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John H. Reynolds
Associate Professor
Systems Neurobiology Laboratory
The long-range goal of our laboratory is to understand the neural mechanisms of selective visual attention at the level of the individual neuron and the cortical circuit, and to relate these to perception and conscious awareness. We take as our starting point the observation that the brain is limited in the amount of visual information it can process at any moment in time. For instance, when people are asked to identify the objects in a briefly presented scene, they become less accurate as the number of objects increases. This inability to process more than a few objects at a time reflects the limited capacity of some stage (or stages) of sensory processing, decision-making, or behavioral control. Somewhere between stimulating the retina and generating a behavioral response, objects compete with one another to pass through this computational bottleneck. We seek to understand this selection process using a combination of visual psychophysics, neurophysiology, and computational neural modeling.
Education
- B.S. Economics, University of Pennsylvania
- Ph.D. Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
- Intramural research fellow, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health
Awards and Honors
- Sloan Research Fellowship 2002 - 2004
- McKnight Scholar Award 2001 - 2003
- Frederick B. Rentschler Developmental Chair 2001 - 2002
Selected Publications
- Mitchell JF, Sundberg KA, Reynolds JH (2007) Differential Attention-Dependent Response Modulation across Cell Classes in Macaque Visual Area V4. Neuron. 2007 Jul 5;55(1):131-41. Download the preview | Download the article | Download the supplemental material
- Bodelon C, Fallah M, Reynolds JH. (2007) Temporal resolution for the perception of features and conjunctions. The Journal of Neuroscience 2007 Jan 24;27(4):725-30. Download the article
- Fallah M, Stoner GR, Reynolds JH (2007) Stimulus-specific competitive selection in macaque extrastriate visual area V4. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007 Mar 6; 104(10): 4165-4169. Download the article | Download supplemental material
- Sundberg KA, Fallah M, Reynolds JH. (2006) A motion-dependent distortion of retinotopy in area V4. Neuron. 2006 Feb 2;49(3):447-57. Download the preview | Download the article
- Stoner GR, Mitchell JF, Fallah M, Reynolds JH. (2005) Interacting competitive selection in attention and binocular rivalry. Prog Brain Res. 2005;149:227-34.
- Khoe W, Mitchell JF, Reynolds JH, Hillyard SA. (2005) Exogenous attentional selection of transparent superimposed surfaces modulates early event-related potentials. Vision Res. 2005 Nov;45(24):3004-14. Download this article
- Mitchell, J.F., Stoner, G.R. and Reynolds, J.H. (2004) Object-Based Attention Determines Dominance in Binocular Rivalry. Nature, 2004 May; Vol 429:410-413. Download this article.
- Reynolds J.H. and Chelazzi L. (2004) Attentional Modulation of Visual Processing. Annual Review of Neuroscience. 2004 Jul;27:611-647. Download this article.
- Reynolds J.H. and Fallah M. (2004) The role of competitive circuits in extrastriate cortex in selecting spatially superimposed stimuli. Functional Neuroimaging of Visual Cognition Attention and Performance XX, Kanwisher N and Duncan J, Eds. Oxford University Press. 363-380.
- Reynolds J.H. and Desimone R (2003) Interacting Roles of Attention and Visual Salience in V4. Neuron. 2003 Mar 6;37(5):853-63. Download this article.
- Mitchell J.F., Stoner G.R., Fallah M., and Reynolds J.H. (2003) Attentional selection of superimposed surfaces cannot be explained by modulation of the gain of color channels. Vision Research, 2003 Jun;43(12):1323-8. Download this article.
- Reynolds, J.H., Alborzian, S., and Stoner, G.R. (2003) Exogenously cued attention triggers competitive selection of surfaces. Vision Research, 2003 Jan; 43(1):59-66. Download this article.
- Reynolds, J.H., Gottlieb, J.P. and Kastner S. (2002) Attention, Fundamental Neuroscience Zigmond, Bloom, Landis, Roberts and Squire (Eds.), Academic Press.
- Fallah, M. and Reynolds, J.H. (2001) Attention! V1 neurons lining up for inspection, Neuron, 2001 Sep 13;31(5):674-5.
- Fries, P., Reynolds, J.H., Rorie, A.E, and Desimone, R. (2001) Modulation of Oscillatory Neuronal Synchronization by Selective Visual Attention, Science, 291: 1560-1563. Download this article.
- Reynolds, J.H., Pasternak, T, and Desimone, R. (2000) Attention Increases Sensitivity of V4 Neurons, Neuron, 26:703-714. Download this article.
- Reynolds, J.H., and Desimone, R. (1999) The Role of Neural Mechanisms of Attention in Solving the Binding Problem, Neuron, 24:19-29. Download this article.
- Reynolds, J.H., Chelazzi, L., and Desimone, R. (1999) Competitive Mechanisms Subserve Attention in Macaque Areas V2 and V4, The Journal of Neuroscience, 19: 1736-1753. Download this article.
Salk News Releases
- From the corner of the eye: Paying attention to attention, July 5, 2007
- The time it takes to reassemble the world, January 24, 2007
- We live in the past and our brain makes up for it, February 1, 2006