BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:talks.ox.ac.uk BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar - Dr Laurel Morris (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260303T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260303T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7e38bc9c-062f-4e7f-9d76-7fba970416c8/ DESCRIPTION:\nSpeakers:\nDr Laurel Morris (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Seminar Room 7/8 (Lower ground floor)\, Life and Mind Building So uth Parks Road\, OX1 3EL https://lifeandmind.web.ox.ac.uk/ TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7e38bc9c-062f-4e7f-9d76-7fba970416c8/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar - Dr Laurel Morris (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar - How does the hippocampal cognitive map contribute to flexible navigation?  - Dr Eleonore Duvelle (University of Glasgow) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260210T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260210T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/652b886b-de01-4c37-abf1-127734ea3024/ DESCRIPTION:How do we know where to go? While most of our day-to-day navig ation is usually automatised\, new or complex situations require localisin g oneself in the environment\, choosing a goal\, and deciding of the best route to reach it. This type of navigation is believed to rely on an inter nal representation of places called a 'cognitive map'. The cognitive map i s thought to involve a number of brain regions\, at the centre of which is the hippocampus and its 'place cells'. Place cells sometimes reactivate i n fast sequences that might represent past or future paths\, called 'repla y'. While place cells - and their reactivations - are ubiquitous in any ki nd of environment\, the map is thought to be most needed in situations of detours\, shortcuts\, or new trajectories to a known goal. \n\n \n\nHow do place cells guide navigation in these cases? Does the map incorporate rel evant aspects of a complex environment\, such as its connectivity? Can hip pocampal replay select the optimal path to a goal when the connectivity ch anges? To answer these questions\, I will present findings from hippocampa l recordings in rats during flexible navigation\, including during navigat ion in a four-room environment\, and in a hexagonal maze providing two pat hs to a goal. I will also briefly dive into one of the paradigms at the or igin of the cognitive map theory: the Sunburst maze\, often used as a demo nstration of shortcutting in rats even though it has not been consistently replicated. \n\n \n\nWe find that\, during flexible navigation\, place ce lls remain relatively stable in the face of (non-sensory) connectivity cha nges in the environment\, raising the question of how connectivity informa tion might be stored in service of navigation. Hippocampal replay sequence s tend to reflect connectivity updates\, but this seems to be a result of behavioural change\, rather than a forward-looking planning mechanism. Ove rall\, the hippocampal cognitive map appears to be used as a repository of experiences\, rather than in direct support of navigational decisions\, l eaving this planning role to other brain regions. \nSpeakers:\nDr Eleonore Duvelle (University of Glasgow) LOCATION:Seminar Room 7/8 (Lower ground floor)\, Life and Mind Building So uth Parks Road\, OX1 3EL https://lifeandmind.web.ox.ac.uk/ TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/652b886b-de01-4c37-abf1-127734ea3024/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar - How does the hippocampal cognitive map c ontribute to flexible navigation?  - Dr Eleonore Duvelle (University of G lasgow) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar - Combining non-invasive brain stimulation with mul timodal imaging for causal interrogation of brain networks and oscillation s in wakefulness and sleep - Prof Dr Til Ole Bergmann (University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260206T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260206T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1c6fcfb2-5af7-4021-89ae-fbf3fa1590f5/ DESCRIPTION:Functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques\, such as fMRI or EEG/MEG\, serve well to study spontaneous or task-related network and oscillatory activity as correlates of specific cognitive funct ions in the human brain. However\, to infer causality of brain activity fo r cognition\, it must be manipulated experimentally. In healthy humans\, t his can be achieved via non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques\, such as transcranial magnetic\, electric\, or ultrasonic stimulation (TMS \, tES\, TUS). Their combination with neuroimaging (EEG\, fMRI) further al lows researchers to obtain proof-of neural target engagement\, map the com plex network response to causal perturbation\, and investigate the state-d ependency of effects. In turn\, neuroimaging readouts are critical for pro spectively informing high-precision neuromodulation approaches\, personali zing stimulation targets and parameters\, and enabling real-time brain sta te-dependent stimulation. I will discuss the technical challenges and solu tions related to the concurrent application of these methods and present o ur work using concurrent TMS-fMRI and EEG-triggered TMS to study network a nd oscillatory activity during wakefulness and sleep in the context of att ention and memory. I will further discuss the specific challenges of TUS f or non-invasive deep brain neuromodulation and our current work in optimiz ing TUS targeting and proof of neural target engagement using concurrent T US-fMRI and TUS-EEG during wakefulness and EEG-triggered TUS during sleep. \nSpeakers:\nProf Dr Til Ole Bergmann (University Medical Center of the Jo hannes Gutenberg University Mainz) LOCATION:Seminar Room 7/8 (Lower ground floor)\, Life and Mind Building So uth Parks Road\, OX1 3EL https://lifeandmind.web.ox.ac.uk/ TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1c6fcfb2-5af7-4021-89ae-fbf3fa1590f5/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar - Combining non-invasive brain stimulation with multimodal imaging for causal interrogation of brain networks and os cillations in wakefulness and sleep - Prof Dr Til Ole Bergmann (University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Adaptive feedback control as a mechanism for sequence learning - P rofessor Seng Bum Michael Yoo (Sungkyunkwan University\, South Korea) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251003T140000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251003T150000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7ff5ae87-4a23-4ba9-8185-85b8b4b2671f/ DESCRIPTION:Humans and other animals can rapidly learn sequences of events and subsequently retrieve them with minimal repetition. By recording neur onal activity from four brain areas in human epilepsy patients performing a sequence learning task\, we investigated how neuronal populations suppor t this process. We examined two candidate sequencing algorithms\, inspired by computer science: indexing and queuing. During learning\, population a ctivity occupied subspaces consistent with queuing and credit assignment. Once the sequence was fully learned\, however\, the overall neural geometr y reorganized: the queue subspace became nonlinear\, the enqueue subspace diminished\, and the representation shifted toward an indexing-like format . Using network modeling\, we further explored the governing principles un derlying this transition\, demonstrating that adaptive feedback control pr ovides a plausible mechanism for the modulation of neural geometry during learning. Finally\, we found that\, upon successful learning\, the hippoca mpus broadcasts sequence information to other regions through a low-dimens ional subspace. Together\, these findings suggest that sequence learning c an be understood in terms of algorithmic neural subspaces and their dynami c reorganization across the course of learning.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Seng Bum Michael Yoo (Sungkyunkwan University\, South Korea) LOCATION:Seminar Room 7/8 (Lower ground floor) Life and Mind Building Sout h Parks Road\, OX1 3EL https://lifeandmind.web.ox.ac.uk/ TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7ff5ae87-4a23-4ba9-8185-85b8b4b2671f/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Adaptive feedback control as a mechanism for sequence lea rning - Professor Seng Bum Michael Yoo (Sungkyunkwan University\, South Ko rea) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Neural population geometry and neuroeconomics - Professor Benjamin Hayden (Baylor College of Medicine\, USA) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251106T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251106T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/56c163f6-1338-45fc-9b49-e3f04b797de7/ DESCRIPTION:Recent theoretical and empirical advances in neuroscience sugg est that geometries of neural population codes can implement simultaneous generalization and differentiation. That is\, they can allow brains to rep resent both the general features of categories and\, at the same time\, ma intain a separate representation\, as would be needed for category members hip. I will explore how these principles can help resolve three outstandin g issues in neuroeconomics. First\, the need to compute abstract values du ring evaluation. Second\, the need to flexibly bind values with actions du ring choice. Third\, the need to flexibly bind outcomes and the choices th at produced them. I will argue that these principles are even more importa nt in naturalistic choices\, such as those characterized by continuous and interactive decisions. In particular\, I will examine relevance of coding geometry for the context of prey-pursuit problems.