McCourt's Vision, Attention and Multisensory Integration Lab

My research interests encompass the study of low-level spatial vision (in particular the neural mechanisms of brightness and lightness perception), spatial attention (including panoramic attention – the type of attention that is disrupted in hemineglect syndrome, as well as exogenous attention – the type of attention that is recruited by transient sensory events), and multisensory integration (in particular the effects which auditory and haptic stimuli exert on visual perceptual processes and events). I employ a variety of techniques to study these phenomena, including visual and auditory psychophysics, computational modeling, eye tracking and high-density electroencephalography (EEG). The facilities available in my laboratory include an immersive head-mounted virtual reality display system with integrated 3D sound presentation capability (nVis, Inc., WorldViz, Inc., AuSim, Inc.), several high resolution/framerate psychophysical display workstations with stereoscopic capability (Cambridge Research Systems, Ltd.); a high-dynamic-range display system (Sunnybrook Technologies, Inc.); and a large-format spherical projection display system (VisionStation, eLumens, Inc.). Also available are two 168-channel high-density EEG recording systems (BioSemi, Inc.) housed in electromagnetically-shielded four-shield chambers (ETSLindgren, Inc.).

My collaborators in these research enterprises include Dr. Barbara Blakeslee (North Dakota State University), Dr. Davis Cope (North Dakota State University), Dr. Frederick Kingdom (McGill University) and Dr. John Foxe (City University of New York).