Talks

Kate J Jeffrey : Neural encoding of complex space

Thursday, 10 September, 2015 - 09:30 to 11:00

How do our brains construct a representation of large-scale space, to be used in wayfinding? The study of single neurons in rodents has been enormously useful in helping answer this question for simple, two-dimensional environments. However, the real world is neither simple nor two-dimensional. In this talk I will focus on recent studies exploring how neurons may collaborate in representing three-dimensional and complex spaces.

 

Steve Noctor : Evolution and regulation of neural precursor cells in the developing vertebrate brain.

Thursday, 3 September, 2015 - 11:30 to 13:00

Work in rodent models shows that neural precursor cells (NPCs) in the subventricular zone of the prenatal forebrain produce excitatory cortical neurons destined for the cerebral cortex. A common pathway for neurogenic divisions in rodent cortex involves a two-step process by which Pax6-expressing radial glial cells divide in the ventricular zone to produce Tbr2-expressing NPCs that divide in the subventricular zone to produce cortical neurons.

John Lisman : The neural systems for spatial localization and exploration: role of 10 identified cell types

Thursday, 3 September, 2015 - 09:30 to 11:00

The hippocampal/entorhinal place system has many cell types, but how they function together remains unclear. Here we propose that the fundamental function of grid cells is to produce mind-travel, a process that allows access to associations with potential upcoming positions.

Mariano Sigman : The construction of confidence

Thursday, 10 September, 2015 - 11:30 to 13:00

In this lecture we will explore the construction of confidence, mostly in simple perceptual decisions. I will discuss how and why confidence varies across different individuals.  Why judges make systematic and reliable errors - being often overconfident without sufficient evidence and under-confident when there is ample evidence. I will present how current experimental evidence constrains the mechanisms by which models of decision making compute confidence.  

 

Aldo Genovesio : Role of prefrontal cortex in decision making: across-task interference effects in a duration discrimination task and prediction of others choices in a social interactive task.

Tuesday, 8 September, 2015 - 09:30 to 11:00
My talk will focus on two neurophysiological studies of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of Macaque Monkeys. In the first part I will present a schematic model of decision making in a duration discrimination task formulated by combining neural and behavioral analyses. The model describes how the comparison between the duration of two stimuli presented in sequence depends on intermediate neural computation mechanisms based on their order of presentation and how this computation could generate across-task interference effects on the performance in other contexts. 
 

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