\n\nBio:\nBenjamin Y. H ayden is Professor of Neurosurgery (and McNair Scholar) at Baylor College of Medicine. His lab investigates neural mechanisms of reward\, decision-m aking\, executive control\, and flexibility\, often in naturalistic contex ts and with human intracranial recordings\; he also examines how these neu ral processes relate to psychiatric disorders (e.g. depression\, anxiety\, addiction).\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Benjamin Hayden (Baylor College of Medi cine\, USA) LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 2 (Lower ground floor) Life and Mind Building Sou th Parks Road\, OX1 3EL https://lifeandmind.web.ox.ac.uk/ TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/56c163f6-1338-45fc-9b49-e3f04b797de7/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Neural population geometry and neuroeconomics - Professor Benjamin Hayden (Baylor College of Medicine\, USA) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:What do “Look but Fail to See” errors tell us about awareness and/or consciousness - Professor Jeremy Wolfe (Harvard Medical School\, Br igham & Women's Hospital\, USA) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251211T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251211T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a7a7d067-4733-436c-990a-2474ae516888/ DESCRIPTION:Look but Fail to See (LBFTS) errors are those errors where we miss something that is ‘right in front of our eyes’\, even though it i s clearly visible and recognizable. Such errors can be amusing\, as when w e miss a gorilla in an inattentional blindness demo\; vexing\, as when we miss a typo\; and serious\, as when a tumor is missed in a CT scan or a we apon is missed at the airport. I will discuss how the capacity limits and operating rules of selective visual attention can give rise to LBFTS error s. LBFTS errors can also inform discussions about the awareness and/or con sciousness. They falsify naïve theories that would claim that we are full y aware of everything we are seeing at the current moment\, but we knew th at wasn’t true. They also falsify or\, at least\, complexify more intere sting theories that equate attention with awareness. Sadly\, I will not ha ve a neatly packaged theory of consciousness to offer. Perhaps that will e merge during the question-and-answer period.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Jeremy Wolfe (Harvard Medical School\, Brigham & Women's Hospital\, USA) LOCATION:Seminar Room 7/8 (Lower ground floor) Life and Mind Building Sout h Parks Road\, OX1 3EL https://lifeandmind.web.ox.ac.uk/ TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a7a7d067-4733-436c-990a-2474ae516888/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:What do “Look but Fail to See” errors tell us about a wareness and/or consciousness - Professor Jeremy Wolfe (Harvard Medical Sc hool\, Brigham & Women's Hospital\, USA) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Neural and computational mechanisms of conscious visual perception in humans - Professor Biyu He (New York University\, USA) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251007T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251007T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e720c34b-e99c-4f34-aae0-8b74a512e445/ DESCRIPTION:In this talk I will discuss insights from our recent work prob ing the neural mechanisms underlying conscious visual perception in humans by leveraging multimodal neuroimaging and computational approaches. I wil l focus on the roles of slow cortical potentials and spontaneous ongoing b rain activity as revealed by our recent empirical work. I will additional ly discuss our work comparing human and machine vision\, which reveals per sistent and systematic gaps between humans and state-of-the-art AI systems . Finally\, I will discuss neural and computational mechanisms underpinnin g humans' one-shot learning capability in visual perception. \nSpeakers:\n Professor Biyu He (New York University\, USA) LOCATION:Seminar Room 7/8 (Lower ground floor) Life and Mind Building Sout h Parks Road\, OX1 3EL. https://lifeandmind.web.ox.ac.uk/ TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e720c34b-e99c-4f34-aae0-8b74a512e445/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Neural and computational mechanisms of conscious visual p erception in humans - Professor Biyu He (New York University\, USA) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Characterizing salience signals in the insula - Professor Philippe Tobler (University of Zurich\, Switzerland) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251021T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251021T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/d0d324c8-f5d8-4d20-863e-a2386a5a9ef8/ DESCRIPTION:Salience indicates what to pay attention to and instigates lea rning to pay attention. The insula forms a central hub of the salience net work. However\, the nature of the salience signals processed by the insula remained a matter of debate. For example\, motivational salience increase s with both the aversiveness and appetitiveness of predicted outcomes and one would therefore expect a salience-processing region to show increased activity in both domains. While there is some evidence for common encoding of appetitive and aversive outcomes\, the insula has also been shown to p referentially encode the aversive rather than the appetitive domain. Using both Pavlovian and instrumental tasks\, in this talk I provide evidence t hat the anterior insula encodes errors in the prediction of motivationally salient outcomes (absolute prediction errors) in a subjective fashion (ba sed on individual ratings) and similarly in the appetitive and aversive do main. By contrast\, middle insula regions preferentially encode salience p rediction errors in an objective fashion (based on actual probabilities). Moreover\, at the time of outcome predicting cues\, the anterior insula en codes salience prediction errors preferentially in the aversive domain\, s uggesting that it integrates salient outcomes more readily into prediction s when they occur in the aversive domain. The findings are compatible with the anterior insula playing a role in subjective experience and reconcile distinct views on its domain specificity.\n\nBio:\nPhilippe Tobler is Pro fessor in Neuroeconomics and Social Neuroscience at the Department of Econ omics\, University of Zurich. His research explores value-based decision m aking and reward learning in both social and non-social contexts\, includi ng how constituents of subjective value (such as risk\, effort\, delay) ar e processed in the brain\; he uses behavioural experiments\, fMRI\, and ph armacological manipulations.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Philippe Tobler (Univer sity of Zurich\, Switzerland) LOCATION:Seminar Room 7/8 (Lower ground floor) Life and Mind Building Sout h Parks Road\, OX1 3EL https://lifeandmind.web.ox.ac.uk/ TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/d0d324c8-f5d8-4d20-863e-a2386a5a9ef8/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Characterizing salience signals in the insula - Professor Philippe Tobler (University of Zurich\, Switzerland) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Positive Experience Shifts Fear Memories Away from Basolateral Amy gdala - Dr Melissa Sharpe (University of Sydney (Australia)) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250708T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250708T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/beb055ae-d4d6-4477-a9bc-7e0b5a3a563f/ DESCRIPTION:\nABSTRACT:\n\nThe basolateral amygdala (BLA) is at the centre of all biological models that detail how we form fear memories across spe cies. However\, we have recently shown that GABAergic neurons in the later al hypothalamus (LH GABA) become critical for formation of fear memories i f subjects have recently had a positive experience. In this talk\, I will present data on how the recruitment of LH GABA neurons to encode fear memo ries impacts the role of the BLA in encoding fear memories. Using both opt ogenetic and lesion manipulations of BLA activity\, we first replicated fi ndings that BLA activity is required for formation of fear memories in exp erimentally-naïve rats. However\, we found that if rats have recently had a distinct\, positively-valenced experience\, the BLA was no longer neces sary for the formation of the fear memory. This shows that recruitment of LH GABA neurons to encode fear memories shifts the encoding of fear memori es away from the BLA. As one of the most replicable findings in the behavi oural neuroscience literature is that BLA inactivation or damage produces deficits in the formation of fear memories\, these data require a reconsid eration of biological models of fear memories. More generally\, this work shows that brain regions can be recruited to encode information outside th eir traditional specialization and suggest a more fluid approach to concep tualizing memory formation\, which considers diversity of experience.