The Land Mondrian Experiment

Welcome

The Laboratory of Neurobiology is devoted to the study of the visual brain, its organization and its functioning in health and in disease.

We use a variety of techniques: anatomical to study the structure and connections of the visual brain; electro-physiological and electro-encephalographic to study the way in which cells constituting the visual brain respond to visual stimuli; psychophysical to study the perceptual capacities and limitations of the visual brain; imaging to determine the location and functioning of the many parallel and specialized sub-systems in the visual brain; and inactivation techniques to learn about what happens when a given area of the visual brain is temporarily and reversibly inactivated. We also study patients whose visual brain is damaged in order to characterize better how the visual brain functions.

More recently, we have used the information gained from the study of the brain over the past forty years to study the relationship of visual art to the functioning of the visual brain, the field which we refer to as neuroesthetics.

The Laboratory of Neurobiology is supported by the Wellcome Trust, London.

Announcing a series of upcoming events by the Institute of Neuroesthetics

Click here for details

Latest news

  • 15-21 March 2010: This week is Brain Awareness Week. See here for details of events that will be held at UCL.
  • 23 January - 11 April 2010: Beauty and the Brain: A Neural Approach to Aesthetics is both an exhibition and experiment. Visitors will be invited to explore aesthetic spaces created by digitally morphing works of art. Visit The Walters Art Museum website for more details.
  • 25 March 2010: Semir Zeki will give a public talk at M - Museum Leuven, Belgium, in connection with the Parallellelpipeda exhibition. The talk begins at 8pm.
  • 9 April 2010: Semir Zeki will lead a seminar at the Instituto de Neurociencias CSIC-UMH, Alicante, Spain. 12:30, IN main auditorium.
  • 18-22 May 2010: Semir Zeki will give a talk entitled A neurobiological examination of the art of Francis Bacon at the Cognitive VII meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.
  • 18 September 2010: Semir Zeki will be participating in Light in Darkness at the Zollhof Foundation, Düsseldorf, with a talk, dialogue and paintings.
  • Coming soon: Glanz und Elend des Gehirns: Neurobiologie im Spiegel von Kunst, Musik und Literatur by Semir Zeki (published by Reinhardt). See the cover.
  • Now available: 'Maravillas y miserias del cerebro humano' by Semir Zeki (published by Wiley-Blackwell). See the cover.
  • Now available: 'Splendours and Miseries of the Brain: Love, Creativity and the Quest for Human Happiness' by Semir Zeki (published by Blackwell). Soon to be published in Greek, Italian and German. See the cover.