Centennial Professor

Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience

Office: 512A Wilson Hall
Phone: (615) 343-7010
Fax: (615) 343-8449
Email: 

Personal Website

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Degrees

• Ph.D. Vanderbilt University, 1972

Research Area

• Blake studies several aspects of human visual perception, including binocular vision, motion perception and perceptual organization. His most recent research has focused on: i) the roles of knowledge and intention on the resolution of perceptual ambiguity, ii) role of temporal structure in visual grouping, iii) perception of biological motion, and iv) synesthesia. He has published neural models of perceptual bistability and of structure from motion. For the past eight years, Blake has used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain activation patterns associated with visual perception, with his current work focusing on biological motion and binocular rivalry. He has also published work on visual imagery, bisensory integration, working memory, and art and the brain. In collaboration with colleagues, he has extended his research to include individuals diagnosed with autism, Williams syndrome, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His work is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Representative Publications

• Blake, R., Rizzo, M. & McEvoy, S. (in press) Aging and perception of visual form from temporal structure. Psychology and Aging.
• Gold, J.M., Tadin, D., Cook, S.C. & Blake, R. (in press) The efficiency of biological motion perception. Perception & Psychophysics
• Blake, R. & Shiffrar, M. (2007) Perception of human motion. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 47-73.
• Kim, C.-Y. & Blake (2007) Seeing what you understand: brain activity reflects perception of motion in kinetic art paintings. Spatial Vision, 20, 545-560.
• Lee, S-H., Blake, R. & Heeger, D. (2007) Hierarchy of cortical responses underlying binocular rivalry. Nature Neuroscience. 10,1048-1054.
• Pearson, J., Tadin, D. & Blake, R. (2007) The effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on visual rivalry. Journal of Vision, 7, 1-11.
• Maruya, K., Yang, E. & Blake, R. (2007) Self-controlled action influences resolution of visual conflict. Psychological Science, 18, 1090-1098.
• Tong, F., Meng, M. & Blake, R. (2006) Neural bases of binocular rivalry. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 10, 502-511.
• Blake, R., Tadin, D., Sobel, K., Chong, S.C. & Raissian, R. (2006) Strength of early visual adaptation depends on visual awareness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 103, 4783-4788.
• Tadin, D., Lappin, J. S., & Blake, R. (2006). Fine temporal properties of center-surround interactions in motion revealed by reverse correlation. Journal of Neuroscience. 26, 2614-2622.
• Kim, C.Y. & Blake, R. (2005) Psychophysical strategies for rendering the normally visible "invisible", Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 381-388
• Kim, J., Doop, M.L., Blake, R. and Park, S. (2005) Impaired visual recognition of biological motion in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 77, 299-307
• Grossman, E., Blake, R. & Kim, C.-Y. (2004) Learning to see biological motion: brain activity parallels behavior. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 1669-1679.
• Blake, R., Turner, L.M., Smoski, M. J., Pozdol, S.L. & Stone, W.L. (2003) Visual recognition of biological motion is impaired in children with autism, Psychological Science, 14, 151-157.
• Tadin, D., Lappin, J.S., Gilroy, L.A. & Blake, R. (2003) Perceptual consquences of centre-surround antagonism in visual motion processing, Nature.424, 313-315