tuesday@noon
Rhythm and the brain: Neural mechanisms of beat perception
John R. Iversen
The Neurosciences Institute
Our perceptions are shaped by both external stimuli and internal interpretation. This holds especially true for the perception of temporal sequences: the perception of even a simple rhythm depends on the listener’s voluntary cognitive organization of time. We will present studies investigating the impact of metrical interpretation (when one ‘feels the beat’ when listening to a rhythm) on neural responses to sound, as measured with magnetoencephalography. Where in the brain is the beat generated? How does the internal beat modify auditory perception? Together, these studies suggest a strong role for the listener in cognitive models of rhythm perception.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
former SFN president pens an article in support of Animal Models for Neursocience
The article by Michael Goldberg is written specifically about San Diego. Check it out:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/16/animal-research-and-medical-progress/
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/16/animal-research-and-medical-progress/
NIH FUNDING Alert!!!
1.6 Billion Cut Proposed for NIH:
Call Your Representative TODAY!
For months the new House leadership has been promising to cut billions in federal funding in fiscal year (FY) 2011.
Later this week the House will try to make the rhetoric a reality by voting on HR 1, a "continuing resolution" (CR) that would cut NIH funding by $1.6 billion (5.2%) BELOW the current level - reducing the budget for medical research to $29.4 billion!
We must rally everyone - researchers, trainees, lab personnel - in the scientific community to protest these draconian cuts. Please go to http://capwiz.com/faseb/callalert/index.tt?alertid=27944501 for instructions on how to call your Representative's Washington, DC office today! Urge him/her to oppose the cuts to NIH and vote against HR 1. Once you've made the call, let us know how it went by sending a short email to the address provided in the call instructions and forward the alert link to your colleagues. We must explain to our Representatives how cuts to NIH will have a devastating impact on their constituents!
you can also send an email via the SFN system
http://capwiz.com/sfn/issues/alert/?alertid=28350501
Call Your Representative TODAY!
For months the new House leadership has been promising to cut billions in federal funding in fiscal year (FY) 2011.
Later this week the House will try to make the rhetoric a reality by voting on HR 1, a "continuing resolution" (CR) that would cut NIH funding by $1.6 billion (5.2%) BELOW the current level - reducing the budget for medical research to $29.4 billion!
We must rally everyone - researchers, trainees, lab personnel - in the scientific community to protest these draconian cuts. Please go to http://capwiz.com/faseb/callalert/index.tt?alertid=27944501 for instructions on how to call your Representative's Washington, DC office today! Urge him/her to oppose the cuts to NIH and vote against HR 1. Once you've made the call, let us know how it went by sending a short email to the address provided in the call instructions and forward the alert link to your colleagues. We must explain to our Representatives how cuts to NIH will have a devastating impact on their constituents!
you can also send an email via the SFN system
http://capwiz.com/sfn/issues/alert/?alertid=28350501
COGS200 Talk Friday
Predicting Choice with fMRI
Prof Brian Knutson
Stanford University
Friday 18th Feb, Room 003 Cognitive Science Building
3pm to 4.20
For Class COGS200 hosted by Prof Adam Aron
Abstract: The spatial and temporal resolution of functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) now allow investigators to visualize changes in neural activity seconds prior to choice. If this activation contributes to subsequent choice, then researchers might be able to use it to predict choice. However, spatial and temporal correlations in FMRI data pose challenges for predictive analyses. I will review efforts in our laboratory to develop optimal and interpretable predictive analyses, starting with logistic regression in volumes of interest and ending with a novel method called sparse penalized discriminant analysis (SPDA) in whole brain data. Together, these findings suggest that activation in brain regions implicated in processing expected value and risk predict choice.
Prof Brian Knutson
Stanford University
Friday 18th Feb, Room 003 Cognitive Science Building
3pm to 4.20
For Class COGS200 hosted by Prof Adam Aron
Abstract: The spatial and temporal resolution of functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) now allow investigators to visualize changes in neural activity seconds prior to choice. If this activation contributes to subsequent choice, then researchers might be able to use it to predict choice. However, spatial and temporal correlations in FMRI data pose challenges for predictive analyses. I will review efforts in our laboratory to develop optimal and interpretable predictive analyses, starting with logistic regression in volumes of interest and ending with a novel method called sparse penalized discriminant analysis (SPDA) in whole brain data. Together, these findings suggest that activation in brain regions implicated in processing expected value and risk predict choice.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Brain awareness week is coming
Brain Awareness Week is an inspirational global campaign that unites those who share an interest in elevating public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain and nervous system research.
March 14-20, 2011
http://sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=baw_home
March 14-20, 2011
http://sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=baw_home
Friday, February 11, 2011
CNS Seminar Speaker: Yu-Chin Chiu
Tuesday@Noon
Tracking the Effects of Zooming In and Out of Attention
Yu-Chin Chiu
UCSD
Top-down control of attention is driven by current goals, but attention can fluctuate over time, leading to different behavioral consequences. Presented here are two studies using fMRI multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to dynamically track fluctuating attention. The first experiment examined the functional connectivity of a source of attentional control in medial superior parietal lobule. MVPA was used to model patterns of activity in mSPL to create a regressor for further connectivity analysis. This revealed that mSPL is integral with the frontostriatal circuit for cognitive control. In the second experiment, participants engaged in visual search task for a target but were free to focus or diffuse their attention. MVPA was used to track attention and to predict behavior. A steady-state diffuse mode produced significantly faster behavioral responses on redundant target trials; focused attention eliminated this effect. Both studies demonstrated the dynamic MVPA as an approach for tracking attention.
