Ratan Murty

Assistant Professor

About

We only need to open our eyes to instantly know where we are, recognize the people and objects around us, and even read the text on this page. But vision is fragile and losing these abilities can drastically impair quality of life. Vision is also an engineering challenge and understanding how the human brain transforms photons into percepts could lead to important medical and engineering breakthroughs.

Research in the Murty Lab aims to uncover the neural codes and algorithms that enable us to see. The central theme of our work is to integrate biological vision with artificial models of vision. Our work combines the benefits of closed-loop experimental testing (using 3T/7T human functional-MRI) with cutting-edge computational methods (like deep neural networks, generative algorithms, and AI interpretability) toward a new computationally precise understanding of human vision. Our research also guides the development of neurally mechanistic biologically constrained models aimed to uncover a better understanding of the neurobiological changes that underlie perceptual abnormalities such as agnosias.

Because vision is so critical to other aspects of human behavior, this quantitative understanding fundamentally influences the way we think about how the brain processes sensory information in general and how visual information is used for post-perceptual processes like visual memory and decision- making.

Interested in our research? The Murty Lab is actively hiring PhD students, undergraduate mentees, postdocs and a full time lab manager. Reach out by emailing ratan.murty@psych.gatech.edu

Research experience

Postdoctoral research
Center for Brains, Mind, and Machines
McGovern Institute of Brain Research
Department of Brain and Cognitive Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Advisers: Nancy Kanwisher, PhD and James J DiCarlo, PhD

PhD, Neuroscience
Center for Neuroscience
Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, India
Adviser: S.P. Arun. PhD

Awards

K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Eye Institute, NIH Young Systems Scientist Award, National Systems Society of India The Institute Medal, Indian Institute of Science

Selected Publications

Theme 1. Leveraging artificial neural network (ANN) models for scientific understanding and discovery

Computational models of category-selective brain regions enable high-throughput tests of selectivity
NA Ratan Murty, P Bashivan, A Abate, JJ DiCarlo, N Kanwisher
Nature communications 12 (1), 5540

Modeling the bandwidth of perceptual experience using deep convolutional neural networks
M Cohen, K Lydic, NA Ratan Murty
Spotlight paper: SVRHM (Neurips workshop), psyarXiv

Integrative benchmarking to advance neurally mechanistic models of human intelligence
M Schrimpf, J Kubilius, MJ Lee, NA Ratan Murty, R Ajemian, JJ DiCarlo
Neuron 108 (3), 413-423

Theme 2. Characterizing atypical neurobiology

Visual experience is not necessary for the development of face-selectivity in the lateral fusiform gyrus
NA Ratan Murty, S Teng, D Beeler, A Mynick, A Oliva, N Kanwisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (37), 23011-23020

Intensive fMRI scanning and computational models can provide insight into the neural basis of developmental prosopagnosia
SN Pushpita, E Mieczkowski, B Duchaine, NA Ratan Murty
VSS2023 Abstract, Journal of Vision 23 (9), 5838-5838

Visual experience is necessary for selectivity of faces over language in the fusiform
E Saccone, NA Ratan Murty, J Kim, LNU Akshi, M Tian, N Kanwisher, M Bedny
VSS 2023 Abstract, Journal of Vision 23 (9), 5848-5848

Theme 3. Uncovering the neural codes and algorithms supporting invariant object representations in non-human primates

Multiplicative mixing of object identity and image attributes in single inferior temporal neurons
NA Ratan Murty, SP Arun
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (14), E3276-E3285

A balanced comparison of object invariances in monkey IT neurons
NA Ratan Murty, SP Arun
Eneuro 4 (2)

Seeing a straight line on a curved surface: decoupling of patterns from surfaces by single IT neurons
NA Ratan Murty, SP Arun
Journal of Neurophysiology 117 (1), 104-116

Dynamics of 3D view invariance in monkey inferotemporal cortex
NA Ratan Murty, SP Arun
Journal of Neurophysiology 113 (7), 2180-2194