EAGLEMAN
LAB - The Laboratory for Perception and Action
The long range goal of our lab is to understand how the brain constructs perception, how different brains do so differently, and how this matters for society. Our three main prongs involve time perception, synesthesia, and neurolaw.
Time perception
To understand the
neural mechanisms of time perception, we combine psychophysical, behavioral, and computational
approaches to address the relationship between the timing of perception
and the timing of neural signals. We are currently engaged in
experiments that explore temporal encoding, time warping, manipulations
of the perception
of causality, time perception in schizophrenia, and time perception in high-adrenaline situations. We use
this data to explore how neural signals processed by different brain
regions come together for a temporally unified picture of the world.
Synesthesia is a perceptual condition in which information between the senses is blended. We are
performing a family linkage analysis to pull the
gene for synethesia (see articles in
UT Medical Magazine
[pdf],
Houston Chronicle, and Seed Magazine).
To this end, we have developed a standardized
battery for synesthesia at synesthete.org. This battery of
questionnaires and online software is free and open to the public, and
provides a rigorous, standardized scoring system for quantifying
synesthetia. We recently hosted the American
Synesthesia Association annual meeting here in Houston.
Click on the play button to watch recent coverage of our research on the Discovery Channel
Neuroscience and Law
I am founder and director of BCM's Initiative on Neuroscience and Law, which studies how new discoveries in neuroscience should navigate the way we make laws, punish criminals, and develop rehabilitation. The project brings together a unique collaboration of neurobiologists, legal scholars, and policy makers, with the goal of building modern, evidence-based policy.
April 9, 2008 - Houston - University of Houston Law Center, Criminal Justice Institute April 19, 2008 - New York - Colors of the Brain - Columbia University & MoMA April 26, 2008 - Houston - Conference for Rice Alumni Leaders May 23, 2008 - Houston - Conference on Neuroscience and Law May 26, 2008 - San Antonio - Distinguished Speaker, Mind Science Foundation May 29, 2008 - New York - World Science Festival July 17-18, 2008 - Albuquerque - Conference on Learning and Neuroscience July 18-23, 2008 - Brisbane, Australia - Asia Pacific Conference on Vision July 25, 2008 - New Zealand - NeuroLaw talk for New Zealand Ministry of Justice July 27-29, 2008 - Aspen - Conference on Consciousness October 6-8, 2008 - Barcelona - The Nature of Time, from Physics to Psychology October 16-18, 2008 - Munich - The clock's time, the brain's time and the mind's time October 21, 2008 - Houston - Scientia series on Biopolitics, Rice University October 30, 2008 - Houston - Big Questions and Future Directions in the Humanities, Rice University November 16, 2008 - Washington DC - Society for Neuroscience Meeting December 4, 2008 - Mexico - Annual meeting of Neurology January 16, 2009 - Dallas - Dallas Museum of Art Mar 4, 2009 - Denver, CO Mar 5, 2009 - Colorado Springs, CO Mar 13, 2009 - Tuscon, AZ Mar 14, 2009 - Phoenix, AZ Mar 16, 2009 - San Diego, CA Mar 17, 2009 - Los Angeles, CA Mar 28, 2009 - Houston - Exploring the Mind through Music conference, Rice University Apr 21, 2009 - London - The Brain and the Law: Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) lecture Apr 23 2009 - London - London School of Economics Apr 24 2009 - London - University College London, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Apr 26 2009 - Concord, MA - Concord Bookstore Apr 27, 2009 - Boston - Speaker at Google Apr 28, 2009 - New York Apr 29, 2009 - Hartford, CT Apr 30, 2009 - New York May 8-13, 2009 Naples, FL May 17-22, 2009 - Squaw Valley, CA - Conference on Neuroscience and Law May 21, 2009 - Stanford May 23-24, 2009 - Albuquerque, NM June 1-8, 2009 - Sydney, Australia - Performance of Sum with Brian Eno at the Sydney Opera House June 17, 2009 - Dallas, TX June 25, 2009 - Toronto, Canada June 26-30, 2009 - Bozeman, MT July 8, 2009 - Miami July 15-17, 2009 - Plano, TX - Texas Defenders Service - The Mind and Criminal Defense