\n\nA BOUT THE SPEAKER:\n\nProfessor Melissa Sharpe is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Sydney whose research investigates how th e brain learns\, predicts outcomes\, and makes decisions. She focuses on t he neural circuits underlying motivation and reinforcement learning\, usin g techniques such as optogenetics\, chemogenetics\, and in vivo calcium im aging in rodent models.\nShe previously held a faculty position at UCLA an d completed postdoctoral training at Princeton and the U.S. National Insti tute on Drug Abuse. Her work has been recognised with several honours\, in cluding the NSF CAREER Award.\n\nSpeakers:\nDr Melissa Sharpe (University of Sydney (Australia)) LOCATION:Sherrington Building (Florence Buchanan Lecture Theatre )\, off P arks Road OX1 3PT TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/beb055ae-d4d6-4477-a9bc-7e0b5a3a563f/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Positive Experience Shifts Fear Memories Away from Basola teral Amygdala - Dr Melissa Sharpe (University of Sydney (Australia)) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Modelling human planning with recurrent neural networks - Professo r Marcelo Mattar (New York University\, USA) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250609T150000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250609T160000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a6c5789e-294d-40ca-b656-5069c837d02c/ DESCRIPTION:ABSTRACT:\n\nWhen interacting with complex environments\, huma ns can rapidly adapt their behavior in response to changes in task or cont ext. To facilitate this adaptation\, people often spend substantial period s of time contemplating possible futures before acting. In this talk\, I w ill present empirical and modeling work exploring the critical balance bet ween thinking and acting\, and the factors affecting the content of our th oughts when we are making a decision. First\, I'll introduce a recurrent n eural network model that learns when planning is beneficial\, explaining v ariations in human thinking times and patterns observed in rodent hippocam pal activity during navigation. Second\, I'll discuss how meta-learning en ables neural networks to discover human-like planning strategies that blen d elements of tree search and rollout algorithms. Finally\, I'll examine h ow working memory constraints shape reward encoding during sequential plan ning\, revealing how humans strategically allocate cognitive resources bas ed on decision relevance. Across these studies\, recurrent neural networks emerge as powerful models for capturing the dynamic\, iterative nature of human planning processes and their implementation in brain circuits\n\nAB OUT THE SPEAKER:\n\nProf Marcelo Mattar is an Assistant Professor at New Y ork University's Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute. He holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania\, where h e also earned a Master's in Statistics. His academic journey includes a Ba chelor's in Electronics Engineering from the Aeronautics Institute of Tech nology in Brazil. Prior to his current role\, Prof. Mattar was a postdocto ral researcher at Princeton University under the mentorship of Nathaniel D aw and at the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering\, workin g with Mate Lengyel.\nHis research integrates neuroscience\, psychology\, and computational modelling to explore how the brain supports flexible dec ision-making. Focusing on the interplay between learning\, memory\, and pl anning\, Prof Mattar's work aims to understand how the brain learns intern al models from experience and simulates future scenarios to guide decision -making.\n\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Marcelo Mattar (New York University\, USA ) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (2nd floor seminar room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a6c5789e-294d-40ca-b656-5069c837d02c/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Modelling human planning with recurrent neural networks - Professor Marcelo Mattar (New York University\, USA) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Neurocomputational Mechanisms of Self-Control in Dietary Choices: A Value-Based Decision-Making Perspective - Prof Anita Tusche (Queen’s U niversity (Canada)) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250509T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250509T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a87bbba6-033f-4767-bbbb-43c21b8ee606/ DESCRIPTION:Abstract (if possible) Why do some individuals reliably succee d at self-control while others struggle — especially in the face of temp ting choices? In this talk\, I present a series of studies combining behav ioral computational modeling with functional and structural MRI data to in vestigate the neural mechanisms supporting cognitive regulation across dif ferent goals and choice contexts. Our findings challenge traditional views of self-control as the inhibition of prepotent hedonic impulses or the di rect modulation of integrative value signals in core valuation regions suc h as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Instead\, our results hig hlight the critical role of flexible\, goal-consistent representations of choice attributes\, encoded in regions like the dorsolateral prefrontal co rtex (DLPFC)\, which reliably predict regulatory success.\n\nExtending bey ond localized brain activity\, we also examine individual differences in s elf-control using a novel gradient-based framework that captures large-sca le patterns of neural organization. This whole-brain approach reveals how self-regulation may depend on stable modes of brain activation that minimi ze the need for context-specific reconfiguration of large-scale activation patterns.\nTogether\, these findings provide new insights into the neural architecture of dietary self-control and goal-directed behavior more broa dly — suggesting that successful regulators may rely on flexible\, goal- dependent representations of choice-relevant attributes and large-scale br ain states that efficiently support flexible decision-making across domain s.\n\nSpeaker bio (short) for Departmental Seminars only Prof. Anita Tusch e is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Queen’s University and Dire ctor of the Queen’s Neuroeconomics Lab. Her research combines neuroscien ce\, psychology\, and behavioural economics to explore the neural mechanis ms of social decision-making\, including empathy\, altruism\, and consumer behaviour. Using tools like fMRI and machine learning\, she investigates how cognitive and emotional processes shape choices and individual differe nces.\n\nSpeakers:\nProf Anita Tusche (Queen’s University (Canada)) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room 2\, 2nd floor)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a87bbba6-033f-4767-bbbb-43c21b8ee606/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Neurocomputational Mechanisms of Self-Control in Dietary Choices: A Value-Based Decision-Making Perspective - Prof Anita Tusche (Qu een’s University (Canada)) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Neural Mechanisms of Volitional Problem Solving - Dr Silvia Seghez zi (Birbeck\, University of London) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250610T120000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250610T130000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5e298039-af89-4348-a503-e02c1b1bf6a9/ DESCRIPTION:Our ability to pursue self-generated goals over extended timef rames is central to human cognition and behaviour. However\, scientific st udies of these higher-order action processes have traditionally fallen int o two isolated research domains. On one hand\, executive function research has uncovered a great deal about how our brain coordinates complex action sequences to solve multi-step problems. On the other hand\, research on v olition has begun to unravel the neural mechanisms that enable us to initi ate actions independent of immediate external stimuli. However\, to date b oth camps have neglected the intimate connections between these two proces ses: many complex problems can be solved in multiple ways\, and thus choos ing and generating our own path is central to reaching an effective soluti on. In this talk\, I will present findings from behavioural\, neuroimaging (fMRI)\, and EEG studies that examine how volition and problem solving ar e interconnected in the human brain. In combination\, these results reveal new connections between the brain mechanisms underpinning problem solving and volitional action – and suggest that the ability to generate our ow n courses of action is more central to problem solving than we might usual ly appreciate.