Visually-Guided Actions and Target Selection

In the real world, most visual scenes are complex and crowded. Instead of a single isolated object, there are often several different objects competing for attention and directed action. Thus, a complete understanding of the production of goal-directed actions must also incorporate the higher-level processes involved in the selection of a target stimulus from distractors. Using a combination of methodologies – including behavioral investigations, fMRI, and neurophysiological experiments, my research aims to address the questions as to how targets are selected among competing distractors for visually-guided actions, and what underlying neural mechanisms are involved in selecting the target, and coordinating different types of actions such as hand and eye movements towards a common goal.

Real-Time Readout of Internal Perceptual and Cognitive Decision Processes

Compared to discrete responses such as button presses, the analysis of continuous overt behaviors has the advantage of allowing internal temporal target selection processes to be mapped onto a visible 3D spatial space. I am interested in how movement trajectories of visually-guided reaches reveal the temporal evolution of target selection, and essentially provide a real-time readout of internal perceptual and cognitive decision processes.

Visual Spatial and Working Memory

To efficiently guide attention, and action to the object of interest in complex environments, it is critical to build up, and maintain stable spatial and object memory representations. Using both psychophysics and functional brain imaging, I examine explicit and implicit mechanisms involved in guiding attention to the object of interest, and forming robust visual representations.

      

1994-1998           Dean’s list, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea University fellowship award

1998                     Walden Award: Best B.A. Thesis of The Year

                             Seoul National University, Department of Psychology, Seoul, Korea

1998                     University President's Award for Graduation Valedictorian of the College of Social Sciences

                             Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

2001-2006            Fellow, Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies, Seoul, Korea

                             : 5-year fellowship for Ph.D. abroad (full tuition + stipends)

2004                     Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University Cambridge, MA

                             : Teaching award based on anonymous student evaluation

2004                    Graduate Society Summer Fellowship, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

2006                    Harvard Merit Fellowship, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

2006                    Fellowship Award for APA Advanced Training Institute in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

                             Massachusettes General Hospital, Charlestown, MA

2006                     Fellowship Award for Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

2007                     R.C. Atkinson Fellowship Award, Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA

                             : Full-year post-doc fellowship

2009                     Society for the Neural Control of Movement Post-Doc Scholarship

                             : Travel award

2011                     Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Award, Brown University

2016                    NSF CAREER Award

2018                    The Psychnomics Society: 2018 Leading-Edge Workshop Initiative award