Aug 13, 2009 - Houston, TX - Houston Public Library's Author Reading Series Aug 14-16, 2009 - Vancouver Aug 17, 2009 - Seattle, WA Aug 18, 2009 - Portland, OR Aug 19-20, 2009 - San Francisco, CA Sept 15-27, 2009 - Los Angeles, CA Sept 21-22, 2009 - London, Ontario - Lecture at University of Western Ontario Sept 24-26, 2009 - Albuquerque, NM Oct 15, 2009 - Houston, TX - Speaker at the UP Experience Oct 17-21, 2009 - Chicago, IL - Society for Neuroscience conference Oct 24, 2009 - Albuquerque, NM - Speaker at gifted and talented educators conference Oct 29, 2009 - San Antonio, TX - Synesthesia lecture at the Mind Science Foundation Oct 30, 2009 - San Antonio, TX - Speaker at Gemini Ink Oct 31, 2009 - Austin, TX - Reading at the Texas Book Festival Nov 11, 2009 - Edinburgh, Scotland - Discussion of Sum with former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway Nov 12, 2009 - London, England - Performance of Sum with Philip Pullman at Queen Elizabeth Hall Dec 5-6, 2009 - Sarasota, FL - Keynote speaker at 50th anniversary Nephrology Conference Feb 4-5, 2010 - Dallas, TX - Lecturer at Harris County Dept of Education conference March 26 - 28, 2010 - London, UK - Keynote speaker at UK Synaesthesia Association Apr 1, 2010 - San Francisco, CA - Speaker, Long Now Foundation Apr 2, 2010 - Berkeley, CA - Seminar speaker, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley Apr 15-16, 2010 - Casper, WY - Speaker, Wyoming School Psychology Association conference July 6-10, 2010 - Paris, France - Speaker, Attention & Performance conference July 23, 2010 - Albuquerque, NM - Lecture at educators conference
PUBLICATIONS
Cui X, Stetson C, Montague PR, Eagleman DM (2009). Ready…Go: Amplitude of the fMRI Signal Encodes Expectation of Cue Arrival Time. PLoS Biology. 7(8): e1000167. [Full text]
Eagleman DM (2009). The objectification of overlearned sequences: A large-scale analysis of spatial sequence synesthesia. Cortex. 45(10): 1266-1277. [Full text]
Eagleman DM & Pariyadath V (2009). Is subjective duration a signature of coding efficiency? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 364(1525):1841-51. [Full text]
Eagleman DM & Goodale MA (2009). Why color synesthesia involves more than color. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 13(7): 288-292. [Full text]
Eagleman DM, Correro MA, Singh J (2009). Why neuroscience matters for a rational drug policy. Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology. In press. [Full text]
Eagleman DM (2009). Temporality, empirical approaches. In The Oxford Companion to Consciousness. Oxford, UK. In press.
Eagleman DM (2009). Duration and predictability. In Attention and Time. Eds: Coull and Nobre. In press.
Pariyadath V, Eagleman DM (2009). Duration illusions and what they tell us about the brain. In Advances in Cognitive Science: Volume 2. Eds: Srinivasan, Kar, & Pandey. Sage books. In press.
Eagleman DM (2009). How does the timing of neural signals map onto the timing of perception? In Problems of Space and Time in Perception and Action, R. Nijhawan, Ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. In press.
Eagleman DM (2009). Using time perception to measure fitness for duty. American Psychological Society Military Psychology. 21(S1): S123 - S129. [Full text]
Pariyadath V, Eagleman DM (2008). Brief subjective durations contract with repetition. Journal of Vision. 8(16):1-6. [Full text]
Eagleman DM (2008). Human time perception and its illusions. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 18(2):131-6. [Full text]
Eagleman DM (2008). Prediction and Postdiction: two frameworks with the goal of delay compensation. Commentary in Brain and Behavioral Sciences. 31(2):205-206. [Full text][Full article]
Fiesta MP, Eagleman DM (2008). A method for achieving an order-of-magnitude increase in the temporal resolution of a standard CRT computer monitor. Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 174(1):103-105. [Full text]
Kline KA, Eagleman DM (2008). Evidence against the snapshot hypothesis of illusory motion reversal. Journal of Vision. 8(4):13, 1-5. [Full text][Web Demo].
