Robarts Scientist
Canada Research Chair in Visual Neuroscience

Dr. Goodale is best known for his work on the functional organization of the visual pathways in the cerebral cortex, and was a pioneer in the study of visuomotor control in neurological patients. His recent research uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at the activity in the normal human brain as it performs different kinds of visual tasks. He has also developed virtual-object technology to study the visual information used to program and control grasping movements. Dr. Goodale holds major research grants from both the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He is currently Director of the CIHR Group on Action and Perception.

His research is aimed at understanding the functional organization of visual pathways in the human brain. To do this, he studies visual discrimination and the visual control of skilled movements in neurological patients with damage to different visual areas in the brain. He also uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at activity in the healthy human brain as it performs different kinds of visual tasks. This work has led to the idea that there are separate, but interacting visual systems for the perception of objects on the one hand and the control of actions directed at those objects on the other – with each system engaging quite different pathways in the human brain. Nevertheless, there is a complex but seamless interaction between the two visual pathways in the production of everyday behaviour.