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The dynamics of neuronal population signalling during the temporal flow of perceptual events.

Subject Area Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
Term from 2018 to 2024
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 406679869
 
Final Report Year 2024

Final Report Abstract

When we walk along a busy street against the flow of people and try to find someone we have arranged to meet, we face a world of dynamically changing visual inputs. Simultaneously, we must navigate around street furniture and people we do not want to meet whilst also scanning faces to achieve recognition of the person we seek. These temporal dynamics together with the need to integrate information encoded across different visual cues and areas are one of the next major challenges for systems neuroscience. My Heisenberg research programme investigated how neurons in the primate brain interact dynamically to shape such perceptual decision-making processes in the primate brain, employing neurophysiological recordings, high resolution MRI, and detailed analyses of the key neuroanatomical and functional neuronal circuitry across visual and parietal cortex. For project 1, the DFG Sachbeihilfe, we could show how signalling dynamic affects perceptual choice signals and perceptual stability for 3D-motion. We could also decode from neuronal signalling patterns across trials the cognitive strategy of the monkeys for future, upcoming choices. Employing neurocomputational approaches, we showed that there are fundamentally different processes for motion and 3D depth judgements. We also characterised the underlying functional and structural connectivity between V5/MT and sensorimotor area LIP in parietal cortex and their interactions. In the wider Heisenberg-Programme, we developed a set-up for structural and functional high-resolution MRI at 7T with Rhesus macaques and for focussed ultrasound stimulation. Here a major result is the demonstration of the correct subdivision of a primate cortical area with non-invasive diffusion MRI. We are currently translating this method to ADHD patients to determine precise brain stimulation targets in individuals.

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