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Hee Yeon Im
PhD

Investigator, BC Children's Hospital

The overarching research goal is to understand neurocognitive processes underlying dynamic interactions between human visual perception and goal-directed action. Sometimes, visual perception and action can be arbitrarily linked based on what we have learned over and over again (e.g., seeing "red" from a traffic light, we "stop" and seeing "green," we "keep moving"). However, some functional links between perception and action can be somewhat implicit (and automatic) and hard-wired. For example, seeing a group of people with angry faces is naturally associated with avoidance actions, whereas people with happy, friendly faces tend to motivate approach actions. My research investigates how different brain parts coordinate countless connections between perception and action to mediate motor behaviours in various physical and social contexts. I also study neurocognitive bases of deficient perception-action links in impaired visuomotor coordination skills (as observed in many visual or motor deficits) or maladaptive social behaviours (e.g., excessive avoidance behaviour, which is a hallmark of many emotional disorders). My research employs psychophysics and neuroimaging methods, such as MEG (magnetoencephalography) and functional MRI in adults and children with typical and atypical brain development.

Academic Affiliations

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia
  • Research Theme: Brain, Behaviour & Development
  • Research Group(s): Mental Health and Behaviour; Neurodevelopmental and Neurological Disorders; Visualizing the Brain

Contact Information

Location

4480 Oak Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6H 3V4

HeeYeon.Im@bcchr.ca

Large-scale functional networks underlying visual attention

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews

Cook, A.J. and Im, H.Y. and Giaschi, D.E.

DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106165

Americans weigh an attended emotion more than Koreans in overall mood judgments

Scientific Reports

Son, G. and Im, H.Y. and Albohn, D.N. and Kveraga, K. and Adams, R.B. and Sun, J. and Chong, S.C.

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-46723-7

The effect of masks on the emotion perception of a facial crowd

Scientific Reports

Cho, J. and Im, H.Y. and Yoon, Y.J. and Joo, S.J. and Chong, S.C.

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-41366-0

Inconsistent attentional contexts impair relearning following gradual visuomotor adaptation

Journal of Neurophysiology

Im, H.Y. and Liddy, J.J. and Song, J.-H.

DOI: 10.1152/jn.00463.2021

An explicit investigation of the roles that feature distributions play in rapid visual categorization

Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics

Im, H.Y. and Tiurina, N.A. and Utochkin, I.S.

DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-02046-7

Differential neurodynamics and connectivity in the dorsal and ventral visual pathways during perception of emotional crowds and individuals: a MEG study

Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience

Im, H.Y. and Cushing, C.A. and Ward, N. and Kveraga, K.

DOI: 10.3758/s13415-021-00880-2

Fast saccadic and manual responses to faces presented to the koniocellular visual pathway

Journal of Vision

Kveraga, K. and Im, H.Y. and Ward, N. and Adams, R.B.

DOI: 10.1167/jov.20.2.9

Magnocellular and parvocellular pathway contributions to facial threat cue processing

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

Cushing, C.A. and Im, H.Y. and Adams, R.B. and Ward, N. and Kveraga, K.

DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsz003

Spatial and feature-based attention to expressive faces

Experimental Brain Research

Kveraga, K. and De Vito, D. and Cushing, C. and Im, H.Y. and Albohn, D.N. and Adams, R.B.

DOI: 10.1007/s00221-019-05472-8

Differential magnocellular versus parvocellular pathway contributions to the combinatorial processing of facial threat

Progress in Brain Research

Adams, R.B. and Im, H.Y. and Cushing, C. and Boshyan, J. and Ward, N. and Albohn, D.N. and Kveraga, K.

DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2019.03.006

Neurodynamics and connectivity during facial fear perception: The role of threat exposure and signal congruity

Scientific Reports

Cushing, C.A. and Im, H.Y. and Adams, R.B. and Ward, N. and Albohn, D.N. and Steiner, T.G. and Kveraga, K.

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-20509-8

Sex-related differences in behavioral and amygdalar responses to compound facial threat cues

Human Brain Mapping

Im, H.Y. and Adams, R.B. and Cushing, C.A. and Boshyan, J. and Ward, N. and Kveraga, K.

DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24035

Correction to: Cross-cultural and hemispheric laterality effects on the ensemble coding of emotion in facial crowds

Culture and Brain

Hee Yeon Im and Sang Chul Chong and Jisoo Sun and Troy G. Steiner and Daniel N. Albohn and Reginald B. Adams and Kestutis Kveraga

DOI: 10.1007/s40167-017-0058-7

Anxiety modulates perception of facial fear in a pathway-specific, lateralized, manner

bioRxiv

Im, H.Y. and Adams, R.B. and Boshyan, J. and Ward, N. and Cushing, C.A. and Kveraga, K.

