Primary Faculty
Mazviita Chirimuuta
Assistant Professor
Adjunct, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and Department of Philosophy
| My research examines the relationship between neuroscience and the philosophy of mind and perception. My main project in recent years has been on colour vision, developing a theory of colour which acknowledges the complexities of visual function revealed by recent perceptual science. In addition to published articles and chapters, this work will appear as a monograph, Outside Colour, with MIT Press. Alongside experimental work on visual cognition, my latest research looks at the implications of neuroplasticity for questions concerning mechanistic explanation in the philosophy of neuroscience. |
Education
PhD, University of Cambridge, 2004
BSc, University of Bristol, 2000
Selected Courses Taught
Central Problems in Systems Neuroscience (Grad)
Methods and Interpretation in Cognitive Neuroscience (Grad)
Perception (Grad)
Philosophy of Neuroscience (Undergrad)
Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence (Undergrad)
Selected Publications
Chirimuuta, M. (forthcoming, 2011). Touchy-Feely Colour. In Biggam, Hough and Simmons (eds.) New Directions in Colour Studies. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Chirimuuta, M. & Gold, I.J. (2009). The embedded neuron, the enactive field?. In Bickle, J. (ed.) Handbook of Philosophy and Neuroscience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chirimuuta, M. (2008). Reflectance Realism and Colour Constancy: What would count as scientific evidence for Hilbert’s ontology of colour? Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 86(4), 563-582.
Chirimuuta, M., Morrone, M.C. & Burr, D. (2007). Perceptual learning of modality specific visual attentional effects. Vision Research, 47, 60-70.
Chirimuuta, M., & Tolhurst, D.J. (2005). Does a Bayesian model of V1 contrast coding offer a neurophysiological account of human contrast discrimination? Vision Research, 45, 2943-2959.
Chirimuuta, M., & Tolhurst, D.J. (2005). Accuracy or identification of grating contrast by human observers. Vision Research, 45, 2960-2971.
Chirimuuta, M., Clatworthy, P.L. & Tolhurst, D.J. (2003). Coding of the contrasts in natural images by visual cortex (V1) neurons: A Bayesian approach. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 20, 1253-1260.
Current Projects
Chirimuuta, M. Book in progress. Outside Colour: Perceptual Science and the Revision of Colour Ontology. MIT Press.
Chirimuuta, M. & Paterson, M.W.D. (forthcoming). A Methodological Molyneux Question: Sensory Substitution, Plasticity and the Unification of Perceptual Theory. In D. Stokes & M. Matthen (eds.) Perception and its Modalities, Oxford University Press.
Chirimuuta, M. Extending, Changing, and Explaining the Brain.
Chirimuuta, M. Changing our Minds about Plasticity and Localisation of Brain Function.
