Scholars@Duke
Dale Purves

Dale Purves

Research Professor Emeritus of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences
Duke Institute for Brain Sciences
purves@neuro.duke.edu
BOX90999, Durham, NC 27708
B241, LSRC Bldg., Research Drive, Durham, NC 27708

Overview

The Purves Laboratory is continuing to study visual perception and its neurobiological underpinnings. Ongoing investigations include understanding the perception of brightness, color, orientation, motion, and depth. The unifying theme of these several projects is the hypothesis that visual percepts are generated according to a wholly empirical strategy. The strategy represents in perception the empirical significance of the stimulus rather than its properties. This theory of vision and its relation to cortical structure and function is being explored by examining in probabilistic terms the perceptual responses of human subjects, the properties of virtual organisms that evolve in defined visual environments, and the response properties of visual cortical neurons in experimental animals. Current work is focused on the validation of the theory using natural image databases with complete information about luminance, color and range (physical geometry), asking whether the corresponding perceptual phenomenology is accurately predicted by the statistical information in these proxies of human experience. This empirical theory of vision is also being extended to understanding the phenomenology of music, and to audition more generally.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Research Professor Emeritus of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences · 2021 - Present Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, University Institutes and Centers
Member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience · 2003 - Present Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

In the News

Published June 15, 2021
10 Books About Music from Duke Authors
Published December 30, 2014
Dale Purves’ Coursera course on visual perception starts Jan. 7

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Recent Publications

Understanding Visual Perception.

Journal Article Journal of cognitive neuroscience · April 2025 Visual perception can be thought of in two fundamentally different ways: (1) that what we see is determined by circuitry for detecting and representing object features and conditions in the physical world or (2) that what we see is determined empirically b ... Full text Cite

Why Brains Don't Compute

Book · May 7, 2021 This book examines what seems to be the basic challenge in neuroscience today: understanding how experience generated by the human brain is related to the physical world we live in. The 25 short chapters present the argument and evidence that brains addres ... Full text Cite

Opinion: What does AI's success playing complex board games tell brain scientists?

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · July 2019 Full text Cite
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Recent Grants

Auditory Perception and Emotion Recognition in Young People at Risk for Psychosis

ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2016 - 2019

Specific Auditory Perception Impairment and Emotion Recognition in Schizophrenia

ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2014 - 2017

The Biological Basis of Musical Tonality

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2009 - 2013

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Education, Training & Certifications

Harvard Medical School · 1964 M.D.
Yale University · 1960 B.A.
Yale University · 1960 A.B.