Eagleman DM (2008). Neuroscience and the Law. Houston Lawyer. 16(6): 36-40. [Full text]
Eagleman DM (2008). Envenomation by the Asp Caterpillar, Megalopyge Opercularis. Clinical Toxicology. 46(3):201-5. [Full text]
Stetson C, Fiesta MP, Eagleman DM (2007). Does time really slow down during a frightening event? PLoS One. 2(12):e1295. [Full text]
Pariyadath V, Eagleman DM (2007). The effect of predictability on subjective duration. PLoS One. 2(11):e1264. [Full text]
Cui X, Yang D, Jeter C, Montague PR, Eagleman DM (2007). Vividness of mental imagery: individual variation can be measured objectively. Vision Research. 47(2007): 474–478. [Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman DM, Sejnowski TJ (2007). Motion signals bias position judgments: A unified
explanation for the flash-lag, flash-drag, flash-jump and Frohlich effects. Journal of Vision. 7(4): 1-12. http://journalofvision.org/7/4/3. [Full text]
Eagleman DM, Kagan AD, Nelson SN, Sagaram D, Sarma AK (2007). A standardized test battery for the study of Synesthesia. Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 159: 139-145. [Full text (pdf)]
Stetson C, Cui X, Montague PR, Eagleman DM (2006). Motor-sensory recalibration leads to an illusory reversal of action and sensation. Neuron. 51(5): 651-9. [Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman DM (2006) Correspondence: Will the Internet save us from epidemics? Nature. 441(7093):574.[Full text
(pdf)]
Eagleman DM, Tse PU, Janssen P, Nobre AC,
Buonomano D, Holcombe AO (2005). Time and the brain: how
subjective time relates to neural time. Journal of Neuroscience.
25(45): 10369-71. [Full
text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M. (2005) News & Views: Distortions
of time during rapid eye movements. Nature Neuroscience. 8(7):
850-851.
[Full text
(pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M. (2005) Comment on "The involvement of
the orbitofrontal cortex in the experience of regret". Science.
308(5726):1260. [Full
text (pdf)]
[Matlab
code]
Eagleman, D.M. (2005). Obituary: Francis H. C. Crick
(1916-2004). Vision Research. 45: 391-393.
[Full text (pdf)]
Holcombe, A.O., Clifford, C.W.G., Eagleman, D.M,
& Pakarian, P. (2005). Illusory motion reversal in tune with motion
detectors. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 9(12):559-60.
[Full text
(pdf)]
Kline, K.A., Holcombe, A.O., Eagleman, D.M. (2005).
Illusory motion reversal does not imply discrete processing: Reply to
Rojas et al. Vision Research. 46(6-7):1158-9.
[Full text
(pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M. (2004). The where and when of
intention. Science. 303: 1144-1146. [Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M., Jacobson, J.E., Sejnowski, T.J.
(2004). Perceived luminance depends on temporal context. Nature.
428(6985), 854-856.
[Full text (pdf)]
[Web demo]
[Supplementary
material]
Kline, K.A., Holcombe, A.O., Eagleman, D.M. (2004).
Illusory motion reversal is caused by rivalry, not by
perceptual snapshots of the visual field. Vision Research. 44:
2653–2658.
[Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M. & Sejnowski, T.J. (2003). The
line-motion illusion can be reversed by motion signals after the line
disappears. Perception. 32: 963-968. [Full text (pdf)]
[Web demo]
Eagleman, D.M. & Sejnowski, T.J. (2002).
Untangling spatial from temporal illusions. Trends in Neurosciences.
25(6): 293.
[Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M. & Holcombe, A.O. (2002). Causality
and the perception of time. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 6(8):
323-5.
[Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M. & Montague, P.R. (2002) Models of
learning and memory. In: Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science,
MacMillan Press: London.
[Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M. (2001) Visual Illusions and
Neurobiology. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2(12): 920-6. [Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M., Coenen, O.J.D., Mitsner, V., Bartol,
T.M., Bell, A.J.,Sejnowski, T.J. (2001). Cerebellar glomeruli: Does
limited extracellular calcium direct a new kind of plasticity? Proc.
8th Joint Symposium in Neural Computation.
[Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M. & Sejnowski, T.J. (2001). The
flash-lag illusion: distinguishing a spatial from a temporal effect,
and why that matters for interpreting visual physiology. Journal of
Vision, 1(3), 16a.[Abstract]
Rao, R.P.N., Eagleman, D.M., Sejnowski, T.J. (2001)
Optimal smoothing in visual motion perception. Neural Computation.13(6):1243-53.[Full text (pdf)][Abstract]
Eagleman, D.M. & Sejnowski, T.J. (2000) Motion integration and postdiction in visual awareness. Science. 287(5460): 2036-8. [Abstract][Full text (pdf)][Web demo]
Eagleman, D.M. & Sejnowski, T.J. (2000) The position of moving objects: Response. Science. 289(5482):1107a.[Full text (pdf)][Science Online]
Eagleman, D.M., Sejnowski, T.J. (2000) Latency
difference versus postdiction: Response to Patel et al. Science.
290(5494): 1051a.[Full text (pdf)][Science
Online]
Perret, S.P., Dudek, S., Eagleman, D., Montague,
P.R., Friedlander, M.J. (2001) LTD induction in adult visual cortex:
Role of stimulus pattern and inhibition. Journal of Neuroscience.
