University of Pennsylvania
Department of Bioengineering
3320 Smith Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Office: 301 Hayden Hall
Office phone: 215.898.0822
Lab:
Lab phone:
Fax: 215.573.2071
E-mail: leif@neuroengineering.upenn.edu

Research Interests
A primary aim of the lab has been the modeling of perceptual computations in early visual cortex. We are interested in learning how the architecture and physiological properties of cells in primary visual cortex might be able to account for a number of the Gestalt laws of perception as well as numerous other psychophysical findings. 

A relatively new direction for our research has been modeling mammalian brain function using biologically-realistic, highly-detailed models of individual neurons and their assemblies.These models can provide critical insights into biological function and pathology that abstracted "neural network" models often cannot provide.

One particular project of ours is focusing on the design of a functional, cellular-level model of the hippocampus. It is our intention to use this model in researching a number of diseases that profoundly affect the hippocampus and related structures, most notably Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury.

We are also pursuing the development of object-recognition systems that utilize hierarchical feature-based techniques. Work to this point includes examples in face recognition and autonomous navigation in virtual worlds.

Graduate Groups

• Bioengineering

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Contact: perception@psych.upenn.edu
Last modified: 5 June, 2006