Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception Program

Hidden somewhere in the dense architecture of the human brain is the astounding power to convert the signals flowing along millions of sensory nerve fibres into a coherent internal model of the world. Researchers in CIFAR’s Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception program are working together to unlock the mystery of how our brains do this difficult job so effortlessly.

Program members are focused specifically on trying to understand how the brain processes visual information. Not only has research in this area provided promising new explanations of how the brain learns, it also supports efforts to create new artificial visual systems, and synthetic neural networks that have a human-like capability to learn from experiences.

How do we recognize the faces of people we know, even when we see them in bad light or from an unusual angle? How can we tell if an object is small and near, or large and distant? How can we identify individuals simply by their gait or the way they move their arms?

More than a third of the brain’s cortex is devoted to visual processing, and a great deal is already known about the anatomy and physiology of mammalian visual systems. This provides an excellent starting point as CIFAR researchers start to explain how the brain learns from visual information. Their research also points to broader explanations of how the brain processes other kinds of important information.