The Land Mondrian Experiment

Welcome

The Laboratory of Neurobiology is devoted to the study of the visual brain, its organization and its functioning in health and in disease.

We use a variety of techniques: anatomical to study the structure and connections of the visual brain; electro-physiological and electro-encephalographic to study the way in which cells constituting the visual brain respond to visual stimuli; psychophysical to study the perceptual capacities and limitations of the visual brain; imaging to determine the location and functioning of the many parallel and specialized sub-systems in the visual brain; and inactivation techniques to learn about what happens when a given area of the visual brain is temporarily and reversibly inactivated. We also study patients whose visual brain is damaged in order to characterize better how the visual brain functions.

More recently, we have used the information gained from the study of the brain over the past forty years to study the relationship of visual art to the functioning of the visual brain, the field which we refer to as neuroesthetics.

The Laboratory of Neurobiology is supported by the Wellcome Trust, London.

Latest news

  • 30 January 2012: Semir Zeki will give a talk on neuroesthetics at the Arts Club, Dover Street, London. The talk will begin at 6pm.
  • 7 February 2012: Semir Zeki will give a talk on Colour as a subjective experience as part of the Saturated Space Research Cluster Launch at the AA School of Architecture, 36 Bedford Square, London.
  • 2 March 2012: Semir Zeki will deliver a lecture on The detection and messurement of beauty as part of L'uomo e il suo cervello - Dai neuroni alla mente in Genoa, Italy
  • 13-15 April 2012: Semir Zeki will give a talk on Beauty, Desire and Love at the Cognitive IX meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.
  • 18-20 April 2012: Semir Zeki will give a talk on The Measurement of Beauty at the World Conference of Science Communication in Florence, Italy.
  • 12 May 2012: Semir Zeki will give a talk entitled Neuroestheticsin Barcelona, Spain in a series of talks entitled Neuroscience and Society organised by the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and the Spanish Society for Neuroscience, to coincide with the Spanish Year of Neuroscience.
  • 8 June 2012: Semir Zeki will give a talk titled Colour Vision: The reality of Illusion as part of the 14th International Lighting Journey at the Banamex Centre, Mexico City.
  • 14 June 2012: Semir Zeki will give a talk on The beautiful brain. Scienza ed arte. Ilruolo del cervello e della mente nell'interpretazione del bello at Campidoglio in Rome, Italy.
  • 12-14 October 2012: Semir Zeki will be speaking at BergamoScienza in Bergamo, Italy.