The Mazer lab studies mid- and high-level visual processing, specifically links between visual perception, eye movements and neural circuits. We use neurophysiological, psychophysical and computational approaches, combined to improve our understanding of the cortical substrates of natural visually guided behavior (‘natural vision’). Our neurophysiological experiments make extensive use of linear and nonlinear systems identification techniques to characterize single neuron selectivity in striate and extrastriate visual cortex.

In humans, we have developed modern gaze-contingent psychophysical methods in order to investigate the reference frame or coordinate system used to encoded and sustain spatial attention across saccadic eye movements. This work lies at the intersection of visual attention, working-memory and oculomotor behavior and is intended to explore how all three of these subsystems interact during naturalistic behaviors that depend on eye movements.

The Mazer lab is part of the Department of Neurobiology at the Yale School of Medicine. We are also part of Yale’s Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, the Biological and Biomedical Science Program and a core member of the Swartz Initiative in Theoretical Neuroscience at Yale.