Nava Rubin

Visual perception and the neural basis of vision

I study human visual perception. My research is aimed at understanding the computations that transform the retinal image to the rich visual representations we experience, and the neural basis of these computations. The topics that I have concentrated on studying are scene segmentation, motion perception and perceptual learning. I combine psychophysical experiments, brain imaging (fMRI) and theoretical analysis to ask questions such as: what are the brain computations that give rise to the perceptual completion of occluded surfaces? How do we perceive objects moving and twisting in three-dimensional space when only their projected, two-dimensional image is given to us? Another interest is perceptual bi-stability: given an ambiguous stimulus that can be interpreted in two (or more) very different ways, perception switches in a seemingly-haphazard manner between the possible interpretations; an important observation is that in such 'rivalrous' situations we can only percive one interpretation at a time; I call this 'the principle of mutual exclusivity'; how does the brain enforce mutual exclusivity -- and why?!
More recently, I have become interested also in applying fMRI to study the neural basis of Social Cognition. In particular, I am interested in the representation of unconscious goals and their effect on behavior. Stay tuned for more on that front (or write to me if you may be interested in collaboration).

(Note: the address above is an image, not text, and you cannot click on it to send me email; you'll have to type it into your computer; this is done to prevent 'crawlers' from grabbing the address and use it for spam; sorry about the extra work it causes eveybody else..)

Select Publications

Stanley, D.A. and Rubin, N. (2005), Rapid detection of salient regions: Evidence from apparent motion. Journal of Vision 5, 690-701. [PDF] [JoV link]

Rubin, N. and Hupe, J.M. (2004), Dynamics of perceptual bi-stability: plaids and binocular rivalry compared. In: Alais, D. and Blake, R. (Eds.), Binocular Rivalry, MIT Press. [PDF]

Stanley, D.A. and Rubin, N. (2003), fMRI activation in response to illusory contours and salient regions in the human Lateral Occipital Complex. Neuron 37, 323-331. [PDF]

Hupe, J.M. and Rubin, N. (2003), The dynamics of bi-stable alternation in ambiguous motion displays: a fresh look at plaids. Vision Research 43, 531-548. [PDF]

Rubin, N. (2003), Binocular rivalry and perceptual multi-stability. Trends in Neuroscience 26, 289-291. [PDF]

Pillow, J. and Rubin, N. (2002), Perceptual completion across the vertical meridian and the role of early visual cortex. Neuron 33, 805-813. [PDF]

Rubin, N., Nakayama, K. and Shapley, R. (2002), The role of insight in perceptual learning: evidence from illusory contour perception. In: Perceptual Learning, Fahle, M. and Poggio, T. (Eds.), MIT Press. [PDF]

Rubin, N. (2001), Figure and ground in the brain. Nature Neuroscience 4, 857-858. [PDF]

Caudek, C. and Rubin, N. (2001), Segmentation in structure from motion: modeling and psychophysics. Vision Research 41, 2715-2732. [PDF]

Rubin, N. (2001), The role of junctions in surface completion and contour matching. Perception 30, 339-366. [PDF]

Pao, H., Geiger, D. and Rubin, N. (1999), Measuring convexity for Figure/Ground separation. Proc. 7th IEEE Intl. Conf. Comp. Vision, 948-955. [PDF]

Rubin, N., Nakayama, K. and Shapley, R. (1997), Abrupt Learning and Retinal Size Specificity in Illusory Contour Perception. Current Biology 7, 461-467. [PDF]

Rubin, N., Nakayama, K. and Shapley, R. (1996), Enhanced perception of illusory contours in the lower vs. upper visual hemifield. Science 271, 651-653. [PDF]

Hirsch, J., DeLaPaz, R.L., Relkin, N.R., Victor, J., Kim, K., Borden, P., Rubin, N. and Shapley, R. (1995), Illusory contours activate specific regions in human visual cortex: evidence from functional magnetic resonance. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 92, 6469-6473. [PDF]

Rubin, N., Hochstein, S. and Solomon, S. (1995), Restricted ability to recover 3D global motion from 1D motion signals: Psychophysical observations. Vision Research 35, 463-476. [PDF]

Rubin, N., Solomon, S. and Hochstein, S. (1995), Restricted ability to recover 3D global motion from 1D motion signals: Theoretical observations. Vision Research 35, 569-578. [PDF]

Courses

• G80.3202.001 Brain Imaging
• Psychophysics and the Brain (Weizmann Institute, Fall 2003)