Research Interests:

Research in my laboratory focuses on active perception in biological and artificial systems. Like many species, humans are not passively exposed to the incoming flow of sensory data, but actively seek useful information. Behavior is a key component of sensory perception; it enables control of input sensory signals in ways that simplify perceptual tasks. The term active perception refers to the analysis of the perceptual functions of behavior.

In the Active Perception Laboratory, experimental and theoretical approaches are combined to examine motor influences on perceptual performance and on the encoding of sensory information in the brain. Robots replicating the sensory-motor strategies of various species are studied in an effort to develop efficient machine perception systems. Research in the Active Perception Laboratory has raised specific hypotheses regarding the influences of eye movements during visual development and in the neural encoding of visual information. This research has also demonstrated the involvement of fixational eye movements in fine spatial vision, produced a new system for experimental studies of visual neuroscience, and led to the development of robots directly controlled by models of the brain.

Education:

• Laurea Degree (MA), Biomedical Engineering, University of Florence, Italy.
• Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Scuola Superiore S. Anna, Pisa, Italy.
• Visiting Researcher, University of Pennsylvania.
• Fellow in Theoretical Neuroscience, The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego.

 

Selected Publications:

X. Kuang, M. Poletti, J.D. Victor and M. Rucci, "Temporal encoding of spatial information during active visual fixation", Current Biology, 22(6), 510-514, 2012.

H.-K. Ko, M. Poletti and M. Rucci, "Microsaccades precisely relocate gaze in a high visual acuity task", Nature Neuroscience,13,1549-1553, 2010.

M. Poletti, C. Listorti, and M. Rucci, ”Stability of the visual world during eye drift”,The Journal of Neuroscience,30(33),11143-11150, 2010.

M. Rucci, R. Iovin, M. Poletti, and F. Santini, ”Miniature Eye Movements Enhance Fine Spatial Detail”, Nature, 447(7146) , 851-854, 2007.

M. Rucci, D. Bullock, and F. Santini, "Integrating robotics and neuroscience: brains for robots, bodies for brains", Advanced Robotics, 21(10) , 1115-1129, 2007.