Chou Hung, Ph.D.
Institute of Neuroscience
National Yang Ming University
155 Li-Nong St. Sec 2
Taipei 112
Taiwan

chouhung at yahoo
Office: +886-2-2826-1613
Fax: +886-2-2826-1633

Research Summary

Many of the same brain areas that are active when we view the world are also active when we imagine it in our minds. I'm interested in understanding how the real and imagined images are encoded in the brain, and how we might decode such maps. To address these issues, my lab will employ a combination of optical imaging and electrophysiological techniques in the macaque visual cortex, with particular focus on the inferotemporal (IT) cortex. Optical imaging and electrophysiology in IT have suggested that the activity is highly spatially organized, with ~500 micron clusters of neurons ('cortical columns') that process salient aspects of the image, such as different views of faces. Specifically, we would like to know what are the rules underlying this cortical organization, and what is its relation to the neural codes and mechanisms underlying visual object recognition? These understandings are necessary for constructing computational models of visual object recognition and for developing cortical prosthetics to restore lost function.

Publications

Hung CP, Ramsden BM, Roe AW (2007) A functional circuitry for edge-induced brightness perception. Nature Neuroscience 10(9): 1185–1190. [abstract] [full] [pdf] [supp]

Kreiman G*, Hung CP*, Kraskov A, Quiroga RQ, Poggio T, DiCarlo JJ (2006) Object selectivity of local field potentials and spikes in the macaque inferior temporal cortex. Neuron 49: 433–445. [abstract] [full] [pdf] [supplemental]

Hung CP*, Kreiman G*, Poggio T, DiCarlo JJ (2005) Fast readout of object identity from Macaque inferior temporal cortex. Science 310: 863–866. [abstract] [full] [pdf] [supplemental]

Roe AW, Lu HD, Hung CP (2005) Cortical processing of a brightness illusion. PNAS USA 102(10): 3869–3874. [abstract] [full text] [pdf] [supporting movies]

Hung CP, Ramsden BM, Roe AW (2002) Weakly-Modulated Spike Trains: Significance, Precision, and Correction for Sample Size. J Neurophysiol. 87: 2542–2554. [abstract] [full text] [pdf]

Hung CP, Ramsden BM, Chen LM, Roe AW (2001) Building Surfaces from Borders in Areas 17 and 18 of the Cat. Vision Res. 41 (10–11): 1389–1407. [link] [pdf]

Ramsden BM, Hung CP, Roe AW (2001) Real and Illusory Contour Processing in Area V1 of the Primate: a Cortical Balancing Act. Cereb. Cortex 11(7): 648–665. [abstract] [full text] [pdf]

Vnek N, Ramsden BM, Hung CP, Goldman-Rakic PS, Roe AW (1999) Optical Imaging of Functional Domains in the Cortex of the Awake and Behaving Monkey. PNAS USA 96: 4057–4060. [abstract] [full text] [pdf]

Tang L, Hung CP, Schuman EM (1998) A Role for the Cadherin Family of Cell Adhesion Molecules in Hippocampal Long-Term Potentiation. Neuron 20: 1165–1175. [abstract] [full text] [pdf]

*these authors contributed equally to this work