Publications

Most Recent

Journal Papers

• Cox, P.H., Scholl, C.A., Laws, M.L., Jaimes, N.E., Jiang, X. & Riesenhuber, M. Extensive experience remodels neural task circuitry to escape the frontal bottleneck and increase automaticity of categorization. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2026. Georgetown press release | NBC news story | Quirks & Quarks interview
• Chang, L., Cho, P., Banerjee, S., Damera, S. R., Glezer, L. S., Stevens, B., Jin, K., Nikolov, P., & Riesenhuber M. Distinct cross-modal coupling between the written and auditory language networks during reading and spoken word processing. Brain and Language. July 2026.
• Martinez-Addiego F., Liu Y., Moon K., Shytle E., Amaral L., O’Brien C., Sen S., Riesenhuber M., Culham J.C., & Striem-Amit E. Action-type mapping principles extend beyond evolutionarily conserved actions, even in people born without hands, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 19 August 2025 122(34).
• Damera, S.R., Chang, L., Nikolov, P.P., Mattei, J.A., Banerjee, S., Glezer, L.S., Cox, P.H., Jiang, X., Rauschecker, J.P. & Riesenhuber, M. Evidence for a Spoken Word Lexicon in the Auditory Ventral Stream . Neurobiology of Language. June 2023.
• Damera, S. R., Malone, P. S., Stevens, B. W., Klein, R., Eberhardt, S. P., Auer, E. T., Bernstein, L. E., & Riesenhuber, M. Metamodal Coupling of Vibrotactile and Auditory Speech Processing Systems Through Matched Stimulus Representations . Journal of Neuroscience. May 2023.
• Rule, J., Riesenhuber, M. Leveraging Prior Concept Learning Improves Generalization From Few Examples in Computational Models of Human Object Recognition . Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. January 2021. Georgetown Press Release.
• Riesenhuber, M. How the mind sees the world . Nat Hum Behav. October 2020.
• Martin J.G., Davis C.E., Riesenhuber M., Thorpe S.J. Microsaccades during high speed continuous visual search. Journal of Eye Movement Research. June 2020 13: 5.
• Damera S., Martin J.G, Scholl C., Kim J.S., Glezer L., Malone P.S., Riesenhuber M. From shape to meaning: Evidence for multiple fast feedforward hierarchies of concept processing in the human brain. NeuroImage. November 2020 221: 117148.
• Martin J.G., Cox P. H., Scholl C. A., Riesenhuber M. A crash in visual processing: Interference between feedforward and feedback of successive targets limits detection and categorization. Journal of Vision. October 2019 20: 1-21. Georgetown Press release
• Malone P.S., Eberhardt S.P., Wimmer K., Sprouse C., Klein R., Glomb K., Scholl D.A., Bokeria L., Cho P., Deco G., Jiang X., Bernstein L.E., Riesenhuber M. Neural mechanisms of vibrotactile categorization Human Brain Mapping. March 2019 40: 1-13.
• Glezer L.S., Jiang X., Luetje M.M., Napoliello E. M., Kim J., Riesenhuber M., Eden G. F. An fMRI-adaptation study of phonological and orthographic selectivity to written words in adults with poor reading skills. Brain and Language. April 2019 191: 1.
• Martin, J.G., Davis, C. E., Riesenhuber, M. & Thorpe, S. J. High Resolution Human Eye Tracking During Continuous Visual Search. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2 October 2018 12: 374.
• Martin, J.G., Davis, C. E., Riesenhuber, M. & Thorpe, S. J. Zapping 500 faces in less than 100 seconds: Evidence for extremely fast and sustained continuous visual search. Scientific Reports. 2018 8: 12482.
• Jiang, X., Chevillet, M., Rauschecker, J.P., & Riesenhuber, M. (2018). Training Humans to Categorize Monkey Calls: Auditory Feature- and Category-Selective Neural Tuning Changes. Neuron. 18 April 2018 98: 405-416.