\nSpeakers:\nDr Silvia Seghezzi (Birbeck\, University of Lon don) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar rooms\, 2nd floor - lift available. Walton Street\, OX2 6NW)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5e298039-af89-4348-a503-e02c1b1bf6a9/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Neural Mechanisms of Volitional Problem Solving - Dr Silv ia Seghezzi (Birbeck\, University of London) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Brain Mechanisms of Attention: Sensory Selection to Free Will - Pr ofessor George Mangun (University of California\, Davis. (USA)) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250520T120000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250520T130000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/313ef56f-7b06-44f1-9952-5b825c83240c/ DESCRIPTION:Selective attention relies on intricate neural mechanisms that govern how the brain processes information. In this lecture\, I will expl ore research on the neural underpinnings of voluntary spatial\, feature\, and object attention\, utilizing both EEG and fMRI techniques. I will high light key findings related to attentional control in the frontal and parie tal cortices\, as well as how these processes influence sensory and percep tual processing. Additionally\, I will present studies examining voluntary attention in free-choice conditions\, where individuals exert their free will to direct attention without external guidance. The framework for this presentation is our Specificity of Control (SpoC) Model of attention\, wh ich highlights the microstructural organization of top-down control and th e specificity of sensory biasing it imparts in the visual cortex.\n\nABOUT THE SPEAKER:\n\nGeorge R. Mangun\, Ph.D.\, is the founding and now Co-Dir ector of the Center for Mind and Brain\, a Distinguished Professor of Psyc hology and Neurology\, and the former Dean of Social Sciences at the Unive rsity of California\, Davis. He received his doctoral degree in neuroscien ce from the University of California\, San Diego\, and has taught and cond ucted research at UC San Diego\, Dartmouth College\, and Duke University. His laboratory investigates brain mechanisms of perception and attention i n health and disease. His team has identified many of the basic brain proc esses by which humans focus their attention and filter out distracting eve nts\, as well as how these processes break down in disorders of attention. In 1994\, he chaired the founding committee of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society\, an international scientific society with over 3000 members\; he continues to serve on the Governing Board for the society and is currentl y President and Treasurer of the corporate board. In 1998\, he was the fou nding Director of the Duke University Center for Cognitive Neuroscience\, and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience. He is an active editor\, and the author of numerous journal publications and books\, including his cel ebrated foundational textbook\, Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind. For a decade he was the Director of the Kavli Summer Institute in C ognitive Neuroscience\, a training program for doctoral and postdoctoral s cholars that was supported by NIMH\, NIDA\, and the Kavli Foundation. From 2008 to 2015\, Mangun served as Dean of Social Sciences at UC Davis\, whe re he led the academic programs of ten university departments ranging from Anthropology and Psychology to Economics\, Political Science\, History an d Philosophy. He is also an outspoken advocate for access and inclusion in higher education\, and is currently serving as the founding co-chair of t he College of Letters and Science Diversity\, Equity\, and Inclusion commi ttee. Among other honors and awards\, Professor Mangun received the Distin guished Early Career Contributions Award from the Society for Psychophysio logical Research\, an NIMH Senior Scientist Award\, and a Distinguished Sc ientist Lecturer Award from the American Psychological Association. He is an elected fellow of both the Association for Psychological Science\, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2024 he receiv ed the Award for Education in Neuroscience from the Society for Neuroscien ce\, and was also named a Fulbright U.S. Distinguished Scholar.\nSpeakers: \nProfessor George Mangun (University of California\, Davis. (USA)) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar rooms\, 2nd floor - lift available. Walton Street\, OX2 6NW)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/313ef56f-7b06-44f1-9952-5b825c83240c/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Brain Mechanisms of Attention: Sensory Selection to Free Will - Professor George Mangun (University of California\, Davis. (USA)) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Learning to perceive and perceiving to learn - Professor Clare Pre ss (University College London) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250513T120000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250513T130000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b03a1d83-c43d-43bb-829d-3674523966dd/ DESCRIPTION:It has long been appreciated that learning about the probabili stic structure of events alters our perceptual awareness. However\, recent work has demonstrated that this relationship between learning and percept ion is more complex than previously believed and can theoretically serve a multitude of functions. For example\, we must balance demands of represen ting the perceptual world accurately while effectively updating our models when the world changes. The first part of my talk will present some work that asks how we optimize this balance via predictive mechanisms. The seco nd part will consider how explanations of oscillatory windows of perceptua l awareness could link with these ideas. I hope to convince the audience t hat our models of learning-perception interdependences should move on from some currently popular monolithic accounts (e.g.\, cancellation\; intrins ic fixed sampling rhythms)\, and stimulate discussion concerning how best to conceptualise these synergistic relationships. \nSpeakers:\nProfessor Clare Press (University College London) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar rooms\, 2nd floor - lift available. Walton Street\, OX2 6NW)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b03a1d83-c43d-43bb-829d-3674523966dd/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Learning to perceive and perceiving to learn - Professor Clare Press (University College London) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Neural basis of self-control - Professor Veit Stuphorn (Johns Hopk ins University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250411T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250411T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2eb6d175-a09f-4046-80c8-1bad3c212b69/ DESCRIPTION:Self-control is the ability to inhibit self-defeating behavior in the face of temptation. The neural basis of self-control remains elusi ve\, due to the difficulty of disentangling the processes of self-control and choice based on cost-benefit evaluations. We designed a novel task in monkeys that can distinguish different self-control levels from subjective preference. We found that Supplementary Eye Field neurons encode self-con trol\, some even before choice options were presented. This neuronal activ ity predicted whether and when monkeys would give in to temptation. Our fi ndings suggest that Supplementary Eye Field is part of a neuronal circuit underlying the capacity for self-control\, which is crucial for selecting and maintaining the pursuit of costly goals that are beneficial in the lon g run.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Veit Stuphorn (Johns Hopkins University) LOCATION:Pharmacology (Lecture Theatre (ground floor)\, Mansfield Road\, O xford OX1 3QT)\, off Mansfield Road OX1 3QT TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2eb6d175-a09f-4046-80c8-1bad3c212b69/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Neural basis of self-control - Professor Veit Stuphorn (J ohns Hopkins University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:The hippocampus and memory: the right amount of disorder for the c urious mind - Professor Alessandro Treves (The International School for Ad vanced Studies (SISSA\, Italy)) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250213T150000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250213T160000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/8348bde0-a67d-410d-9af3-0857182b9ce0/ DESCRIPTION:Decades of research have elucidated the role of the mammalian hippocampus in spatial memory\, particularly by focusing on small laborato ry animals like rats\, mice and bats alongside human and non-human primate s. Yet\, just when a mechanistic understanding seemed to coalesce into a " standard model"\, experiments in semi-ecological conditions are revealing new implications of disorder and self-organization\, requiring novel analy ses of neural computation.