Using psychophysical experiments, I try to decipher the visual strategies that observers use to accomplish tasks like judging color and shape of 3-D objects and the state of materials in real situations. I then try to see how the massively parallel processing of visual primitives by the cortex can be exploited to build simple neural models of these strategies. Finally, I collaborate on striate and extra-striate cortical electrophysiology to ground these models in neural reality.

1. Li, A. and Zaidi, Q. Release from Cross-Orientation Suppression Facilitates 3D Shape Perception. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8333. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008333, 2009.
2. Zaidi, Q. and Bostic, M. Color strategies for object identification, Vision Res. 48(26):2673-81, 2008.
3. Cohen, E. and Zaidi, Q. Fundamental failures of shape constancy resulting from cortical anisotropy. Journal of Neuroscience, 27(46):12540-12545, 2007.
4. Sun, H., Smithson, H., Lee, B., and Zaidi, Q. Specificity of cone inputs to macaque retinal ganglion cells. J. Neurophysiology, 95: 837-849, 2006. (Commentary by R. Shapley, J Neurophysiol ; 95: 587-588).
5. Zaidi, Q. A sculpture technique for rendering complex impossible objects. Perception, 34, 121-132, 2005.