• Kripkee, Bernard, and Robert C. Froemke. (2017). Organization and Plasticity of Cortical Inhibition. In The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Neural Plasticity: Oxford University Press, http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190635374.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190635374-e-14.
• Cantwell, G., Riesenhuber, M., Roeder, J.L., & Ashby, F.G. (2017). Perceptual category learning and visual processing: An exercise in computational cognitive neuroscience. Neural Networks. May 2017 89: 31-38.
• Malone, P.S., Glezer, L.S., Kim, J., Jiang, X., & Riesenhuber, M. (2016). Multivariate Pattern Analysis Reveals Category-Related Organization of Semantic Representations in Anterior Temporal Cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience. 28 Sep 2016 36(39): 10089-10096.
• Riesenhuber, M. & Glezer, L.S. (2016). Evidence for rapid localist plasticity in the ventral visual stream: the example of words. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience. 22 Jul 2016 32(3): 286-294.
• Glezer, L.S., Guinevere, E., Jiang, X., Luetje, M., Napoliello, E., Kim, J., & Riesenhuber, M. (2016). Uncovering phonological and orthographic selectivity across the reading network using fMRI-RA. Neuroimage. 29 May 2016 138: 248-256.
• Cox, P.H. & Riesenhuber, M. (2015). There Is a “U” in Clutter: Evidence for Robust Sparse Codes Underlying Clutter Tolerance in Human Vision. Journal of Neuroscience. 21 October 2015 35(42): 14148-14159.
• Glezer, L.S., Kim, J., Rule, J., Jiang, X., & Riesenhuber, M. (2015). Adding Words to the Brain’s Visual Dictionary: Novel Word Learning Selectively Sharpens Orthographic Representations in the VWFA. Journal of Neuroscience. 25 March 2015 35(12): 4965-72.
• McKee, J.L., Riesenhuber, M., Miller E.K., & Freedman D.J. (2014). Task dependence of visual and category representations in prefrontal and inferior temporal cortices. Journal of Neuroscience. 26 November 2014 34(48): 16065-75.
• Scholl, C.A., Jiang, X., Martin, J.G., & Riesenhuber, M. (2014). Time Course of Shape and Category Selectivity Revealed by EEG Rapid Adaptation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. February 2014 26(2): 408-421.
• Glezer, L.S., & Riesenhuber, M. (2013). Individual Variability in Location Impacts Orthographic Selectivity in the “Visual Word Form Area”. Journal of Neuroscience. 3 July 2013 33(27): 11221-11226.
• Chevillet, M.A., Jiang, X., Rauschecker, J.P., & Riesenhuber, M. (2013). Automatic Phoneme Category Selectivity in the Dorsal Auditory Stream. Journal of Neuroscience. 20 March 2013 33(12): 5208-5215.
• Jiang, X., Bollich, A., Cox, P., Hyder, E., James, J., Gowani, S.A., Hadjikhani, N., Blanz, V., Manoach, D.S., Barton J.J.S., Gaillard W.D., & Riesenhuber, M. (2013). A quantitative link between face discrimination deficits and neuronal selectivity for faces in autism. NeuroImage: Clinical. 26 February 2013 2(1): 320-331.
• Chevillet M., Riesenhuber M., & Rauschecker J.P. (2011). Functional Correlates of the Anterolateral Processing Hierarchy in Human Auditory Cortex. J Neurosci. 2011 Jun 22 31(25): 9345-52.
• Roy J.E., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio T., & Miller E.K. (2010). Prefrontal Cortex Activity during Flexible Categorization. J Neurosci. 2010 Jun 23 30(25): 8519-28.
• Riesenhuber, M., & Wolff, B.S. (2009). Task effects, performance levels, features, configurations, and holistic face processing: A reply to Rossion. Acta Psychologica 132(3): 286-292.
• Glezer, L.S., Jiang, X., & Riesenhuber, M. (2009). Evidence for Highly Selective Neuronal Tuning to Whole Words in the “Visual Word Form Area”. Neuron 62: 199-204.