Tracking the Effects of Zooming In and Out of Attention
Yu-Chin Chiu
UCSD
Top-down control of attention is driven by current goals, but attention can fluctuate over time, leading to different behavioral consequences. Presented here are two studies using fMRI multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to dynamically track fluctuating attention. The first experiment examined the functional connectivity of a source of attentional control in medial superior parietal lobule. MVPA was used to model patterns of activity in mSPL to create a regressor for further connectivity analysis. This revealed that mSPL is integral with the frontostriatal circuit for cognitive control. In the second experiment, participants engaged in visual search task for a target but were free to focus or diffuse their attention. MVPA was used to track attention and to predict behavior. A steady-state diffuse mode produced significantly faster behavioral responses on redundant target trials; focused attention eliminated this effect. Both studies demonstrated the dynamic MVPA as an approach for tracking attention.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
DARPA wants to know how stories influence the mind
evidently it is part of an initiative by the defense department called STORyNET:
'Stories, Neuroscience and Experimental Technologies'
check out an article on it here
all this time i didn't realize ira glass was a secret neuroscientist
'Stories, Neuroscience and Experimental Technologies'
check out an article on it here
all this time i didn't realize ira glass was a secret neuroscientist
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Interesting Neuron paper
Oscillatory Synchronization in Large-Scale Cortical Networks Predicts Perception
Joerg Hipp, Andreas Engel and Markus Siegel
Abstract
Normal brain function requires the dynamic interaction of functionally specialized but widely distributed cortical regions. Long-range synchronization of oscillatory signals has been suggested to mediate these interactions within large-scale cortical networks, but direct evidence is sparse. Here we show that oscillatory synchronization is organized in such large-scale networks. We implemented an analysis approach that allows for imaging synchronized cortical networks and applied this technique to EEG recordings in humans. We identified two networks: beta-band synchronization (
20 Hz) in a fronto-parieto-occipital network and gamma-band synchronization (80 Hz) in a centro-temporal network. Strong perceptual correlates support their functional relevance: the strength of synchronization within these networks predicted the subjects' percept of an ambiguous audiovisual stimulus as well as the integration of auditory and visual information. Our results provide evidence that oscillatory neuronal synchronization mediates neuronal communication within frequency-specific, large-scale cortical networks.
full article here
Joerg Hipp, Andreas Engel and Markus Siegel
Abstract
Normal brain function requires the dynamic interaction of functionally specialized but widely distributed cortical regions. Long-range synchronization of oscillatory signals has been suggested to mediate these interactions within large-scale cortical networks, but direct evidence is sparse. Here we show that oscillatory synchronization is organized in such large-scale networks. We implemented an analysis approach that allows for imaging synchronized cortical networks and applied this technique to EEG recordings in humans. We identified two networks: beta-band synchronization (
20 Hz) in a fronto-parieto-occipital network and gamma-band synchronization (80 Hz) in a centro-temporal network. Strong perceptual correlates support their functional relevance: the strength of synchronization within these networks predicted the subjects' percept of an ambiguous audiovisual stimulus as well as the integration of auditory and visual information. Our results provide evidence that oscillatory neuronal synchronization mediates neuronal communication within frequency-specific, large-scale cortical networks.full article here
CNS Seminar Speaker: Vic Ferreira
tuesday@noon
Structural persistence in anterograde amnesia: Evidence for implicit learning
Victor S. Ferreira
Speakers tend to repeat syntactic structures. This structural persistence is tacit, incidental, and long-lived, suggesting that it is a form of implicit learning. However, most attested forms of implicit learning involve information less abstract than syntactic knowledge. We determined whether structural persistence reflects implicit learning by assessing it in four patients with anterograde amnesia and four matched controls. Speakers (a) repeated passive or active primes, and dative or double-object primes; (b) repeated 0, 1, 6, or 10 neutral sentences; (c) described pictures that elicited passive or active and dative or double-object descriptions; and (d) made recognition judgments for the prime sentences or matched foils. Amnesics had impaired recognition memory for prime sentences relative to controls, but both groups showed significant and equivalent structural persistence. This is consistent with structural persistence being a form of implicit learning, and implies that implicit learning accrues even to the abstract knowledge underlying syntactic production.
Structural persistence in anterograde amnesia: Evidence for implicit learning
Victor S. Ferreira
Speakers tend to repeat syntactic structures. This structural persistence is tacit, incidental, and long-lived, suggesting that it is a form of implicit learning. However, most attested forms of implicit learning involve information less abstract than syntactic knowledge. We determined whether structural persistence reflects implicit learning by assessing it in four patients with anterograde amnesia and four matched controls. Speakers (a) repeated passive or active primes, and dative or double-object primes; (b) repeated 0, 1, 6, or 10 neutral sentences; (c) described pictures that elicited passive or active and dative or double-object descriptions; and (d) made recognition judgments for the prime sentences or matched foils. Amnesics had impaired recognition memory for prime sentences relative to controls, but both groups showed significant and equivalent structural persistence. This is consistent with structural persistence being a form of implicit learning, and implies that implicit learning accrues even to the abstract knowledge underlying syntactic production.
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