Title of the talk: The Convergent Neuroscience of Brain Rhythms in Cognition
The vision of Dr. Frohlich’s lab is that understanding brain network activity will enable the development of novel diagnosis and treatment paradigms. The Frohlich lab is convinced that such a rational design of neurotherapeutics will open the door for individualized, highly effective brain stimulation in psychiatry.
Dr. Frohlich and his group arepassionate about combining different methodological approaches to scientific problems and is a pioneer in the field of network neuroscience. This research integrates neurobiology, engineering, and medicine. The Frohlich Lab (1) performs computer modeling, (2) combines electrophysiology, imaging, brain stimulation, and behavioral assays in animal models, (3) records and modulates human brain activity, and (4) studies new treatments in randomized controlled clinical trials.
Department of Art, Aalto University, Finland
Title of the talk: Timing in human brain function
Riitta Hari MD PhD is Prof. (emer.) of Systems Neuroscience and Human Brain Imaging at Aalto University, Finland. She has a long experience in systems-level neuroscience, especially in developing magnetoencephalography (MEG) for tracking millisecond-scale activation sequences in the human brain. Hari and her colleagues have provided fundamental insights into human sensory, motor, cognitive, and social functions in both healthy and diseased individuals. Hari is Academician of Science in Finland since 2010 and member of the National Academy of Sciences USA since 2004.
Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, UK
Title of the talk: Imagery and visual illusions in different feed-back layers of V1 (using 7-T fMRI)
Dr. Muckli’s lab uses functional magnetic imaging of the primary visual cortex (V1) to investigate the brain’s prediction of the environment in perception. More “backward” than “forward” projections are found in the cortex, which fits well with early hypotheses that the brain uses memory and expectation to form predictions of input.
The role of feedback in prediction is measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging combined with retinotopic mapping to identify regions of V1 receiving no sensory stimulation (and, therefore, only feedback/lateral input). The group uses multivariate pattern classification to decode the information content of these top-down signals and are now extending this methodology to high-resolution laminar analysis using 7-Tesla fMRI imaging.
Title of the talk: Visceral inputs, brain dynamics, and subjective cognition
Dr. Tallon-Baudry’s lab uses MEG and behavior to understand how the neural processes underlying perceptual (i.e., figure/ground) or cognitive (i.e., attentional selection) discrimination contribute to the subjective visual experience, and how brain-body loops may participate in the emergence of consciousness.
Consciously perceiving a visual stimulus requires taking a first-person perspective and, therefore, some minimal concept of the self, that could be based on the neural representation of the internal state of the body and central modulation of homeostatic regulations. The group experimentally tests the hypothesis that episodes of visual awareness and episodes of unawareness are associated with different states of brain-body interactions.