• Cadieu, C., Kouh, M., Pasupathy, A., Conner, C., Riesenhuber, M., & Poggio, T.A. (2007). A Model of V4 Shape Selectivity and Invariance. J Neurophysiol 98: 1733-1750.
• Riesenhuber, M. (2007). Appearance Isn’t Everything: News on Object Representation in Cortex. Neuron 55: 341-344.
• Jiang, X., Bradley, E., Rini, R.A., Zeffiro, T., VanMeter, J., & Riesenhuber, M. (2007). Categorization Training Results in Shape- and Category-Selective Human Neural Plasticity. Neuron 53(6): 891-903.
• Serre, T., Wolf, L., Bileschi, S., Riesenhuber, M., & Poggio, T. (2007). Robust Object Recognition with Cortex-like Mechanisms. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 29(3): 411-426.
• Freedman, D.J., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio, T., & Miller, E.K. (2006). Experience-Dependent Sharpening of Visual Shape Selectivity in Inferior Temporal Cortex. Cereb. Cortex 16: 1631-1644.
• Jiang, X., Rosen, E., Zeffiro, T., VanMeter, J., Blanz, V., & Riesenhuber, M. (2006). Evaluation of a Shape-Based Model of Human Face Discrimination Using fMRI and Behavioral Techniques. Neuron 50: 159-172.
• Riesenhuber, M., Jarudi, I., Gilad, S., & Sinha P. (2004). Face processing in humans is compatible with a simple shape-based model of vision. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B (suppl.) 271: S448-450.
• Lampl, I., Ferster, D., Poggio, T., & Riesenhuber, M. (2004). Intracellular Measurements of Spatial Integration and the MAX Operation in Complex Cells of the Cat Primary Visual Cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology 92: 2704-2713.
• Riesenhuber, M. (2004). An action video game modifies visual processing. Trends in Neurosciences 27: 72-74.
• Freedman, D.J., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio, T., & Miller, E.K. (2003). A Comparison of Primate Prefrontal and Inferior Temporal Cortices during Visual Categorization. Journal of Neuroscience 23: 5235-5246.
• Riesenhuber, M., & Poggio, T. (2002). Neural Mechanisms of Object Recognition. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 12: 162-168.
• Freedman, D.J., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio, T., & Miller, E.K. (2002). Visual Categorization and the Primate Prefrontal Cortex: Neurophysiology & Behavior. Journal of Neurophysiology 88: 930-942.
• Freedman, D.J., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio, T., & Miller, E.K. (2001). Categorical Representation of Visual Stimuli in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex. Science 291: 312-316.
• Riesenhuber, M. & Poggio, T. (2000). Models of Object Recognition. Nature Neuroscience 3(supp.): 1199-1204.
• Riesenhuber, M. & Poggio, T. (1999). Hierarchical Models of Object Recognition in Cortex. Nature Neuroscience 2: 1019-1025.
• Riesenhuber, M. & Poggio, T. (1999). Are Cortical Models Really Bound by the ‘Binding Problem’? Neuron 24: 87-93.
• Riesenhuber, M., Bauer, H.-U., Brockmann, D., & Geisel, T. (1998). Breaking Rotational Symmetry in a Self-Organizing Map-Model for Orientation Map Development. Neural Computation 10: 717-730.
• Bauer, H.-U., Riesenhuber, M., & Geisel, T. (1996). Phase diagrams of self-organizing maps. Phys. Rev. E 54: 2807-2810.
• Riesenhuber, M., Bauer, H.-U., & Geisel, T. (1996). Analyzing phase transitions in high-dimensional self-organizing maps. Biol. Cyb. 75: 397-407.

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Book Chapters

• Riesenhuber, M. (2009). Object categorization in man, monkey, and machine: some answers and some open questions. In: Object Categorization: Computer and Human Vision Perspectives, (Eds. S.J. Dickinson, A. Leonardis, B. Schiele, & M.J. Tarr), Cambridge University Press.
