Gerald Westheimer

Professor of the Graduate School Division of Neurobiology*
*And, Clinical Professor, School of Optometry

Lab Homepage: http://mcb.berkeley.edu/labs/westheimer/

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Research Interests

The processing of visual information by the human brain is approached by models of neural circuits and brain mechanisms. Of particular interest are interactive and plastic changes associated with the response modifications that occur with attention, active perception and learning. A long-standing research interest is the formation of the optical image on the human retina, how it is influenced by refractive corrections and how changes may be generated by non-traditional optical procedures.

For a summary of Professor Westheimer’s scientific accomplishments and contributions to UC Berkeley, see the video below produced by UCBEA Legacy Project.

Selected Publications

Objective Measures of Retinal Image Degradation due to Refrative Corrections [G.Westheimer  (2021) Optometry and Vision Science 98, 654-664]

Horace Barlow and the Nexus between Perception and Neurophysiology  [G, Westheimer (2021) Perception 50, 485-488]

Focused and defocused retinal images with Bessel and axicon pupil functions [G. Westheimer (2020) Journal of the Optical Society of America A 37, 108-114.]

Hering Hermeneutics. Supplement to Translation and Commentary of Hering (1899) [G. Westheimer (2018) iPerception Dec 6:(9)6]

Preferential Processing of Cardinal over Oblique Orientations [G. Westheimer (2017) Journal of Vision 17 (13) 8-18]

The Road to Certainty and Back.  [G. Westheimer Annual Reviews of Vision Science  (2016) 2, 1-15.]

Can perceptual learning compensate for optical image blur? [ G. Westheimer (2014) Vision Research 94, 58-61]

Retinal Light Distributions, the Stiles-Crawford Effect and Apodization.[G.Westheimer (2013) Journal of the Optical Society of America A 30, 1417-1421]

Measuring visual form discrimination with blur thresholds. [G.Westheimer (2013) Journal of Vision 13 (5), 1-11].

Spatial and spatial-frequency analysis in visual optics [G. Westheimer (2012) Ophthalmic & Physiol. Opitcs 32, 271-281].

Optical superresolution and visual hyperacuity. [G.Westheimer (2012) Progress in Retinal and Eye Research 31, 467-480] .

Dimensional Analysis of Visual Signals. [G.Westheimer (2010), Journal of the Optical Society of America A 27, 303-307]

Gestalt modulates basic spatial vision. [B.Sayim, G.Westheimer, MH Herzog (2010) Psychological Science 21, 641-644]

Was Helmholtz a Bayesian? [G. Westheimer (2008) Perception 37, 642-650]

Photo credit: Mark Hansen of Mark Joseph Studios.

Last Updated 2021-08-27