Dr. Alex Huk
Office: PAT 334
phone: (512) 232-6095
fax: 471-9651
email:
Alex Huk received his Ph.D. from Stanford University (2001), and his B.A. from Swarthmore (1996). After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Huk was a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Washington, Seattle. Alex is currently an Assistant Professor of Neurobiology (and Psychology), as well as a member of the UT-Austin Center for Perceptual Systems and Institute for Neuroscience.
Research Interests
Research in our lab focuses on how the visual system processes motion information, with the general goals of understanding how the nervous system processes information and how these signals give rise to perceptual and cognitive abilities and experiences.
We rely on visual motion as a model system to understand how neurons transform simple sensory signals into representations used during perception, cognition, and action. We employ a variety of psychophysical and physiological techniques to address these issues. Specifically, we focus on (1) how motion and depth information is combined to represent the 3D direction of motion, (2) how visual motion signals are accumulated and remembered to inform perceptual decisions, and (3) how visual imagery and expectations about motion interact with low-level sensory processing.
Select Publications
Rokers, B., Cormack, L.K., & Huk, A.C. (2008). Strong percepts of motion through depth without strong percepts of position in depth. Journal of Vision. 8, 1-10.
Winawer, J., Huk, A.C., & Boroditsky, L. (2008). A motion aftereffect from still photographs depicting motion. Psychological Science, 19, 276-283.
Wong, K-F., Huk, A.C., Shadlen, M.N., & Wang, X-J. (2007). Neural circuit dynamics underlying accumulation of time-varying evidence during perceptual decision-making. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience 1:6. doi: 10.3389/neuro.10/006.2007
Huk, A.C., Dougherty, R.F., & Heeger, D.J. (2002). Retinotopy and functional subdivision of human areas MT and MST. Journal of Neuroscience, 22, 7195-7205.
Huk, A.C., & Heeger, D.J. (2002). Pattern-motion responses in human visual cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 5, 72-75.