George A. Alvarez

Fred Kavli Professor of Neuroscience
Portrait of George Alvarez
William James Hall 76033 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
617 495 5225

The human visual system can only select and keep track of a small handful of objects at any given moment. Yet, for the most part, people successfully navigate through busy intersections, find items of interest such as food or friends in a crowd, and understand complex social situations – all with seemingly little effort. This suggests that the human visual system employs efficient strategies to manage its limited resources. My research is aimed at understanding how the mind and brain optimizes the use of its limited resources. My projects on this topic fall into the following four categories: attentional selection, memory storage, fluid resource allocation, and efficient coding. For more information on these projects, please visit my website.