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
External Links
Recent Publications
Michel, M., Beck, D. M., Block, N., Blumenfeld, H., Brown, R., Carmel, D., ... Yoshida, M. (2019). Opportunities and challenges for a maturing science of consciousness. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(2), 104-107. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0531-8
Groen, I. I. A., Greene, M. R., Baldassano, C., Fei-Fei, L., Beck, D. M., & Baker, C. I. (2018). Distinct contributions of functional and deep neural network features to representational similarity of scenes in human brain and behavior. eLife, 7, [e32962]. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.32962
Kumar, M., Federmeier, K. D., Fei-Fei, L., & Beck, D. M. (2017). Evidence for similar patterns of neural activity elicited by picture- and word-based representations of natural scenes. NeuroImage, 155, 422-436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.03.037
Wang, Z., Liu, D., Chang, S., Dolcos, F., Beck, D. M., & Huang, T. S. (2017). Image aesthetics assessment using Deep Chatterjee's machine. In 2017 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, IJCNN 2017 - Proceedings (pp. 941-948). [7965953] (Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks; Vol. 2017-May). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1109/IJCNN.2017.7965953
Metzger, B. A., Mathewson, K. E., Tapia, E., Fabiani, M., Gratton, G., & Beck, D. M. (2017). Regulating the access to awareness: Brain activity related to probe-related and spontaneous reversals in binocular rivalry. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29(6), 1089-1102. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01104
