Research Interests
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Attention
- Visual Perception
Research Description
At the most general level, my research program is aimed at identifying the cognitive processes and neural structures that enable and limit our visual representations of the world. For instance, I am interested in: what processes determine whether or not we are aware of a visual object or event, can report its presence, or can recall it later; what mechanisms constrain the number of items we can effectively process at the same time; how higher-level processes such as attention modulate activity in visual cortex; and, why some stimuli (e.g. natural scenes)are processed so quickly and with relatively little effort. We use a variety of approaches to address these questions, including functional magnetic resonance imaging, behavioral methods, and transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Education
Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Psychology
Professor, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
External Links
Recent Publications
Knight, R. S., Chen, T., Center, E. G., Gratton, G., Fabiani, M., Savazzi, S., Mazzi, C., & Beck, D. M. (2024). Bypassing input to V1 in visual awareness: A TMS-EROS investigation. Neuropsychologia, 198, Article 108864. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108864
Shao, Z., & Beck, D. M. (Accepted/In press). Is attention necessary for the representational advantage of good exemplars over bad exemplars? European Journal of Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.16291
Weber, M., Cunningham, E., Beck, D. M., Sadaghiani, S., & Wang, R. F. (Accepted/In press). Effects of task type on spontaneous alternations of attentional states. Memory and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-023-01513-4
Clements, G. M., Gyurkovics, M., Low, K. A., Kramer, A. F., Beck, D. M., Fabiani, M., & Gratton, G. (2023). Dynamics of alpha suppression index both modality specific and general attention processes. NeuroImage, 270, Article 119956. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119956
Cunningham, E. C., Zimnicki, C., & Beck, D. M. (2023). The influence of prestimulus 1/f-like vs. alpha-band activity on subjective awareness of auditory and visual stimuli. Journal of Neuroscience, 43(36). https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0238-23.2023