My research group persues a model-driven approach to explore visual perception and cognition. At present, research in visual perception has accumulated numerous experimental data. Since the underlying processes have turned out being very complex and present data eludes a simple interpretation, more research is necessary to elaborate a theoretical basis in form of neurocomputational models. The models we are interested in, try to capture the temporal dynamics of the essential mechanisms and processes in the brain primarily on the level of a population code. Our research goals are three-fold. i) We want to link-up different experimental observations in a single model to work out common, essential mechanisms. ii) We test experimental predictions of the model either in our group or through collaborations. We expect that models adressing higher functions as part of different brain areas will gain more and more impact in guiding research. iii) The validity of the models is also tested by observing their performance on real world tasks, such as object/category recognition. We are confident that this neurobiological approach provides a high potential for future computer vision solutions.

• Attention
• Basal ganglia: Function and dysfunction
• Category/Object Recognition
• Cognitive Control of Visual Perception
• Deep Learning
• Emotions
• Facial expression recognition
• Masking and Conscious Perception
• Neurorobotics
• Neurosimulator ANNarchy
• Peri-saccadic space perception
• Simulation of neuronal agents in virtual reality