Research Interests
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Attention
- Visual Perception
Research Description
At the most general level, my research program is aimed at identifying the cognitive processes and neural structures that enable and limit our visual representations of the world. For instance, I am interested in: what processes determine whether or not we are aware of a visual object or event, can report its presence, or can recall it later; what mechanisms constrain the number of items we can effectively process at the same time; how higher-level processes such as attention modulate activity in visual cortex; and, why some stimuli (e.g. natural scenes)are processed so quickly and with relatively little effort. We use a variety of approaches to address these questions, including functional magnetic resonance imaging, behavioral methods, and transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Education
Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
External Links
Recent Publications
Clements, G. M., Gyurkovics, M., Low, K. A., Beck, D. M., Fabiani, M., & Gratton, G. (2022). Dynamics of alpha suppression and enhancement may be related to resource competition in cross-modal cortical regions. NeuroImage, 252, [119048]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119048
Chiu, Y. C., Wang, T. H., Beck, D. M., Lewis-Peacock, J. A., & Sahakyan, L. (2021). Separation of item and context in item-method directed forgetting. NeuroImage, 235, [117983]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117983
Kumar, M., Federmeier, K. D., & Beck, D. M. (2021). The N300: An Index for Predictive Coding of Complex Visual Objects and Scenes. Cerebral Cortex Communications, 2(2), [tgab030]. https://doi.org/10.1093/texcom/tgab030
Metzger, B. A., & Beck, D. M. (2020). Probing the mechanisms of probe-mediated binocular rivalry. Vision Research, 173, 21-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2020.04.011
Center, E. G., Knight, R., Fabiani, M., Gratton, G., & Beck, D. M. (2019). Examining the role of feedback in TMS-induced visual suppression: A cautionary tale. Consciousness and Cognition, 75, [102805]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2019.102805
