Towards a better understanding of mirror-symmetry coding in human vision

Mirror symmetry is a ubiquitous feature in natural images, in both biological and man-made objects. Symmetry provides insight into the ways in which human vision solves fundamental perceptual problems. It plays an important role in object recognition and figure-ground segmentation. During this award, Dr Gheorghiu will investigate neural mechanisms responsible for mirror-symmetry perception in human vision with the aim of elucidating how these mechanisms interact with those involved in colour, stereoscopic depth and motion processing. She will use a combination of approaches: appearance-based and performance-based psychophysical methods, event-related potential methods, and computational modelling. This research programme will advance our understanding of how mirror-symmetry mechanisms operate in individuals with normal vision and will provide insight into the spatiotemporal flexibility and limitations of these mechanisms. A better understanding of mirror-symmetry coding in human vision will enable the prediction of how these mechanisms will be affected in an ageing visual system and in individuals with abnormal processing of mirror-symmetric form.