Narcisse Bichot

Research Scientist

Email: bichot@mit.edu
Phone: 617-324-5265

Ph.D., Psychology, Vanderbilt University
M.A., Psychology, Vanderbilt University
M.S.E., Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University
B.S., Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University

In a crowded visual scene, we typically focus our attention on behaviorally relevant stimuli. When subjects know the location of a relevant object, the brain mechanisms that guide their spatial attention to the object largely overlap with those for selecting the targets for eye movements.
However, in most common visual scenes, people rarely know the specific location of the relevant object in advance — instead, they must search for it, based on its distinguishing features, such as color or shape, which is commonly termed visual search. My research goal is to understand the brain mechanisms mediating this ability to find objects based on their known features (i.e., feature-based attention).