• Riesenhuber, M. (2005). Object recognition in cortex: Neural mechanisms, and possible roles for attention. In: Neurobiology of Attention, (Eds. L. Itti, G. Rees, & J. Tsotsos), Elsevier, 279-287.
• Riesenhuber, M, & Poggio, T. (2003). How Visual Cortex Recognizes Objects: The Tale of the Standard Model. In: The Visual Neurosciences, (Eds. L.M. Chalupa & J.S. Werner), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, Vol. 2, 1640-1653.

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Conference Papers & Posters

• Chang, L., Farahbod, A., Kim, A., Cornell, C., Steinberg, N., Martinez Addiego, F., Jung, Y., Di Donna, D., Morgan, T., Bandettini, P., & Riesenhuber, M. (2026, August 3-6). How the Brain Can Build on Prior Learning: A Model and a Supporting Experiment. [Poster presentation]. Cognitive Computational Neuroscience, New York, NY, United States.
• Chang, L., Yu, J., Farahbod, A., Faizal, B., Kim, A., Steinberg, N., Yuan, R., Lin, J., Cornell, C., Martinez Addiego, F., Huber, L., Morgan, T., Bandettini, P., & Riesenhuber, M. (2025, November 15-19). From System 2 to System 1: Neural mechanisms of deep concept learning in the brain. [Poster presentation]. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA, United States.
• Martinez-Addiego, F., Liu, Y., Moon, K., Shytle, E., Amaral, L., O’Brien, C., Sen, S., Riesenhuber, M., Culham, J.C., & Striem-Amit, E. (2025, March 29-April 1). The tool-use network supports actions independent of the acting body part. [Poster presentation]. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, United States.
• Steinberg, N., Riesenhuber, M., & Zaghloul, K.A. (2024, October 5-9). The Neural Mechanisms Underlying Categorical Decision Making. [Conference presentation abstract]. Society for Neuroscience, Chicago, IL, United States. https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/20433/presentation/30246
• Banerjee, S., Damera, S.R., Pendr, V., & Riesenhuber, M. (2023, November 11-15). Investigating lexical representations for written and spoken words by re-analyzing an open dataset. [Conference presentation abstract]. Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, United States. https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/10892/presentation/25299
• Chang, L., Cho, P., Damera, S.R., Jin, K., Gates, K.M., Bernstein, L.E., & Riesenhuber, M. (2023, November 11-15). A Direct Connection from Auditory to Visual Word Form Area Bridges the Auditory and Written Speech Networks: Evidence from fMRI and MEG Connectivity. [Poster Presentation]. Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, United States.
• Steinberg, N., Riesenhuber, M., & Zaghloul, K.A. (2023, November 11-15). The Neural Mechanisms Underlying Categorical Decision Making. [Conference presentation abstract]. Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, United States. https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/10892/presentation/21126
• Chang, L., Damera, S., Stevens, B.W., Eberhardt, S.P., Auer Jr., E.T., Bernstein, L.E., & Riesenhuber, M. (2022, November 12-16). Visual speech processing interfaces with areas selective for spoken words in ventral and dorsal speech pathways. [Poster Presentation]. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA, United States.
• Damera, S.R., Chang, L., Nikolov, P.P., Mattei, J.A., Banerjee, S., Glezer, L.S., Cox, P.H., Jiang, X., Rauschecker, J., & Riesenhuber, M. (2022, November 12-16). Evidence for a Spoken Word Lexicon in the Auditory Ventral Stream. [Conference presentation abstract]. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA, United States. https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/10619/presentation/64615
• Chang, L., Damera, S., Jiang, X., Rauschecker, J., & Riesenhuber, M. (2022, October 6-8). Selective neuronal tuning to spoken words in the dorsal auditory stream. [Poster Presentation]. Society for the Neurobiology of Language Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
• Chang, L., Banerjee, S., Cho, P., Pendri, V., Nikolov, P., Damera, S., Jiang, X., Rauschecker, J., & Riesenhuber, M. (2022, April 23-26). Evidence for selective and modality-dependent functional connectivity and cross-modal activation between auditory and visual word form areas: A possible substrate to learn a visual lexicon? [Poster Presentation]. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, United States.
