Marisa Carrasco

Marisa Carrasco, a professor of psychology and neural science at New York University, uses human psychophysics, neuroimaging, and computational modeling to investigate the relation between the psychological and neural mechanisms involved in visual perception and attention.

Carrasco has published more than 100 papers in the most prestigious scientific journals, including Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Neuron, Current Biology, Journal of Neuroscience, Psychological Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, as well as the most prestigious specialized journals in her field, including Journal of Vision and Vision Research. In addition, she has written several authoritative reviews regarding the behavioral effects and neuronal bases of visual attention.[1][2]

She has made numerous seminal contributions in visual perception and attention. These include documenting the central role of physiological factors in visual search, characterizing how attention affects early vision, and developing experiments to investigate the underlying mechanisms.[3][4][5][6][7] One of her most influential findings shows that attention alters appearance. An old question believed to be outside the realm of scientific study, Carrasco developed an innovative behavioural paradigm that has now become a standard in assessing the effects of attention and awareness, a critical question in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy,[8][9] Most recently, Carrasco has expanded her research to include special populations (autism, ADHD, amblyopia and cortical blindness).

Her research accomplishments have been recognized by prestigious awards and fellowships throughout her career, such as an American Association of University Women Fellowship, a National Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, a Cattell Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Carrasco was the president of the Vision Sciences Society (2011–12), the largest society dedicated to the study of visual perception. She has been a senior editor of Vision Research and associate editor of Journal of Vision, the most important specialized journals in the field. She has organized international workshops on attention, bringing together leading psychologists and neuroscientists, and has edited the resulting special issues on Visual Attention (in Vision Research: 2004, 2009, 2012).

Carrasco was an assistant professor at Wesleyan University (1989–1995) before coming to NYU as an associate professor in 1995. She became a full professor in 2002 and served as the chair of the Psychology Department (2001–2007). She was named a Collegiate Professor in 2008 and has been director of Undergraduate Research at NYU’s College of Arts and Science since 2010.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Carrasco received her Licentiate in psychology from the National University of Mexico and her Ph.D. in psychology from Princeton University.

Selected publications

  1. ↑ Carrasco, M. (2011). Visual Attention: The past 25 years. Vision Research, 51, 1484-1525.
  2. ↑ Anton-Erxleben, K. & Carrasco, M. (2013). Attentional enhancement of spatial resolution: Linking behavioral and neurophysiological evidence. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14, 188-200.
  3. ↑ Carrasco M & Frieder KS (1997) Cortical magnification neutralizes the eccentricity effect in visual search. Vision Research, 37(1), 63-82.
  4. ↑ Yeshurun Y & Carrasco M (1998) Attention improves or impairs visual performance by enhancing spatial resolution. Nature, 396: 5 Nov. 72-75.
  5. ↑ Carrasco M, Penpeci-Talgar C & Eckstein M (2000) Spatial attention increases contrast sensitivity across the CSF: Support for signal enhancement. Vision Research, 40, 1203-1215.
  6. ↑ Liu T, Pestilli F & Carrasco M (2005) Transient attention enhances perceptual performance and fMRI response in human visual cortex. Neuron, 45, 469-477.
  7. ↑ Herrmann K, Montaser-Kouhsari L, Carrasco M & Heeger DJ (2010) When size matters: attention affects performance by contrast or response gain. Nature Neuroscience, 13(12), 1554-1559.
  8. ↑ Carrasco M, Ling S & Read S (2004) Attention alters appearance. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 308-313.
  9. ↑ Liu T, Abrams J & Carrasco M (2009) Voluntary attention enhances contrast appearance. Psychological Science, 20(3), 354-362.