Texture segmentation and numerosity in humans, mice, and machines.
Supervisor :
27th January 2027
Queen Mary University of London has partnered with the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to offer a joint scholarship programme to enable Chinese students to study for a PhD programme at Queen Mary. Under the scheme, Queen Mary will provide scholarships to cover all tuition fees, whilst the CSC will provide living expenses and one return flight ticket to successful applicants.
Applicants must:
- Be applying for CSC funding.
- Be a citizen and permanent resident of the People’s Republic of China and hold a Chinese passport.
- Satisfy all eligibility criteria set out by the CSC and must refer to the CSC website for full details.
- Apply to QMUL by 27th January 2027. Late applications will not be considered.
- Submit ALL required documentation, including evidence of their English Language ability ahead of the CSC application deadline.
CSC application rules differ slightly for domestic applicants (students applying from China) and overseas applicants (students applying from overseas). Therefore, ALL applicants are advised to see the CSC website for full details on eligibility and conditions on the scholarship.
Project Overview
Our visual environment is made up of a rich variety of textures and objects: for example, if you look at a basket of fruit, you might see a pile of five red apples sitting in a basket. But you don’t see the basket’s hundreds of intricately woven strands as separate objects – they merge into a single texture within the larger object. How does our brain know that the apples are five separate objects, while the complex material that makes up the basket is just part of one larger object? The brain seems to divide the visual world into countable “things” and uncountable “stuff” (Adelson, 2001), but how it does this remains poorly understood.
This project aims to investigate three questions:
- How is numerosity extracted from texture (Burr, 2026)?
- How are natural textures segmented into “stuff” vs “things” (Victor et al, 2017; Adelson, 2001), and does numerosity contribute to this segmentation?
- How does this segmentation shape behaviour, such as how we plan eye movements and act on what we see?
The project uses three main approaches: 1) machine learning to generate precisely controlled stimuli and to model how visual systems might solve this problem; 2) single-cell recordings and optogenetic perturbations in mice to identify where and how this processing happens in visual cortex; 3) psychophysics, eye tracking, and EEG in humans to measure how people perceive and act on texture.
The student will join two collaborating labs and gain interdisciplinary training in computational modelling, systems neuroscience and human behavioural research.
Research Environment
The Stewart Lab studies how humans perceive the world, move their eyes, and use information from across the visual field to guide decisions. We combine psychophysics, eye and hand tracking, computer graphics, and computational and statistical modelling
https://www.seresearch.qmul.ac.uk/cbb/people/estewart/.
The Benucci Lab studies the neural computations underlying visual perception in mice, combining optical imaging, patterned optogenetics, animal behaviour and artificial neural network models. www.benuccilab.net
School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
Entry Requirements
We are looking for candidates who have, or are expecting to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree and a Master’s degree in an area relevant to the project such as Psychology or Neuroscience. Candidates with a degree in Biology, Mathematics, Computer Science or Engineering will also be considered.
Knowledge of programming (i.e. Matlab, R, Python), psychophysics, eyetracking, electrophysiology, and computational modelling would be advantageous but are not required.
You must meet the IELTS requirements for your course and upload evidence before CSC’s application deadline, ideally by 17th March 2027. You are therefore strongly advised to sit an approved English Language test as soon as possible, where your IELTS test must still be valid when you enrol for the programme.
Find out more about our entry requirements here.
How to Apply
Formal applications must be submitted through our online form by 27th January 2027 for consideration. Please identify yourself as a ‘CSC Scholar’ in the funding section of the application.
Applicants are required to submit the following documents:
- Your CV
- Personal Statement
- Evidence of English Language e.g.) IELTS Certificate
- Copies of academic transcripts and degree certificates
- References
Find out more about our application process on our SBBS website.
Informal enquiries about the project can be sent to Dr Emma Stewart at emma.stewart@qmul.ac.uk. Admissions-related queries can be sent to sbbs-phd-admissions@qmul.ac.uk
Shortlisted applicants will be invited for a formal interview by the supervisor. If you are successful in your QMUL application, then you will be issued an QMUL Offer Letter, conditional on securing a CSC scholarship along with academic conditions still required to meet our entry requirements.
Once applicants have obtained their QMUL Offer Letter, they should then apply to CSC for the scholarship with the support of the supervisor.
For further information, please go to the QMUL China Scholarship Council webpage.
References
Adelson, E. H. (2001, June). On seeing stuff: the perception of materials by humans and machines. In Human vision and electronic imaging VI (Vol. 4299, p. 1). spie.
Burr, D. (2026). Is number a primary perceptual attribute?. i-Perception, 17(3), 20416695261423067.
Victor, J. D., Conte, M. M., & Chubb, C. F. (2017). Textures as probes of visual processing. Annual review of vision science, 3, 275-296.
See Also