Vision and Perception: A Conversation with Kalanit Grill-Spector

Howard Burton

oct 2020 · Open Agenda Publishing

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This book is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Kalanit Grill-Spector, Professor in Psychology and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. Kalanit Grill-Spector’s is a vision specialist with a background in computational neuroscience. Her research examines how the brain processes visual information and perceives it. This extensive conversation explores how functional imaging techniques are used to visualize the brain in action and how it functions to recognize people, objects and places. Kalanit also discusses how the anatomical and functional properties of the brain change from infancy to childhood through adulthood, and how this development is related to improved visual recognition abilities.

Further topics include Kalanit Grill-Spector’s discovery of a particular face-selective region in the brain, her groundbreaking research related to the neural processing of this particular region and the fascinating experiments that she has been involved with that suggest that there is indeed a strong causal link between that region and our facial recognition perception.

This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, Facing Facts, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:

I. Neuroimaging - A transformative technology

II. Discovering Her Passion - A glimpse of the joy of vision 

III. Vision Unveiled - Our current understanding

IV. Experimental Evidence - Many discoveries; even more to do

V. A Startling Result - Stumbling upon specialized hardware

VI. Neuroplasticity - Assessing flexibility

VII. The Road Ahead - Better measurements, better models, deeper understanding

About Ideas Roadshow Conversations: Presented in an accessible, conversational format, Ideas Roadshow books not only explore frontline academic research but also reveal the inspirations and personal journeys behind the research.