 2002) on extracting figural information from apparent motion sequences. The speed with which the human brain is able to segment figure from ground suggests that his processing occurs prior to the evaluation of object motion. In his 2001 review paper, Dr. Tse develops a theory of role of contour curvature in extracting information about the 3D shape of objects from 2D images. This review is an important theoretical advancement which builds on the tradition set forth in the pioneering work of David Marr in his famous book Vision in 1980.
His research proposal concerns experiments to test his theory of figure-ground segmentation and object recognition. Employing the techniques of functional magnetic resonance imaging, Dr. Tse plans to identify the areas in primary and secondary visual cortex that are involved in the processes of object perception. He plans to explore the role of motion trajectories in the analysis of 3D object form. How is information about the motion of 3D objects integrated into our analysis of object shape? Experiments with stationary and moving targets will be compared to determine the role of contour curvature and motion in the presenting subjects with 2D silhouettes and they are asked to judge the object's 3D form. A further line of research is to employ so-called Glass patterns, repetitive variations of random dots, to explore the neutral mechanisms in regions in the human brain that are sensitive to global patterns of information in noise. This new work is exciting, since it links the scientific areas of perceptual science with neuroimaging.
Dr. Peter Tse will conduct his research at the University of Regensburg, Institute of Psychology. The young neuroscience community at the University of Regensburg will be very welcome to perform his work on either of two MRI scanners (with 1.5 and 3 Tesla field strengths). The city of Regensburg would offer a beautiful historical setting to him and his family and I am convinced that his visit will be marked by both scientific vigour and creative achievement. |