• Damera, S.R. et al. (2021, October 5-8). Evidence for Multiple Fast Feedforward Hierarchies of Concept Processing in the Human Brain. In Persichetti, A.S. and Martin, A. (Chairs), Semantic Knowledge Representations in the Anterior Temporal Lobe and Beyond [Symposium]. Society for the Neurobiology of Language Annual Meeting Virtual Edition. https://www.neurolang.org/programs/SNL_2021_Program.pdf
• Damera, S.R., Malone, P.S., Scholl, C., Kim, J.S., & Riesenhuber, M. (2017, November 11-15). EEG MVPA provides evidence for short latency semantic representations in temporal and parietal areas compatible with a feedforward simple-to-complex hierarchy. [Conference presentation abstract]. Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, United States. https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/index.html#!/4376/presentation/4998
• Knoblich, U., Riesenhuber, M., Freedman, D.J., Miller, E.K., & Poggio, T. (2002). Visual Categorization: How the Monkey Brain Does It. In Biologically Motivated Computer Vision, Lee, S-W., H.H. Buelthoff & T. Poggio (eds.), Second IEEE International Workshop, BMCV 2002, Tuebingen, Germany, December 2002, 273-281.
• Serre, T., Riesenhuber, M., Louie, J., & Poggio, T. (2002). On the Role of Object-Specific Features for Real World Object Recognition in Biological Vision. In Biologically Motivated Computer Vision, Lee, S-W., H.H. Buelthoff & T. Poggio (eds.), Second IEEE International Workshop, BMCV 2002, Tuebingen, Germany, December 2002, 387-397.
• Walther, D., Itti, L., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio, T., & Koch, C. (2002). Attentional Selection for Object Recognition – A Gentle Way. In Biologically Motivated Computer Vision, Lee, S-W., H.H. Buelthoff & T. Poggio (eds.), Second IEEE International Workshop, BMCV 2002, Tuebingen, Germany, December 2002, 472-479.
• Riesenhuber, M., & Poggio, T. (2000). CBF: A New Framework for Object Categorization in Cortex. In Biologically Motivated Computer Vision, Lee, S-W., H.H. Buelthoff & T. Poggio (eds.), First IEEE International Workshop, BMCV 2000, Seoul, Korea, May 2000.
• Riesenhuber, M., & Poggio, T. (1998). Just One View: Invariances in Inferotemporal Cell Tuning. In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 10, 215-221. MIT Press.
• Riesenhuber, M., & Poggio, T. (1997). Common Computational Strategies in Machine and Biological Vision. Proceedings of International Symposium on System Life, Tokyo, Japan, 67-75.
• Riesenhuber, M., & Dayan, P. (1997). Neural models for part-whole hierarchies. In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 9, 17-23. MIT Press.
• Riesenhuber, M., Bauer, H.-U., & Geisel, T. (1997). On-center and off-center cell competition generates oriented receptive fields from non-oriented stimuli in Kohonen’s self-organizing map. In Computational Neuroscience: Trends in Research, 1997, 471-476. Plenum.
• Bauer, H.-U., Riesenhuber, M., & Geisel, T. (1997). Calculating conditions for the emergence of structure in self-organizing maps. In Computational Neuroscience: Trends in Research, 1997, 247-252.
• Riesenhuber, M., Bauer, H.-U., & Geisel, T. (1996). Analyzing the formation of structure in high-dimensional self-organizing maps reveals differences to feature map models. In Artificial Neural Networks – ICANN 96, volume 1112 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 409-414. Springer.
• Sugiura A., Riesenhuber, M., & Koseki, Y. (1993). Comprehensibility improvement of tabular knowledge bases. In Proceedings of the Eleventh National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 716-721. The AAAI Press / The MIT Press.