Lab Introduction & Major Research Interests
I am interested in how the visual system integrates information from image components to form a coherent percept of objects or scenes. For this purpose, my research roughly follows two lines. The first focuses on the context effect in the early and middle vision. Starting from the dual-masking paradigm and the sensitivity modulation model we developed, we investigated the response of a neural mechanism can be affected by the presence of a spatial context. The second line is perceptual grouping and the spatial configuration effect in form and object perception. The long-range interaction describes the interaction among mechanisms, whereas perceptual grouping describes the consequence of the interaction. In additional to the geometric shapes commonly used in perceptual grouping studies, we also developed novel stimuli paradigms as tripole Glass patterns and Ebbinghaus textures. We also extend our studies to higher level visual tasks such as facial expression recognition and aesthetic preference. Our approach is to integrate the psychophysical and neuroimaging (including event related potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging) data with a computational modeling approach. We also study the neurophysiologic basis of the long range interaction with fMRI and ERP. We recently extend the long-range interaction studies to higher order patterns.
Recent Representative Publication ( * corresponding author)
1. Chen, C.C., Yeh, Y.S., Tyler, C.W. (2019). Length Summation in Noise. Journal of Vision, 19(9):11, 1-13.
2. Lin, Y. S., Cho, P. C., & Chen, C. C.* (2017). Contrast gain control determines global form percept in tripole Glass patterns. Journal of Vision, 17(5), 2-2
3. Chang, A., Chen, C. C.*, Li H. H., & Li C.S.R. (2015). Perigenual anterior cingulate event-related potential precedes stop signal errors. NeuroImage, 111, 179-185.
4. Chen, C.C.*, & Tyler C.W. (2015). Shading Beats Binocular Disparity in Depth from Luminance Gradients: Evidence against a Maximum Likelihood Principle for Cue Combination. PLoS ONE, 10(8), e0132658.
5. Kao, C. H., Chen, D. Y., & Chen, C. C.* (2010). The inversion effect in visual word form processing. Cortex, 46(2), 217-30.
6. Chen, C. C.*, Kao, K. C. & Tyler, C. W. (2007). Face configuration processing in the human brain: the role of symmetry. Cerebral Cortex, 17, 1423-1432..
7. Chen, C. C., Kasamatsu, T., Polat, U. & Norcia, A. M. (2001). Contrast response characteristics of long-range lateral interactions in cat striate cortex. Neuroreport, 12, 655-661.
8. Chen, C. C. & Tyler, C. W. (2001). Lateral sensitivity modulation explains the flanker effect in contrast discrimination. The Proceedings of the Royal Society (London) Series B, 268, 509-516.
9. Tyler, C. W. & Chen, C. C. (2000). Signal detection theory in the 2AFC paradigm: Attention, channel uncertainty and probability summation. Vision Research, 40, 3121-3144.