My scientific discipline is cognitive neuroscience, and my research focuses on the psychological and neural properties of the human visual system. Specifically, my work is designed to elucidate the brain mechanisms giving rise to perception of objects and scenes and in turn, to visually guided behavior. Visual perception is a dynamic process, continuously shaped by the interplay between the physical, objective properties of the visual input projected on the retina, and other more subjective factors, such as prior experience, attentional and mental states. In my research I explore this fascinating interplay from two related perspectives. First, I am interested in understanding the mechanisms underlying the representation of visual information, both as mediated by the visual cortex but also in the way visual cortex interacts with other brain regions. Second, I am interested in understanding the neural mechanisms giving rise to subjective, conscious experience. In this latter context, I utilize object perception as a powerful platform for manipulating conscious visual experience in a controlled manner, which enables me to study directly the relation between brain mechanisms and subjective experience of perception. I investigate these issues by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral techniques, and by studying healthy individuals as well as individuals with specific neuropsychological deficits affecting various aspects of perception. In my future work, I plan to expand my research towards understanding natural vision and scene perception, a process that relies on active scanning of the visual scene by constant gaze shifts.

A link to the updated publication list can be found at Google Scholar (please find link above, under "additional links").

B.Sc., Tel-Aviv University , 1995, , Faculty of Life Sciences
Ph.D, M.Sc., Hebrew University of Jerusalem , 1995-2002, Direct doctoral program in "Computation and Information Processing in the Brain". Ph.D. thesis: "Influences of Extra-Retinal Information on Visual Object Recognition: fMRI Study". Supervisors: Dr. Ehud Zohary and Dr. Rafael Malach. Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation

Awards and Prizes

2006-2009 Alon Fellowship for young investigators, awarded by the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel.
1995-2001 Academic scholarship, awarded by the interdisciplinary doctoral program in "Computation and Information Processing in the Brain", Hebrew University.
2000 Aharon Katzir student travel fellowship for study in the Life Sciences.
1999 The Wolf Foundation research scholarship for excelling Ph.D. students.










Former Positions

09/2005-09/2006 Postdoctoral research fellow; clinical application of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), in charge of research and developmental in the clinical fMRI unit in the Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel (Advisor: Dr. Talma Hendler)
2002-2005 Postdoctoral research fellow; functional imaging of face and object recognition processes in neuropsychological patients (Advisor: Prof. Marlene Behrmann). Department of Psychology and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA USA