The MIT group of NEI Core Investigators constitute one of the strongest, most productive NEI-funded groups in the world, employing techniques ranging from genetic manipulations, to cellular imaging, to non-human primate neurophysiology, to human fMRI. The vision research questions of these faculty are fundamental and wide-ranging, including visual cellular plasticity, visual development, early visual representation, high-level object and face vision, and visual attention and cognition, and novel tools to study or modify visual processes. This longstanding NEI Core has played a critical role in keeping this group highly productive and innovative, enabling collaborations, eliminating inefficient re-design or re-engineering, and facilitating the training of the next generation of vision researchers. The three service Cores supported by this grant ? Machine Core, Electronics Core, and Imaging Core ? are well established, well run, highly productive, and always evolving to meet the ever evolving research needs of the NEI Core Investigators. If renewed, they will continue to provide state-of-the-art on-hand resources and expertise that would otherwise be impossible to achieve in individual laboratories of using outside sources. Together, these Cores will: 1) Enable the construction of novel devices and research methods that are not available off-the-shelf, but are critical to innovative research productivity, 2) Enable rapid repair of equipment to keep active research moving, 3) Maintain efficiency and enable collaboration by disseminating the resources, services and specific work products of the service Cores, and 4) Provide training of students and postdoctoral fellows in technical skills that enable innovation. In short, the Core here at MIT makes the knowledge productivity of our Core Investigator Labs much more than the sum of those parts, and it has important positive spillover effects on the broader Brain and Cognitive Sciences community here at MIT and beyond.
The research that depends on these Cores contributes to a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms in the brain that give rise to visual perception. This basic science has the potential to underlie significant advances in treatment of diseases, technology to improve or assist abnormal vision or visual development, and a broader understanding of brain function and cognition.
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