21(7): 2308-2319.[Full text (pdf)][J.
Neurosci. Online]
King, R.D., Wiest, M.C., Montague, P.R., Eagleman,
D.M. (2000) Do extracellular calcium signals carry information through
neural tissue? Trends in Neurosciences. 23(1):12-13. [Abstract][Full text]
Wiest, M.C., Eagleman, D.M., King, R.D., Montague,
P.R. (2000) Dendritic spikes and their influence on extracellular
calcium signaling. Journal of Neurophysiology. 83(3):1329-1337.
[Abstract][Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M., Montague, P.R. (1999) Calcium dynamics
in the extracellular space of mammalian neural tissue. Biophysical
Journal 76(4):1856-1867.[Abstract][Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M. (1998). Doctoral dissertation:
Computational properties of extracellular calcium dynamics.[Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M., Montague, P.R. (1998). Computational
properties of peri-dendritic calcium fluctuations. Journal of
Neuroscience. 18(21): 8580-8589.[Abstract][Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M., Person, C., Montague, P.R. (1998). A
computational role for dopamine delivery in human decision-making. Journal
of Cognitive Neuroscience. 10(5): 623-630. [Abstract][Full text (pdf)]
Eagleman, D.M., King, R.D., Montague, P.R. (1998).
Interaction of nitric oxide and external calcium fluctuations: a
possible substrate for rapid information retrieval. Prog Brain Res
1998;118:199-211 [Abstract]
(Also pubished in Nitric Oxide and other diffusible messengers in
development, plasticity, and disease. Mize,R.R., Friedlander,M.J.,
Dawson,T.J., Dawson,V.M., Eds. Amsterdam: Elsevier Press.)
Person, C., Eagleman, D.M., King, R.D., Montague, P.R.
(1997). Three-dimensional synaptic distributions influence neural
processing through the resource consumption principle. J. Physiol,
Paris. 90(5-6):330-333. [Abstract]
BOOKS
Sum. David Eagleman. New York: Pantheon Books. (Literary fiction).
"This little book is teeming, writhing with imagination." - Los Angeles Times
"This delightful, thought-provoking little collection belongs to that category of strange, unclassifiable books that will haunt the reader long after the last page has been turned. It is full of tangential insights into the human condition and poetic thought experiments.... It is also full of touching moments and glorious wit of the sort one only hopes will be in copious supply on the other side." - Alexander McCall Smith, New York Times Book Review
"Sum has the unaccountable, jaw-dropping quality of genius" - The Guardian
"Eagleman is a true original. Read Sum and be amazed. Reread it and be reamazed all over again." - Time Magazine
"Sum is terrific. The inventiveness, the clarity and wit of the prose, the calm air of moral understanding that pervades the whole thing, add up to something completely original." — Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass
"David Eagleman’s Sum is a captivating collection of vignettes that portray possible afterlives–creatively conceived and deftly described. Each tale imagines an unexpected reality that might await us, possible worlds that illuminate life with colors rarely encountered." - Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe
"As rigorous and imaginative as the writings of Italo Calvino and Alan Lightman, each vignette is a glimpse into an expansive topic such as time, faith or memory. Together they illuminate an astounding range of possibilities for the meaning of human life." - Nature
"With both a childlike sense of wonder and a trenchant flair for irony, the Baylor College of Medicine neuroscientist generously offers forty variations on the theme of God and the afterlife, imagining what each of us might find when we shuffle off this mortal coil.... Sum is great fun—sort of a brainy parlor game in print—and a modest satire aimed at zealots who define heaven and God to serve their own ends." - Texas Monthly
"Wow." - The New York Observer
"Bracing, provocative, fun... it challenges and teases as it spins out different parables of possibility." - Houston Chronicle
"A disarming, splendid little book... intriguing and extraordinarily well-written.... It made my heart light" - Dallas Morning News
"Witty, bright, sharp and unexpected... as surprising a book as I’ve read for years." - Brian Eno
"SUM is an imaginative and provocative book that gives new perspectives on how to view ourselves and our place in the world." - Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams
Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia. Richard E. Cytowic and David M. Eagleman. MIT Press.
