معرفی
James P. Herman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His research focuses on visual perception, attention mechanisms, and how subcortical structures like the superior colliculus interact with cortical areas to process visual information. Prior to this role, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Eye Institute (NIH) and held academic positions at CCNY and Rockefeller University.
Education includes a Ph.D. in Biology with a Neuroscience subprogram from the CUNY Graduate Center (2012) and a B.A. in Mathematics and Physics from UC Berkeley (2003). His lab investigates how the brain resolves ambiguous visual stimuli through attentional modulation, exploring topics like contextual relevance, perceptual decision-making, and reinforcement learning pathways.
Recent work examines the role of the superior colliculus in attentional control and its connections to basal ganglia structures. Key findings include causal links between SC activity and perceptual decisions, as well as state-dependent learning mechanisms. Collaborative projects bridge neurobiology with computational models of artificial intelligence, particularly deep reinforcement learning systems.
Publications emphasize neurophysiological studies in primates and mice, focusing on neuronal activity patterns during visual tasks. Research spans from basic saccadic adaptation mechanisms to high-level cognitive functions like contextual learning. The Herman Lab is part of the Neuroscience Institute’s training programs in Neural Computation and Systems Neuroscience.
