Gerald Westheimer

Professor of the Graduate School, Division of Neurobiology, MCB; Clinical Professor of Optometry

Optics and the eye; retinal and central processing of spatial visual information

Behavioral measurements of sensory discrimination in humans often yield remarkably small values. At first glance, they may seem incompatible with the anatomical and physiological detection apparatus; for example, binaural time intervals can be detected in the microsecond range, and vernier visual acuity can be much smaller than the diameter of a single retinal receptor. These discrimination capabilities, which have been termed "hyperacuities," must therefore be based on interesting neural processing. Neuro-physiological substrates for these have yet to be demonstrated.

My research focuses on the human visual system with particular emphasis on spatial, temporal, and stereoscopic acuities. Some ramifications lead to the development of concepts of more global processing of sensory data and, hence, of the acquisition and structuring of our knowledge of the outside world.

Selected Publications

The resolving power of the eye. [G.Westheimer (2005) Vision Research 44, 945-947]

Anisotropies in peripheral vernier acuity. [G.Westheimer (2005) Spatial Vision 18, 159-167]

Center-surround antagonism in spatial vision: Retinal or cortical locus? [G.Westheimer (2004) VisionResearch 44, 2457-2465]

Visual Acuity with reversed-contrast charts: I. Theoretical and psychophysical investigations. [G.Westheimer (2003) Optometry and Vision Science 80, 745-748]

Meridional Anisotropia in visual processing: implications for the neural site of the oblique effect [G.Westheimer (2003) Vision Research 43, 2281-2289]

The distribution of preferred orientations in the peripheral visual field. [G.Westheimer (2003) Vision Research 43, 53-57]

Time course of masking in spatial resolution tasks. [Jason Ng, G. Westheimer (2002) Optometry and Vision Science 79, 98-102]

Orthogonal adaptation and orientation discrimination.[G. Westheimer, A. Gee (2002) Vision Research 42, 2339-2342]
Relative localization in the human fovea: radial/tangential anisotropy. [G. Westheimer (2001). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268, 995-999]

Updating the classical approach to visual acuity. [G. Westheimer (2002) Clinical and Experimental Optometry 84, 258-263]

The Fourier theory of vision. [G. Westheimer (2001) Perception 30, 531-541]

Relative localization in the human fovea: radial/tangential anisotropy. [G. Westheimer (2001) Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268, 995-999]

Updating the classical approach to visual acuity. [G. Westheimer (2001) Clinical & Experimental Optometry 84, 258-263]

Integration of foveal orientation signals: Distinct local and long-range spatial domains. [S.L.Brincat and G.Westheimer (2000) Journal of Neurophysiology 83, 1900-11]

Visual signals used in time interval discrimination. [G.Westheimer (2000) Visual Neuroscience 17, 551-556]

Spatial contribution of contextual interactions in primary visual cortex and in visual perception. [M.K. Kapadia, G. Westheimer and C.D.Gilbert, C.D. (2000) Journal of Neurophysiology 84, 2048-2062]

Dynamics of spatial summation in primary visual cortex of alert monkeys. [M. K. Kapadia, G. Westheimer, and C. D. Gilbert (1999) PNAS 96,12073-12078]

Discrimination of short time intervals by the human observer. [G. Westheimer (1999) Experimental Brain Research 129, 121-126]

Gestalt theory reconfigured: Max Wertheimer's anticipation of recent developments in visual neuroscience. [G. Westheimer (1999) Perception 28, 5-15]

Attention and perceptual learning modulate contextual influences on visual perception. [M. Ito, G. Westheimer, and C. D. Gilbert (1998) Neuron 20,1191-1197]

Links

Westheimer Neurobiology Faculty Page

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