David Brainard | University of Pennsylvania Department of Psychology

Professor; Director, Vision Research Center; Interim Director, Institute for Research in Cognitive Science

Department:

Psychology

Education:

BS, Physics, Harvard University; Ph.D., Psychology, Stanford University

Address:

3401 Walnut St., Room 315C

Phone:

215-573-7579

Email:

brainard@psych.upenn.edu

Personal Page

CV

Research Themes:

Behavioral Neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience

Sensation and Perception

Specific Research Areas:

Human vision, visual neuroscience, and computational modeling of visual processing

Research Synopsis:

I am interested in human vision, machine vision, and computational modeling of visual processing. My primary research is concerned with how the visual system estimates object properties from the information available in the light signal incident at the eye. To study this general problem, I conduct psychophysical experiments to investigate questions such as how object color appearance is related to object surface properties under a wide range of illumination conditions and how color is used to identify objects. In addition, I am interested in developing machine visual systems that can mimic human performance and in understanding the neural mechanisms of vision.

Dr. Brainard will be accepting new graduate students for admission in fall 2012.

Representative Courses:

COGS 001 Introduction to Cognitive Science
VLST 101 Eye Mind Image
BIBB 217 Visual Neuroscience

Appointments:

Psychology Graduate Group; Neuroscience Graduate Group; Bioengineering Graduate Group

Advisees:

Noah Benson [Post-doc]
Thomas Lee [Psychology Graduate Student]
Ana Radonjic [Post-doc]

Representative Publications:

Brainard, D. H. & Maloney, L. T. (2011). Surface color perception and equivalent illumination models. Journal of Vision, 11(5:1), http://www.journalofvision.org/content/11/5/1, doi: 10.1167/11.5.1.

Olkkonen, M. & Brainard, D. H. (2010). Perceived glossiness and lightness under real-world illumination. Journal of Vision, 10(9:5), http://www.journalofvision.org/content/10/9/5, doi 10.1167/10.9.5.

Yin, L., Smith, R. G., Sterling, P., & Brainard, D. H. (2009). Physiology and morphology of color-opponent ganglion cells in a retina expressing a dual gradient of S and M opsins. Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 2706-2724. Download PDF.

Manning, J. R. & Brainard, D. H. (2009). Optimal design of photoreceptor mosaics: Why we do not see color at night. Visual Neuroscience. Feb 5:1-15. (Epub ahead of print, doi:10.1017/S095252380808084X.) Download PDF.

Brainard, D. H., Williams, D. R., & Hofer, H. (2008). Trichromatic reconstruction from the interleaved cone mosaic: Bayesian model and the color appearance of small spots. Journal of Vision, 8(5):15, 1-23, http://journalofvision.org/8/5/15/, doi:10.1167/8.5.15.

Xiao, B. & Brainard, D. H. (2008). Surface gloss and color perception of 3D objects. Visual Neuroscience, 25, 371-385. doi:10.10170/S0952523808080267. Download PDF. Supplemental Material.