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Michael Silver is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Department of Neuroscience and School of Optometry. He directs the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, focusing on understanding how the human brain constructs representations of the environment and how these representations can be modified to affect cognitive processes such as attention, expectation, and learning. His research team utilizes a combination of behavioral, brain imaging, modeling, and pharmacological techniques to study both healthy human participants and patients suffering from diseases that impact visual perceptual processing. His work is significant in the field of cognitive neuroscience, exploring topics such as pharmacology, psychedelics, learning, attention, visual perception, and neuroimaging. Notably, his research on the effects of psilocybin on the human brain aims to uncover how psychedelics can alter perception and cognition, a pursuit that marks Berkeley's renewed commitment to psychedelic science after decades of restrictive research practices. Silver's investigations have also contributed to understanding the neural mechanisms of perceptual learning and the cognitive changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease treatments.
The Mathematics Subject GRE is required for the Fall 2026 admissions cycle. General GRE is optional.