Perception, Attention and Action
At UC Davis, many faculty work in the areas of perception and action, with world-class experts in vision, hearing, motor control and the attentional mechanisms that integrate them with the other systems of the brain. Our Consortium brings basic neuroscience researchers together with neuro-engineers and computational neuroscientists to accelerate our ongoing efforts in identifying molecular and neural circuit-based approaches to assist people with hearing impairment, vision loss and movement disorders, to restore function and decrease the occurrence and progression of these impairments. Work in this area includes developing neural prostheses and will eventually be applied to creating high-throughput human-computer interfaces and developing a new generation of robots with human-like perceptual and motor abilities. UC Davis has one of the largest groups of researchers in the world in this area, including 47 faculty members from 17 departments and 9 centers. Research among our faculty on this topic spans model systems from rodents to humans and ranges from questions about cellular mechanisms to cognitive control. Research on this topic is anchored by basic, translational and clinical research at the Center for Neuroengineering and Medicine, the Center for Vision Sciences, the Center for Neuroscience, the Center for Mind and Brain, and the Eye Center. Our faculty have several large-scale collaborations within this area and are supported by several large-scale grants, including a core grant from NEI and one of the oldest T32 training programs in vision sciences in the world.
Faculty studying perception, attention and action
| Erie D. Boorman, Ph.D. | Learning and decision-making |
| Lindsay C. Bowman, Ph.D. | Cognitive and environmental factors that influence development of the social brain |
| Earl Carstens, Ph.D. | Functional organization of itch, pain and chemesthesis sensory systems |
| Rishidev Chaudhuri, Ph.D. | Computational neuroscience and neural data analysis |
| Tsung-YuChen, M.D., Ph.D. | Structures, functions and physiological roles of ion channels and transporters |
| Xiaomo Chen, Ph.D. | Cognitive control and attention |
| Stacey A. Combes, Ph.D. | Physiology, morphology and behavioral contributions to flight behaviors |
| David P. Corina, Ph.D. | Cognitive neuroscience of language and cognition |
| Daniel L. Cox, Ph.D. | Modeling neuronal sensing/navigation circuits and impacts from neurodegenerative damage. |
| William DeBello, Ph.D. | Adaptive plasticity and brain wiring |
| Jochen Ditterich, Ph.D. | Neural mechanisms of decision-making; new technology for neuroscience and translational applications |
| Alla Fomina, Ph.D. | Immune cell function |
| Joy J. Geng, Ph.D. | Mechanisms of attentional control |
| Katharine Graf-Estes, Ph.D. | Mechanisms that support early learning in infants from statistical regularities in language |
| Theanne N. Griffith, Ph.D. | Mechansism of encoding of thermal sensations |
| Amanda E. Guyer, Ph.D. | Adolescent neurodevelopment in health and depression, anxiety, and substance use |
| Fumika Hamada, Ph.D. | Circadian rhythms and temperature homeostasis |
| Tim Hanks, Ph.D. | Neural mechanisms of decision making and related disorders of brain function |
| Johannes Hell, Ph.D. | Molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurotransmission at synapses in the brain |
| John M. Henderson, Ph.D. | Active vision and visual cognition |
| Richard Huskey, Ph.D. | Cognitive control, decision-making and reward, neuroimaging, computational and behavioral modeling |
| Petr Janata, Ph.D. | Cognitive neuroscience of music |
| Wilsaan M. Joiner, Ph.D. | Sensorimotor integration, motor learning/control, and clinical applications. |
| Sanjay Joshi, Ph.D. | Robotics, human-machine interfaces (including brain-computer interfaces), prosthetics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, rehabilitation |
| Steven J. Luck, Ph.D. | Basic and translational cognitive neuroscience |
| George (Ron) Mangun, Ph.D. | Cognitive neuroscience of attention |
| Allan Martin, M.D. Ph.D., F.R.C.S.C. | Spine imaging and surgery |
| Lee M. Miller, Ph.D, | Auditory neuroscience and speech recognition |
| Karen Moxon, Ph.D. | Neural encoding and plasticity, neuroprosthetics, neuroengineering, brain-machine interfaces |
| Yuko Munakata, Ph.D. | Cognitive control over thoughts and actions, influences, consequences and mechanisms |
| Gabby Nevitt, Ph.D. | Sensory ecology, olfaction, organism/environment interactions, conservation and enrichment |
| Beth Ober, Ph.D. | Origins and early development of mental abilities in infancy |
| Carolynn Patten, Ph.D., P.T., F.A.P.T.A. | Neural basis of human movement, investigating human motor control and learning from a perspective of neuromechanics |
| Edward N. Pugh, Jr., Ph.D. | Phototransduction in mouse cone photoreceptors |
| Gregg Recanzone, Ph.D. | Role of the cerebral cortex in the perception of auditory signals and age-related hearing loss |
| Stephen K. Robinson, Ph.D. | Augmentation and extension of human capabilities and performance in safety-critical environments. |
| Jon Sack, Ph.D. | Imaging and controlling ion channel function |
| Julie Schweitzer, Ph.D. | Attention and impulsivity in children and adults in typical development and in ADHD |
| Kia Shahlaie, M.D., Ph.D. | Deep brain stimulation techniques to improve learning and memory function; traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease |
| Tony Simon, Ph.D. | Attention, and spatial and temporal processing in development and neurodevelopmental disorders |
| Sergey Stavisky, Ph.D. | Brain-computer interfaces for restoring speech and reach and grasp |
| Mitchell Sutter, Ph.D. | Neural mechanisms of sound perception and modulation by attention, decisions, actions |
| Tamara Swaab, Ph.D. | Cognitive and Neural Architectures of Language Processing across the Lifespan |
| W. Martin Usrey, Ph.D. | Neural circuit activity, behavior and perception underlrying vision |
| Jennifer L. Whistler, Ph.D. | Effects of clinically important drugs and drugs of abuse on the brain |
| Andrew Yonelinas, Ph.D. | Memory, perception and amnesia |
| Jie Zheng, Ph.D. | Nociception mechanisms |