Provost’s Colloquium Series Presents “Visualizing Color Signals in the Brain”

Christopher Kavanau

Posted by: Elizabeth Richardson on October 12, 2021, No Comments

East Stroudsburg University’s Provost’s Colloquium Series, an intellectual experience that promotes dialogue among ESU faculty, staff, students, and community, continues for the Fall 2021 semester with a presentation by Christopher Kavanau, Ph.D., assistant professor of biological sciences. The presentation “Visualizing Color Signals in the Brain” will take place on Wednesday, October 27 at 5:30 p.m. in Beers Lecture Hall. The presentation will also be live streamed on the ESU Live Events webpage.

In this presentation Dr. Kavanau will describe his research about one of the great unsolved problems of visual neuroscience. This problem is how can we separate the complex mixtures of signals found in the brain corresponding to visual perception and accurately project these perceptions on a display monitor for others to see. If this can be achieved, the scientific, technological, and cultural implications would be profound and seemingly limitless. Imagine sharing with your friends on social media a digitally captured movie of last night’s dream. This technology could even lead to a cure for many suffering from sensory blindness.

Kavanau will describe his intriguing laboratory research with undergraduate students which involves experimenting with an invention that uses cylindrical arrays of artificial neurons, an “artificial brain”, to analyze brain imaging data in order to decode neuronal activity corresponding to all the colors around the color wheel. He will highlight a recent success showing how his artificial brain successfully created a “movie” that predicts brain activity for perceived colors around the color wheel. He will also outline the next steps of his research which includes developing an interface that can take brain imaging data alone and project predicted colors onto a monitor.

For more information about the Provost’s Colloquium Series, contact Christina McDonald, director, office of sponsored projects and research, at (570) 422-7954 or cmcdonald9@esu.edu.