I explore how the human brain interprets sensory information and how this information is used to organize action. I am specially interested in two sensory modalities: touch (haptics) and vision. I try to develop experimental paradigms that allow to understand brain function in terms of mathematics and dynamics. I will explain what I mean with an example. Physics has been very successful in describing the world with mathematics. As a result, it is possible to use these mathematical descriptions to understand the dynamics of basic physical processes. This allows to make powerful, quantitative predictions about the behavior of such processes.
In brain research we have a totally different picture. With the exception of the basic biophysics of neural conduction, our current descriptions of brain function and of human behavior are not quantitative enough to understand their dynamics with the level of sophistication that physics has achieved in its domain. Nobody knows if it is possible to describe brain function with a depth that compares to physics', but I believe that brain research should aim for such an objective. My research attempts to contribute to this.
I study human behavior with the help of virtual reality environments and techniques. A well-designed virtual environment obeys any dynamics that the experimenter finds useful. This helps the experimenter to precisely define the stimuli that the subjects will experience. Even though this may sound counterintuitive, it is not always possible to define precisely the features of the stimuli used in a brain research study. Using virtual reality helps ease this problem: stimuli can be generated through well-defined computer algorithms.
