Top-down vision
The outside world appears to us, immediate, in detail, and seemingly without any effort. We generally don’t question that this is the actual world we live in. However, what we see depends on what we know and what we are searching for.
For example, when looking at the neighboring image, you might just see a bunch of colored lines. However, if you search for the yellow line elements, you will find them all within an instance, and see that they form a square. Also, if you now look for a circular contour, you will quickly find it as well (in the bottom left). This is because in your mind, you can have an abstract representation of yellow, or a circle, that helps you find it.
Moreover, you can now switch between seeing the circle and seeing the square. You might appreciate how your perception gets warped when switching for one to the other. This illustrates how our perception is an active process that relies on what is relevant for us at a given moment in time.
In this lab, we seek to understand the neuronal mechanisms supporting this process, both the encoding of the abstract mental models in the prefrontal cortex, as well as the effects on perception in early visual areas. For this, we're using three-photon imaging in non-human primates that are trained to perform complex cognitive tasks (like finding a circle in the neighboring image). Furthermore, we work with epilepsy patients to record with stereo-EEG probes and understand the detailed neural correlates of the same cognitive processes in humans.
Research group information
Click on one of the links below for more information about this research group or contact one of the members of this group.
Group leader
Group members
- Wouter Kroot (PhD student)
- Glenn Bouwman (PhD student)
- Sam Versteeg (Master student)
- Harry Steinharter (Master student)
- Katarina Koch (Master student)
- CEA DRF Impulsion “DIP” (2017) 990k€
- SESAME, Ile-de-France “DIP” (2017) 600k€
- NIN PhD Brain award for Scientific Excellence (2018)
- ANR, JCJC “PrimateSelectiveAttention” (2019) 350k€
- ERC Starting grant “TDVision” (2023) 1.5M€
- NWO ENW-M-Invest “DDIP” (2024) 420k€
- Ben Hamed, S., van Kerkoerle, T. “The neural bases of visual attention”, in Grafman, J.H. (Ed.), “Encyclopedia of the Human Brain” (2025) Academic Press
- Bellet M.E., Gay M., Bellet J., Jarraya B., Dehaene S.*, van Kerkoerle T.*, Panagiotaropoulos T.I.*" Spontaneously emerging internal models of visual sequences combine abstract and event-specific information in the prefrontal cortex " (2024) Cell Report
- van Kerkoerle, T., Pape, L., Ekramnia, M., Feng, X., Tasserie, J., Dupont, M., Li, X., Jarraya, B., Vanduffel, M., Dehaene, S., Dehaene-Lambertz, G. “Brain mechanisms of reversible symbolic reference: a potential singularity of the human brain” (2023) eLife
- van Kerkoerle, T., Cloos, M.A. “Creating a window into the mind” (2022) Science
- Planton S., van Kerkoerle T., Abbih L., Maheu M., Meyniel F., Sigman M., Wang L., Figueira S., Romano S., Dehaene S. "A theory of memory for binary sequences: Evidence for a mental compression algorithm in humans." (2021) PloS computational Biology
- van Kerkoerle, T., Marik, S.A., Meyer zum Alten Borgloh, S., Gilbert, C.D. "Axonal plasticity associated with perceptual learning in adult macaque primary visual cortex." (2018) PNAS
- van Kerkoerle, T., Self, M.W., Roelfsema, P.R. "Layer-specificity in the effects of attention and working memory on activity in primary visual cortex." (2017) Nature Communications
- van Kerkoerle, T., Self, M.W., Dagnino, B., Gariel-Mathis, M.A., Poort, J., van der Togt, C., Roelfsema, P.R. "Alpha and gamma oscillations characterize feedback and feed-forward processing in monkey visual cortex." (2014) PNAS