"Twenty years ago, synesthesia—the automatic conjoining of two or more senses—was regarded by scientists (if at all) as a rare curiosity. We now know that perhaps one person in twenty is synesthetic, and so we must regard it as an essential, and fascinating, part of the human experience. Indeed, it may well be the basis and inspiration for much of human imagination and metaphor. No one has done more than Richard Cytowic and David Eagleman to bring a careful neuroscientific attention to synesthesia, grounded in decades of research and reports from thousands of patients. Their work has changed the way we think of the human brain, and Wednesday Is Indigo Blue is a unique and indispensable guide for anyone interested in how we perceive the world." - Oliver Sacks, author of The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat
"This is a clear, clever book that will appeal to synaesthetes in search of explanations, and to all with a passion for neurology's wild territory." - New Scientist
"An invaluable introduction to the phenomenon of synesthesia.... a well-structured exposition of the vast, rich literature on the subject. The text is richly illustrated, adding to the readers' understanding of the process. This well-written summary of what is known about synesthesia concludes with some helpful suggestions for the direction of future research. Summing Up: Highly recommended." - Choice Magazine
"Wednesday is Indigo Blue adds a new and rich philosophical discussion and a variety of cognitive neuroscience experiments to the topic of synesthesia. Cytowic and Eagleman make a convincing case that research on synesthesia has and will significantly contribute to our understanding of the brain's neural networks." - Harry A. Whitaker, Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University
"A fascinating survey of the enormous variety and creativity of the synesthetic mind." - Daniel Tammet, synesthete and author of Born on a Blue Day
Upcoming books
Dethronement: The secret hegemony of the Unconscious Brain. David M. Eagleman. Pantheon Books. Under contract for 2010.
Plasticity: How the Brain Reconfigures Itself. David M. Eagleman. Oxford University Press. Under contract for 2010.
Cognitive Neuroscience: A Principles Based Approach (Textbook). David M. Eagleman and Jonathan Downar. Oxford University Press. Under contract for 2011.
Ten Unsolved Mysteries of the Brain.
David M. Eagleman. Submitted to Publishers. (Cover article, Aug 2007 Discover Magazine).
Pariyadath V, Churchill SJ, Eagleman DM. Why Overlearned Sequences are Special: Distinct Neural Networks in the Right Hemisphere for Ordinal Sequences. Submitted.
Nelson S, Avidan N, Sarma AK, Tushe R, Milewicz DM, Lee K, Bray M, Leal SM, Eagleman DM. The genetics of colored sequence synesthesia: Evidence of linkage to chromosome 16q and genetic heterogeneity for the condition. Submitted.
Piantoni G, Kline KA & Eagleman DM. Beta power correlates with perception in illusory motion motion reversal. Submitted.
Vaughn DA & Eagleman DM. Faces seen briefly are judged to be more beautiful. Submitted.
Cheng S, Eagleman DM. Is synesthesia one condition or many? A large-scale analysis reveals sub-groups. In preparation.
Churchill, SJ, Eagleman DM. A large-scale analysis of music-color synesthesia: individual variability and why it matters. In preparation.
Sprague TC, Jacobson JE, Eagleman DM. Perceived duration depends on temporal context.
In preparation.
Eagleman DM. Time perception is distorted during visual slow motion. In preparation.
How do brains simulate future(s)? D. M.
Eagleman. In preparation for Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
A theory of the mossy fiber - granule cell glomerulus
in the cerebellum. D. M. Eagleman, O. J-M. D. Coenen, V. Mitsner, et
al.
What the brain does not need to know about position
and motion. D. M. Eagleman & D. Dennett. In preparation.
MEDIA
Television
The Brain (2 hour documentary). History Channel.
Redes 20: Que es el tiempo? (In Spanish) [Video]
Does time really slow down during fear? Discovery Channel[Video]
Synesthesia: One Step Beyond, Discovery Channel [Video]
Can Time Slow Down? ABC News [Video]
Exploring Time, Discovery Channel [Video]
Neuroscience research at the Salk Institute, PBS [Video]
Radio: All in the Mind, hosted by Natasha Mitchell, Australian Broadcasting Corportaion, 20 June 2009: Podcast Late Night Live with Philip Adams, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, June 4, 2009: Podcast All Things Considered, Robert Krulwich, National Public Radio, May 18, 2009: Podcast Front Row, BBC Radio 4, April 24, 2009: Podcast On Point with Tom Ashbrook, National Public Radio: Podcast Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio, Feb 17, 2009: Podcast All in the Mind, BBC Radio 4, July 22, 2008: Podcast
I spoke at two events in the World Science Festival in NYC. See a video excerpt of Illuminating Genius, a panel which combined artists and scientists to explore the concept of creativity.
I have founded a prize in
mathematics and physics.
The highest activities of consciousness have their
origins in physical occurrences of the brain, just as the loveliest
melodies are not too sublime to be expressed by notes.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
To understand the
neural mechanisms of 