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Alessandro Treves (The In ternational School for Advanced Studies (SISSA\, Italy)) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar rooms\, 2nd floor - lift available)\ , Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/8348bde0-a67d-410d-9af3-0857182b9ce0/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:The hippocampus and memory: the right amount of disorder for the curious mind - Professor Alessandro Treves (The International Scho ol for Advanced Studies (SISSA\, Italy)) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Bridging intuitive physics and working memory in dynamic visual pr ocessing - Dr Halely Balaban (Open University of Israel (Israel)) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250204T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250204T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/cd881be4-ea2b-4c0d-85a1-9f2ea77950b4/ DESCRIPTION:In our hectic world\, even a routine task like driving involve s numerous objects that constantly move\, change\, and interact. How can t he human mind handle dynamic information in an efficient\, flexible\, and reliable manner? Two largely independent research traditions offer two ver y different sets of answers. Studies of visual working memory use controll ed tasks to expose critical capacity limits in how we represent and track stimuli that are usually simple and arbitrary. Commonsense physical reason ing research examines people’s intuitive expectations and predictions ab out realistic scenes\, using computational models that are approximate but capacity-unlimited. Inspired by both disciplines\, the present work combi nes EEG\, behavioral\, and computational methods to reveal bidirectional l inks between working memory and intuitive physics. The first set of studie s shows how high-level intuitive expectations shape online processing beyo nd explicit physical reasoning\, directly guiding working memory’s repre sentation and tracking mechanism over and above visual or spatiotemporal i nformation. The second set of studies reveals severe capacity limits in th e ability to predict future trajectories of moving physical objects: menta l simulation appears to be a serial process\, in line with a single-item f ocus of attention in working memory. Overall\, the findings highlight the need for a unified approach to the study of dynamic information processing .\nSpeakers:\nDr Halely Balaban (Open University of Israel (Israel)) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar rooms\, 2nd floor - lift available)\ , Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/cd881be4-ea2b-4c0d-85a1-9f2ea77950b4/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Bridging intuitive physics and working memory in dynamic visual processing - Dr Halely Balaban (Open University of Israel (Israel)) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dynamics of learning in many option foraging - Dr Laura Grima (Jan elia Research Campus\, USA) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250128T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250128T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f3fa8ffd-9f7c-4c04-bb79-9a11992a75cd/ DESCRIPTION:In natural environments\, animals must effectively allocate th eir choices across many concurrently available resources when foraging. Th is is a complex decision-making process not fully captured by existing mod els. In this talk I will describe a novel paradigm that we developed\, in which untrained\, water-restricted mice were free to sample from six optio ns rewarded at a range of deterministic intervals and positioned around th e walls of a large (~2m) arena. Mice exhibited rapid learning\, matching t heir choices to integrated reward ratios across six options within the fir st session. To develop a mechanistic description of this learning\, we con structed a reinforcement learning model inspired by foraging theory. In co mbination with a dynamic\, global (across all options) learning rate\, thi s model was able to accurately reproduce mouse learning and decision-makin g. Finally\, I will discuss results of fiber photometry recordings in the nucleus accumbens core (NAcC) and dorsomedial striatum (DMS). We found tha t NAcC\, but not DMS\, dopamine more closely reflected this global learnin g rate than local error-based updating. Altogether\, our results provide i nsight into the neural substrate of a learning algorithm that allows mice to rapidly exploit multiple options when foraging in large spatial environ ments.\nSpeakers:\nDr Laura Grima (Janelia Research Campus\, USA) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar rooms\, 2nd floor - lift available)\ , Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f3fa8ffd-9f7c-4c04-bb79-9a11992a75cd/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Dynamics of learning in many option foraging - Dr Laura G rima (Janelia Research Campus\, USA) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:The role of dopamine in decision making - Prof Robb Rutledge (Yal e University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20241029T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20241029T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/3dd83bc9-8809-4823-9659-ee712561c92d/ DESCRIPTION:The neuromodulator dopamine is believed to play multiple roles in decision making\, but the neurocomputational basis of dopamine’s inf luence on behavior remains unclear. Through a combination of fMRI\, pharma cology\, and smartphone-based experiments in the general population and in Parkinson’s disease\, we find evidence that dopamine is associated with increased risk taking in a manner that does not depend on value. Surprisi ng sounds are associated with dopamine release\, and we find that surprisi ng sounds increase risk taking in a manner that does not depend on value. Dopamine is also believed to influence willingness to exert effort. We int roduce a new task to study the vigor with which actions are taken to obtai n reward and the relationship between vigor and mood. We use a combination of lab\, online\, and smartphone-based experiments to quantify the relati onship between reward\, mood\, and vigor across the lifespan.\nSpeakers:\n Prof Robb Rutledge (Yale University) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/3dd83bc9-8809-4823-9659-ee712561c92d/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:The role of dopamine in decision making - Prof Robb Rutl edge (Yale University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Local modulation of dopaminergic action signals during goal-direct ed learning - Genevra Hart (University of New South Wales\, Sydney\, Austr alia) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240716T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240716T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/0668263d-e53b-4f9c-bd17-bbd988997160/ DESCRIPTION:A key difference in dopamine signalling between the ventral an d dorsal regions of the striatum lies in the hemispherically lateralized m ovement specificity of dopamine release in the dorsal striatum. This hemis pherically lateralized signal cannot directly be reconciled with tradition al theories that propose that dopamine transients accord with reward predi ction error (RPE) signals\, which reflect a scalar reward value that back- propagates to reward-predictive stimuli across learning. The predominant v iew is that dopamine release in the dorsal striatum signals\, simultaneous ly and separately\, a bilateral RPE and a lateralized movement signal. How ever\, within this framework\, it is unclear how movement and learning sig nals are disambiguated postsynaptically. We have recently proposed an alte rnative view\, that lateralized action-related signals in the dorsomedial striatum reflect the specific action-outcome associations that underlie go al-directed action1\, arguing that dopamine learning and movement signals are integrated in the dorsal striatum. Here\, I will present new data sugg esting that dopamine-mediated reward signals in the dorsomedial striatum e merge bilaterally\, and are modulated by hemispherically separate action s ignals across learning\, resulting in asymmetric\, contralaterally dominan t action-related signals\, the magnitude of which accords with the rules o f reward prediction error. I will also present new data that suggests that this local modulation occurs through a feedback loop involving striatal d irect pathway neurons. Together\, these results support a model of global RPE’s driving action-specific RPE’s within local circuits\, medicated by canonical striato-nigro-striatal feedback loops.\nSpeakers:\nGenevra Ha rt (University of New South Wales\, Sydney\, Australia) LOCATION:Sherrington Library (DPAG)\, off Parks Road OX1 3PT TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/0668263d-e53b-4f9c-bd17-bbd988997160/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Local modulation of dopaminergic action signals during go al-directed learning - Genevra Hart (University of New South Wales\, Sydne y\, Australia) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar -The Puzzle of Contextual Biases: Why Can’t We Ig nore Irrelevant Information? - Assoc Professor Andrey Chetverikov (Univers ity of Bergen) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240628T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240628T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c1531540-28c7-47cb-b789-0133af7b32e4/ DESCRIPTION:Humans are prone to biases when seemingly irrelevant context i nfluences our decisions. For example\, imagine looking for a flat in a new city. After finding a very nice house that you unfortunately cannot affor d (an irrelevant option)\, the others might start to look less favourable in comparison. Such biases affect not only complex\, high-level decisions\ , such as which flat to buy\, but also basic processes of perception and m emory. Researchers can use the highly controlled laboratory conditions ava ilable for low-level cognition studies to better understand decision-makin g in both perception and memory\, as well as higher-level cognition. But w hy do such biases occur? Why can't we see or remember things accurately ev en in seemingly simple tasks?