Dr. Hugh Wilson

Biography

Hugh R. Wilson is a Professor Emeritus at York University, where he has made significant contributions to the field of systems neuroscience. His research primarily focuses on understanding the neural basis of higher-level cortical form vision by employing four major strategies: single unit physiology, psychophysics, human brain imaging, and neural modeling. Wilson's work elucidates visual system function, combining data from single unit neurophysiology and neural models of human brain function. He is noted for his exploration of how neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) operate to extract orientation contours, and how neurons in the inferior-temporal cortex (IT) respond to globally meaningful stimulus configurations such as faces and objects. His recent psychophysical research has shown that the intermediate level cortical form vision system contains distinct groups of units responding to global configurations. Additionally, Wilson has employed fMRI studies to demonstrate the presence of specific neural units in the human V4 area, further contributing to quantitative neural models aligned with contemporary physiological data on neural responses. His varied interests within this domain include visual psychophysics, neural theory and modeling, and the physiological underpinnings of visual perception.

Research Interests