Yasuto Tanaka's page

Yasuto Tanaka

Department of Neurobiology, Brain Research
Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot 76100, Israel
tel:+972(8)934-4324, fax: +972(8)934-4131

e-mail: yasuto@neurovision.berkeley.edu


            Throughout evolution, we end up with the most complex, the most sophisticated, and the most facinating biological system: brain. Understanding the function and architecture of the neural system, brain, is one of the most challenging targets in science. A combined scientific field of biology, physics, mathmatics, and chemistry is now called neuroscience.

    My scientific experience started * in 1991 at Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd.

    (Tokyo, Japan), where I enjoyed interaction of science and technology.

    In 1992, I returned The University of Tokyo , investigating with Prof.

    Shinsuke Shimojo on human brain and the visual system * using psychophysical technique.

    In 1993, I moved to Massatusettes Institute of Technology (MIT)

    and Nissan Cambridge Basic Research , (Boston, USA),

    completed Msc. on visual attention (Tanaka and Shimojo, Vis. Res. 1996; Tanaka and Shimojo, JEP/HPP 2000; Tanaka and Shimojo, Perception, 1998).

    On Dec. 1994, I started to work with Prof. Dov Sagi (for Ph. D),

    at the Weizemann Instititute of Science, Dept. Neurobiology (Israel).

    Since then, we've been working on visual processing, namely

    on perceptual learning (Karni and Sagi, PNAS 1991, Nature, 1993; Polat and Sagi, PNAS 1994) and the generation of perceptual memory (Tanaka and Sagi, Vis. Res. 1998, PNAS 1998, Vis. Res. 2000) employing threshold tasks of contrast detection/discrimination (Polat and Sagi, Vis. Res. 1993; Nachmias and Sansbury, 1974).

    Currently, we're trying to construct a model of neural mechanisms and archtectures (Tanaka and Sagi, Vis. Res. 1998; Adini, Sagi and Tsodyks, PNAS 1997; Usher et al., Spatial Vision, 1999; Zenger and Sagi, 1996) to explain dynamic and plastic phenomena in early vision, such as subthreshold visual priming (Tanaka and Sagi, PNAS 1998), long lasting lateral interaction (Tanaka and Sagi, Vis. Res. 1998; Polat and Sagi, 1993; Adini Sagi and Tsodyks 1997), visual attention (Tanaka and Sagi, Vis. Res. 2000), visual imagery (Ishai and Sagi, Science 1995) and long-term memory (Tanaka and Sagi, ARVO 1999, 2000).


    Selected publications

    Recent conference abstructs

  1. Fast plasticity of long-range interaction induced by temporal cueing (ARVO2000)

  2. Practicing attention in contrast disscrimination tasks (ARVO1999)

  3. Dissociation of spatial orienting between left and right hemispheres (ECVP1999)

    4. rirekisho


    Yasuto Tanaka, Department of Neurobiology, Brain Research The Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot 76100, Israel Email: yasuto@neurovision.berkeley.edu
    URL: http://~www.weizmann.ac.il/bntanaka Fax: +972(8)934-4131 Tel: +972(8)934-4324

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