Perception & Attention – Sep 10

Every second, we encounter enormous amounts of sensory information. How does the brain extract the most relevant bits from this information firehose? Attention is one important brain mechanism for selecting certain aspects of the environment for enhanced processing. A better understanding of attention’s effect on perception improves a wide variety of human activities, including making policy for cell phone use while driving, improving performance of airport luggage screeners, and optimizing teaching methods in the classroom.

Our speaker is Dr. Michael Silver, Professor of Neuroscience and of Optometry & Vision Science at UC Berkeley. Dr. Silver also directs Cal’s Center for the Science of Psychedelics.