\nIn this talk\, I will first discuss theorie s that aim to understand the mechanisms of contextual biases at different levels of explanation. I will then focus on our recently developed ‘demi xing’ model\, which predicts that the strength and direction of these bi ases depend on the amount of noise in the stimuli and their similarity. I will present the results of experiments that tested this prediction in a v isual working memory task by manipulating stimuli noise in the colour and orientation domains. The results show that increasing noise not only decre ases the precision of responses but also changes the strength and directio n of the biases in line with the model's predictions. According to the mod el\, contextual biases are an inevitable consequence of intermixed noisy s ignals in the environment\, where the most optimal solution is often the b iased one. This explanation can also be applied to decisions in higher-lev el cognition\, where one often needs to determine what they prefer while f acing many intermixed signals from different information sources. This dem onstrates how working memory and low-level cognition can inform our unders tanding of economic and social decisions\, providing an ideal model system for decision-making research.\n\nSpeakers:\nAssoc Professor Andrey Chetve rikov (University of Bergen) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room\, second floor. )\, Walton Stre et OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c1531540-28c7-47cb-b789-0133af7b32e4/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar -The Puzzle of Contextual Biases: Why Can ’t We Ignore Irrelevant Information? - Assoc Professor Andrey Chetveriko v (University of Bergen) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar - Probing the Role of the Cerebellum in Sensorimoto r Learning and Cognition - Professor Richard Ivry (UC Berkeley) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240625T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240625T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c5295de2-da01-4cf3-a7d5-0db0a7ece1ad/ DESCRIPTION:Abstract:\nAn impressive body of research over the past 35 yea rs has implicated the human cerebellum in a broad range of functions beyon d motor control\, including language\, working memory\, cognitive control\ , and social cognition. The relatively uniform anatomy and physiology of t he cerebellar cortex has given rise to the universal cerebellar transform hypothesis (UCT)\, the idea that the cerebellum can be conceptualized as a module providing a basic computation that is exploited across diverse dom ains. Proposed UCTs focus on the concepts of prediction and coordination. To make these ideas computationally meaningful\, we need to specify the c onstraints on cerebellar processing: What are the types of prediction supp orted by the cerebellum and what do we mean when speaking of “mental coo rdination”? I will address these questions in two parts. First\, using variants of sensorimotor adaptation tasks\, I will describe properties of a cerebellar-dependent learning process that ensure our movements remain exquisitely calibrated. Second\, I will describe how the results have mot ivated a new hypothesis concerning how the cerebellum might contribute to cognition\, focusing on its role in supporting dynamic mental transformati ons.\n\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Richard Ivry (UC Berkeley) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room\, second floor. )\, Walton Stre et OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c5295de2-da01-4cf3-a7d5-0db0a7ece1ad/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar - Probing the Role of the Cerebellum in Se nsorimotor Learning and Cognition - Professor Richard Ivry (UC Berkeley) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Structural representation and decision-making in an interconnected world - Dr Lusha Zhu (Peking University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240514T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240514T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/71ae00f8-46a1-4c6d-902c-921138bdef9d/ DESCRIPTION:Social networks shape our beliefs and choices by constraining what information we receive and from whom. Yet the mechanism by which the human brain interacts with networked environments remains unclear. Two com putational challenges stand out when we try to learn from interconnected p eers. First\, information flowing along network connections is typically i nterdependent and varies in its informativeness\, so how does the brain ef fectively integrate network-derived information? Second\, individuals can hardly take into account the topological structure of the entire network w hen interacting with it. So which social connections are considered and wh ich are ignored\, how will the streamlined network representation affect o ur perception and navigation of the social world? In this talk\, I will pr esent a series of recent work that uses computational modeling\, fMRI\, an d graph neural networks to investigate social network-related learning and representation. Our finding unifies a variety of seemingly disparate bias es in social perception and decision-making\, shedding light on the cognit ive roots of some important societal conundrums\, such as biased social se nsing and misinformation propagation.\nSpeakers:\nDr Lusha Zhu (Peking Uni versity) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room\, second floor. )\, Walton Stre et OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/71ae00f8-46a1-4c6d-902c-921138bdef9d/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Structural representation and decision-making in an inter connected world - Dr Lusha Zhu (Peking University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar : Precision imaging of the hippocampal memory system - Daniel Reznik (Max Planck Institute for H uman Cognitive & Brain Sciences) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240305T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240305T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ded65906-b872-436d-98a8-63ac449e1fef/ DESCRIPTION:Tract-tracing studies in non-human primates indicate that diff erent subregions of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) are connected with mult iple brain regions. However\, no clear framework defining the distributed anatomy associated with the human MTL exists. This gap in knowledge origin ates in notoriously low MRI data quality in the anterior human MTL and in group-level blurring of idiosyncratic anatomy between adjacent brain regio ns comprising the MTL. To overcome these challenges\, we intensively scann ed four human individuals and collected whole-brain data with unprecedente d MTL signal quality that allowed us to explore in detail the cortical net works associated with MTL subregions within each individual. In this talk\ , I will present these recent results and discuss their implications on ex amining the evolutionary trajectory of the MTL connectivity across species .\nSpeakers:\nDaniel Reznik (Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Br ain Sciences) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ded65906-b872-436d-98a8-63ac449e1fef/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar : Precision i maging of the hippocampal memory system - Daniel Reznik (Max Planck Instit ute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar : Stable brains in dyn amic worlds: a key role of cortico-cerebellar loops - Dr Rui Ponte Costa ( University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240227T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240227T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e5d15297-7608-4360-b69b-1aaa736e634e/ DESCRIPTION:The brain must maintain a stable internal model while rapidly adapting to the environment\, yet the underlying mechanisms are not known. Here\, we posit that cortico-cerebellar loops play a key role in this pro cess. We introduce a computational model of cerebellar networks which lear n to drive cortical networks with task-outcome predictions. First\, using sensorimotor tasks we show that cerebellar feedback in the presence of sta ble cortical networks is sufficient for rapid task acquisition and switchi ng. Next\, we demonstrate that\, when trained in working memory tasks\, th e cerebellum can also underlie the maintenance of cognitive-specific dynam ics in the cortex\, explaining a range of optogenetic and behavioural obse rvations. Finally\, using our model we introduce a systems consolidation t heory in which task information is gradually transferred from the cerebell um to the cortex. In summary\, our findings suggest that cortico-cerebella r loops are an important component of task acquisition\, switching\, and c onsolidation in the brain.