Dr. Mazyar Fallah

My interest in research started as an undergraduate where I had opportunities to work with a number of different faculty members investigating protein folding, motor molecules of the golgi apparatus, and attentional mechanisms. That led to my interest in merging biological science with the study of the brain. I received my doctorate under the supervision of Charlie Gross at Princeton University, focusing on the oculomotor (eye movement) control of spatial attention. I completed my post-doctoral training under John Reynolds at the Salk Institute, investigating object-based attention and smooth pursuit eye movements. In 2005, I took up a faculty position in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University, associated with the Centre for Vision Research. Over 15 years, I continued my research program while also holding various administrative appointments, including undergraduate program director in kinesiology, and associate dean research & innovation in the Faculty of Health. I joined the College of Biological Science as dean in 2021, and as a professor in the Department of Human Health & Nutritional Sciences, where I am continuing my research into eye movements.

BA Biology – The Johns Hopkins University

MA Psychology – Princeton University

PhD Psychology & Neuroscience – Princeton University

Post-doctoral Fellow, Systems Neurobiology Laboratory – The Salk Institute for Biological Science

I am a systems neuroscientist performing both fundamental and applied research related to eye movements and how they interact with cognitive and executive functions. This is accomplished with eye-tracking behavioral studies and computational models.

My lab is supported through research grants from NSERC, CIHR, and industry contracts.

Olenick CE, Jordan H, Fallah M. (2024). Identifying a distractor produces object-based inhibition in an allocentric reference frame for saccade planning. Scientific Reports 14(1), 17534. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-68734-8

Kehoe DH, Fallah M. (2023). Oculomotor feature discrimination is cortically mediated. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 17, 1251933. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/systems-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2023.1251933/full

Giuricich C, Green RJ, Jordan H, Fallah M. (2023) eNeuro 10 (6). https://www.eneuro.org/content/eneuro/10/6/ENEURO.0450-22.2023.full.pdf

Yoo SA, Martinez-Trujillo JC, Treue S, Tsotsos JK, Fallah M. (2022) Attention to visual motion suppresses neuronal and behavioral sensitivity in nearby feature space. BMC Biology 20(1), 220. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12915-022-01428-7

Ramezanpour H, and Fallah M. (2022) The role of temporal cortex in the control of attention. Current Research in Neurobiology 3, 100038. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665945X22000110

Saini H, Jordan H, and Fallah M. (2021) Color Modulates Feature Integration. Frontiers in Psychology https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.680558/full

Yoo SA, Tsotsos JK, and Fallah M. (2019) Feed-forward visual processing suffices for coarse localization but precise localization in conflicting context needs feedback processing. PLoS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223166

Kehoe, DH, Aybulut, S, Fallah M. (2018) Higher-order, multi-featural object encoding by the oculomotor system. J. Neurophys. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00834.2017

Yoo SA, Tsotsos JK, Fallah M. (2018) The attentional suppressive surround: eccentricity, location-based and feature-based effects and interactions. Front Syst Neurosci. 12, 710. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00710

Kehoe, DH, Rahimi, M, and Fallah M. (2018) Perceptual color space representations in the oculomotor system are modulated by surround suppression and biased selection. Front Syst. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2018.00001

Kehoe, DH and Fallah M. (2017) Rapid accumulation of inhibitions accounts for saccades curved away from distractors. J. Neurophys, https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00742.2016

Perry, CJ and Fallah M. (2017) Effector-based attention systems. The Year in Cognitive Neuroscience, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13354

Blizzard S, Fierro-Rojas A, and Fallah M. (2017) Response inhibition is facilitated by a change to red over green in the stop signal paradigm. Front Human Neurosci 10(655). https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00655

Perry, CJ, Amarasooriya P, and Fallah M. (2016) An eye in the palm of your hand: alterations in visual processing near the hand, a mini-review. Front Computat Neurosci 10(37). http://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2016.00037

Perry, CJ, Tahiri A, and Fallah M. (2014) Feature integration within and across the visual streams occurs at different processing stages. J. Vision 14(2). 10-10. https://doi.org/10.1167/14.2.10

Perry CJ and Fallah M. (2014) Feature integration and object representations along the dorsal visual stream hierarchy. Front Computat Neurosci 8(84). https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2014.00084

Perry, C.J., and Fallah, M. (2012) Color improves speed of processing but not perception in a motion illusion. Frontiers in Consciousness Research, Special issue on Attention and Consciousness, 3(92): https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00092

Tchernikov, I. and Fallah, M. (2010) A Color Hierarchy for Automatic Target Selection. PLoS ONE, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009338

Accepting students interested in eye movement research and with a computational background.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mazyar-fallah-2193b038/

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=8rX1th4AAAAJ&hl=en