David C. Van Essen, Ph.D.

DEPARTMENT OF Anatomy & Neurobiology
Keywords: neurobiology, vision, cerebral cortex, brain mapping

Our laboratory uses physiological, anatomical and computational approaches to study the cerebral cortex. One major focus is on information processing in the primate visual cortex in monkeys and humans. Another involves developing and using computerized brain-mapping software to analyze cortical structure and function in primates and rodents.

Our neurophysiological studies focus on the mechanisms of form processing and pattern recognition in visual cortex of the macaque monkey. We are particularly interested in the transformations in neuronal receptive field characteristics that occur at early and intermediate stages of the visual hierarchy.

On the brain-mapping front, we have developed freely available software tools for surface-based analyses of cerebral cortex and have used these to generate atlases for human, monkey, rat, and mouse cortex that can be visualized online (http://sumsdb.wustl.edu:8081/sums/). We have developed probabilistic surface-based atlases that accurately convey commonalities as well as differences between individuals. We use these approaches (i) to analyze left-right asymmetries in the cerebral cortex of normal human subjects; (ii) to reveal localized shape differences associated with specific neurological disorders; and (iii) to objectively evaluate a variety of proposed homologies between monkey and human cortical areas.

Our computational efforts aim to develop a unified mathematical framework for modeling large-scale neural systems, including the primate visual system. This framework is grounded in the well-established principles of signal processing, statistical inference, and good engineering design, and it provides a rational and robust strategy for simulating and evaluating the function of a wide variety of specific neural circuits.