\nSpeakers:\nDr Rui Ponte Costa (University of O xford) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e5d15297-7608-4360-b69b-1aaa736e634e/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar : Stable brai ns in dynamic worlds: a key role of cortico-cerebellar loops - Dr Rui Pont e Costa (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar : Precision imaging of the hippocampal memory system DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240105T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240105T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/25be5cfe-856d-4cb3-b96f-c5ddf72891cd/ DESCRIPTION:Tract-tracing studies in non-human primates indicate that diff erent subregions of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) are connected with mult iple brain regions. However\, no clear framework defining the distributed anatomy associated with the human MTL exists. This gap in knowledge origin ates in notoriously low MRI data quality in the anterior human MTL and in group-level blurring of idiosyncratic anatomy between adjacent brain regio ns comprising the MTL. To overcome these challenges\, we intensively scann ed four human individuals and collected whole-brain data with unprecedente d MTL signal quality that allowed us to explore in detail the cortical net works associated with MTL subregions within each individual. In this talk\ , I will present these recent results and discuss their implications on ex amining the evolutionary trajectory of the MTL connectivity across species . LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/25be5cfe-856d-4cb3-b96f-c5ddf72891cd/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar : Precision i maging of the hippocampal memory system TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar : Immersed Cognition: studying active vision and memory - Sven Ohl & Felix Klotzsche (Humboldt-U niversität zu Berlin and Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Bra in Sciences) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240220T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240220T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ce9f6cc0-df98-441f-8c5a-170607856050/ DESCRIPTION:As we navigate the world\, actions such as eye\, head\, and wh ole-body movements structure the input to the visual system and prioritize the maintenance of action-relevant information in visual working memory. By contrast\, many studies in the domain of visual perception and cognitio n rely on experiments where observers passively fixate a point on a 2D com puter screen. Here\, we will motivate a research agenda of studying visual cognition in “immersed observers”—that is\, active observers within environments that foster and model natural sensorimotor contingencies. Fi rst\, we will show how saccadic eye movements constitute a selection mecha nism in visual working memory and hence demonstrate how active exploration also shapes cognition. Based on a meta-analytic approach\, we will demons trate the robustness of saccadic selection in memory across observers and eye movement directions\, as well as its association with saccade metrics on a single-trial level. Second\, we will present how immersive VR\, namel y stereoscopic head-mounted displays that adjust the visual input in near- real time based on the user's head movements\, emerges as a promising tool to study comparable phenomena beyond traditional 2D setups. Newer generat ions of headsets offer integrated eye tracking\, making them particularly interesting for researchers investigating eye movements. Based on recent r esearch\, in which we have combined VR with eye tracking and EEG\, we will demonstrate opportunities and challenges that arise when investigating co gnitive and perceptual phenomena such as visual working memory and attenti on using current VR technology.\nSpeakers:\nSven Ohl & Felix Klotzsche (Hu mboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ce9f6cc0-df98-441f-8c5a-170607856050/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar : Immersed Co gnition: studying active vision and memory - Sven Ohl & Felix Klotzsche (H umboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitiv e and Brain Sciences) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar : The Psychology of Gl obal Catastrophic Risk & the Unilateralist's Curse - Lucius Caviola (Oxfor d Global Priorities Institute) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240213T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240213T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/42ee3e2c-e234-447f-bb66-2fb0e22fe23d/ DESCRIPTION:Individual human psychology is ill-equipped to responsibly man age extremely powerful technology\, such as nuclear weapons\, synthetic bi ology\, or advanced artificial intelligence. Our ongoing research explores the psychological tendencies that could lead humans to (accidentally) har m millions of individuals. In particular\, we will explore the so-called u nilateralist’s curse: situations in which actors can single-handedly imp ose a (dangerous) outcome on everyone. Many high-stakes decisions share th is structure\; it only takes one smallpox researcher to publish the virus ’ genome\, one government to allow radical climate geoengineering\, and one policymaker to veto a unanimous motion. In these cases\, are people to o inclined to impose outcomes on others unilaterally\, and if so\, why? An d how can we design psychologically-informed policies to minimize catastro phic risks from reckless human behavior?\nSpeakers:\nLucius Caviola (Oxfor d Global Priorities Institute) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/42ee3e2c-e234-447f-bb66-2fb0e22fe23d/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar : The Psychol ogy of Global Catastrophic Risk & the Unilateralist's Curse - Lucius Cavio la (Oxford Global Priorities Institute) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON - Using counterfactual self-simulation to investigate the s elf-model - Dr Matan Mazor (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231205T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231205T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/8dd5762c-e8dc-439c-ae6d-0dca3a4f6593/ DESCRIPTION:Brains encode knowledge not only about the external world but also about their own functioning. These internal self-models are critical for knowing what we would perceive\, remember\, and do in hypothetical and counterfactual world states (“Would I remember if I met her before?”\ , “Would I have noticed if someone called my name?”\, "What would I ha ve done if I didn't know that?"). I will present results that indicate a r ole for such internal mental models of perception and cognition in inferen ce about absence and epistemic pretense. In both cases\, human behaviour r eveals hard limits on the human capacity for reasoning about counterfactua l mental states. I will argue that targeting the ways self-models are used in cognition\, rather than how they appear to us upon reflection\, is an important next step for the science of self-knowledge and metacognition.\n Speakers:\nDr Matan Mazor (University of Oxford) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room\, 2nd floor)\, Walton Street OX 2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/8dd5762c-e8dc-439c-ae6d-0dca3a4f6593/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON - Using counterfactual self-simulation to investig ate the self-model - Dr Matan Mazor (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON seminar - Complex perceptual decision making processes in h umans - Jozsef Fiser (Central European University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231121T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231121T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c30feaa0-986d-4d60-9eff-9823ac57e9ea/ DESCRIPTION:Maintaining an accurate internal model of our changing environ ment is essential for efficient decision-making. Previous studies of perce ptual decision making were focusing almost exclusively on overly simplisti c situations\, in which observed changes could be accounted for by a singl e parameter of the internal model. We extended these investigations to mor e realistic situations in which changes in external conditions could be ex plained by multiple\, equally feasible variants of the complex internal mo del through the adjustment of its multiple parameters simultaneously and o btained three results. First\, using Bayesian ideal observer analysis and a novel sequential 2AFC visual discrimination paradigm\, we developed a me thod in which we could use observers’ behavioural response biases to ide ntify the internal representations they used during decision making. Secon d\, we found by computational modelling and verified by a set of behaviour al experiments that in such complex tasks\, observers' interpretation was strongly modulated by the specific dynamics of the observed and latent asp ects of the sequential input. Third\, we showed that this behaviour could not be accounted for by simple models dominant in the literature but could be qualitatively captured by assuming that observers rely on hierarchical representations with detailed dynamics of each parameter of their automat ically developed internal model and they use this information for readjust ing their model to properly account for the changes in the input sequence. To verify that our Bayesian model fits were correct\, we developed a new method\, a strong form of cross-validation: First\, we demonstrated that t he parameters of the abstract Bayesian model naturally map onto the parame ters of a process-level sequential sampling model\, then we showed that th is process-level model could in turn explain idiosyncratic reaction-time p atterns present in the behavioural data that were out of the scope of the original Bayesian model. Importantly\, our results are compatible with a f ully Bayesian view of perceptual decision making\, in which uncertainty at various levels of the complex internal model representing and interpretin g the external input is optimally accounted for. Our approach provides a n ew way of investigating complex human decision making.