DOI: 10.1101/141838

Observer's anxiety facilitates magnocellular processing of clear facial threat cues, but impairs parvocellular processing of ambiguous facial threat cues

Scientific Reports

Im, H.Y. and Adams, R.B. and Boshyan, J. and Ward, N. and Cushing, C.A. and Kveraga, K.

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-15495-2

Differential hemispheric and visual stream contributions to ensemble coding of crowd emotion

Nature Human Behaviour

Im, H.Y. and Albohn, D.N. and Steiner, T.G. and Cushing, C.A. and Adams, R.B. and Kveraga, K.

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-017-0225-z

Cross-cultural effects on ensemble coding of emotion in facial crowds

bioRxiv

Im, H.Y. and Chong, S.C. and Sun, J. and Steiner, T.G. and Albohn, D.N. and Adams, R.B. and Kveraga, K.

DOI: 10.1101/141861

Long lasting attentional-context dependent visuomotor memory.

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Hee Yeon Im and Patrick Bdard and Joo-Hyun Song

DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000271

09 / 2016

Grouping by proximity and the visual impression of approximate number in random dot arrays

Vision Research

Im, H.Y. and Zhong, S.-H. and Halberda, J.

DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2015.08.013

PsiMLE: A maximum-likelihood estimation approach to estimating psychophysical scaling and variability more reliably, efficiently, and flexibly

Behavior Research Methods

Odic, D. and Im, H.Y. and Eisinger, R. and Ly, R. and Halberda, J.

DOI: 10.3758/s13428-015-0600-5

Encoding attentional states during visuomotor adaptation

Journal of Vision

Hee Yeon Im and Patrick Bdard and Joo-Hyun Song

DOI: 10.1167/15.8.20

06 / 2015

Ensemble statistics as units of selection

Journal of Cognitive Psychology

Im, H.Y. and Park, W.J. and Chong, S.C.

DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2014.985301

Mean size as a unit of visual working memory

Perception

Im, H.Y. and Chong, S.C.

DOI: 10.1068/p7719

The effects of sampling and internal noise on the representation of ensemble average size

Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics

Im, H.Y. and Halberda, J.

DOI: 10.3758/s13414-012-0399-4

Computation of mean size is based on perceived size

Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics

Im, H.Y. and Chong, S.C.

DOI: 10.3758/APP.71.2.375

The Influence of Depth Context on Blind Spot Filling-in

Korean Journal of Cognitive Science

and and and Sang Chul Chong and

DOI: 10.19066/cogsci.2007.18.4.002

Ensemble coding of crowd emotion: Differential hemispheric and visual stream contributions

Hee Yeon Im and Daniel N. Albohn and Troy G. Steiner and Cody A. Cushing and Reginald B. Adams and Kestutis Kveraga

DOI: 10.1101/101527

Temporal dynamics of neural communication underlying perception-action link

Face perception naturally triggers goal-directed actions based on social, behavioural motivations to either ‘approach for more exploration’ or ‘avoid danger.’ For example, seeing angry mobs or panicked crowds will alert us to potential dangers and motivate immediate avoidance behaviours. Detection of threats from others’ faces must occur rapidly, since delays are often costly and maladaptive. This project examines groups of brain regions engaged in action-oriented (and time-sensitive) visual processing and timing of neural computation that triggers immediate connections between vision and action. We also examine the effects of anxiety on the functional interactions among widely distributed brain regions underlying the integration of visual perception, emotion, and goal-directed action.

Visual perception of ensembles and objects facilitated by different action goals

This project examines how the human brain is wired up to mediate different units of perception - individual objects and ensembles - as a means of managing efficient and flexible descriptions of the visual world. The visual system quickly extracts a higher-order summary description (e.g., average, variance, or numerosity of sets) from an image containing many objects, while it also perceives a few objects as separate entities at the same time. The two different representations provide complementary visual information about parts and the whole of an image. Using fMRI, MEG, and psychophysics, we examine neural computations underlying the different types of perception. We also investigate when the brain selectively prioritizes global, ensemble perception over the individual object or the other way around, depending on the current action goal.

Functional connectivity in children with developmental disorders

In this project, we are investigating patterns of functional connectivity among different brain networks in children with developmental disorders (e.g., dyslexia) compared to typically developing children.

MEG decoding of children’s brains

This decoding project is to discover brain dynamics in perceiving spoken languages during the early period of life (6 months - 4 years). Based on our preliminary MEG decoding data, we expect to be able to characterize fine-scale time courses of different Japanese speech sounds encoded across the superior temporal plane of the children’s brains. We can also determine functional brain connectivity emerging in children with vs. without previous exposure to the Japanese language. In addition to contributing to developmental neuroscience, our work may provide valuable information for speech-language pathology and designing a device for replaying spoken speech sounds encoded in the brain to assist children with hearing or specific language impairments. We also hope to develop and extend this approach to test other perceptual abilities, including understanding facial expressions and reading other’s actions and intentions.

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