\nSpeakers:\nJozsef Fiser (Central European University) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c30feaa0-986d-4d60-9eff-9823ac57e9ea/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON seminar - Complex perceptual decision making proce sses in humans - Jozsef Fiser (Central European University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON seminar - Cortical-basal ganglia mechanisms underlying lear ning from gains and losses - Dr Bruno Averbeck (National Institute of Ment al Health) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231127T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231127T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/33c93389-5f4b-4fc2-8153-1ed4b21eb6a8/ DESCRIPTION:Learning is a process in which decisions and actions are adapt ed to satisfy the needs of an organism. In this talk I will discuss work in which we studied the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying learning from gains and losses. Monkeys were trained on a tokens-based reinforceme nt learning task. In the task\, the monkeys learned to make choices that led to gains in tokens and avoid choices that led to losses of tokens. Th e tokens were periodically cashed in for juice rewards. While the monkeys carried out the task\, we recorded neural activity from the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)\, ventral striatum (VS)\, amygdala\, and the medial\, mediod orsal (MD) thalamus. We found that the monkeys learned well from the toke n outcomes. Analysis of single cells showed that the OFC maintained a str ong representation of the number of accumulated tokens. Both the OFC and VS strongly represented the tokens received following choices in each tria l\, and the amygdala strongly represented the identity of the chosen stimu lus. The MD thalamus\, on the other hand\, had an enhanced representation of the actions required to obtain the stimuli. When token outcome coding was examined in more detail\, we found that the amygdala represented the salience of the outcome\, responding more to large gains and losses\, as o pposed to monotonically encoding the value of the outcome. The OFC and VS both showed encoding of outcome value\, particularly for gains. When we examined population coding\, we were able to identify a subspace\, stronge st in OFC\, that represented the token update\, and the change in token nu mber that followed token updates. When we examined this at the network le vel\, using activity simultaneously recorded from all 4 areas\, we found t hat token updates were calculated in the OFC and VS\, by taking time-deriv atives of the token count information. Overall\, this suggests that the c omponent operations that underlie performance of this task are implemented in a distributed network\, composed of members of the classic limbic syst em.\nSpeakers:\nDr Bruno Averbeck (National Institute of Mental Health) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room\, 2nd floor)\, Walton Street OX 2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/33c93389-5f4b-4fc2-8153-1ed4b21eb6a8/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON seminar - Cortical-basal ganglia mechanisms underl ying learning from gains and losses - Dr Bruno Averbeck (National Institut e of Mental Health) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON seminar - Beyond accumulating evidence: hidden knobs that s hape value-based decisions - Dr Romy Froemer (School of Psychology\, Unive rsity of Birmingham) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231128T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231128T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c7650dd5-426e-479b-8d83-94bd1b7702ae/ DESCRIPTION:To understand value-based decision-making and its neural corre lates\, researchers have broken it down into component processes\, like va luation and comparison. They built computational models to formalize these component processes and identify their neural signatures. Decision-making then would unfold via a process of accumulating value-based evidence unti l a threshold is reached and a choice is made. Using this approach\, the f ield has identified consistent neural signatures of value and evidence acc umulation. Today I will revisit these findings\, showing that decision-mak ing and its neural correlates are fundamentally shaped by people’s highe r order decisions about decision-making. I will outline a framework for st udying these higher-order decisions\, their neural correlates\, and how th ey shape choice dynamics. I will conversely call for caution to prematurel y assume something is control when it might not be.\nSpeakers:\nDr Romy Fr oemer (School of Psychology\, University of Birmingham) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar room\, 2nd floor)\, Walton Street OX 2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c7650dd5-426e-479b-8d83-94bd1b7702ae/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON seminar - Beyond accumulating evidence: hidden kno bs that shape value-based decisions - Dr Romy Froemer (School of Psycholog y\, University of Birmingham) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Mapping the striatal landscape of behaviourally relevant dopamine signals - Professor Ingo Willuhn (Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231031T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231031T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/0e242c18-f4ae-4640-bb3a-feb13ab72859/ DESCRIPTION:\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Ingo Willuhn (Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience) LOCATION:Sherrington Building (Sherrington Library)\, off Parks Road OX1 3 PT TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/0e242c18-f4ae-4640-bb3a-feb13ab72859/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Mapping the striatal landscape of behaviourally relevant dopamine signals - Professor Ingo Willuhn (Netherlands Institute for Neuro science) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Has brain imaging discovered anything new about th e brain? - Professor Dick Passingham (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220315T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220315T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/4dca788c-2fa2-4c3a-8b3f-760282cc481f/ DESCRIPTION:FMRI has been exploited now for over thirty years. So it is ti me to ask whether it has changed the way we think about the brain. For com parison I briefly review three findings from studies of animals that have made fundamental discoveries about the brain. I suggest four findings from brain imaging that have discovered new principles concerning brain functi on. However\, since brain imaging measures correlations\, it is necessary to intervene in the system if we are to demonstrate causal influences. I c onclude that FMRI is not sufficient on its own and that a variety of metho ds need to be used if we are to make progress in understanding how the bra in works.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Dick Passingham (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/4dca788c-2fa2-4c3a-8b3f-760282cc481f/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Has brain imaging discovered anything new about the brain? - Professor Dick Passingham (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar - Title TBD - Madalena Fonseca (University of Oxfor d) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220215T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220215T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b7c179a7-efcb-4328-9b94-b4d01dc11d92/ DESCRIPTION:\nStatus: This talk has been cancelled\n\nSpeakers:\nMadalena Fonseca (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b7c179a7-efcb-4328-9b94-b4d01dc11d92/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar - Title TBD - Madalena Fonseca (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:How hippocampal memory shapes\, and is shaped by\, attention - Ma riam (Aly) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20201013T150000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20201013T160000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ae96ed0a-6411-4154-a74a-3064cc061a3f/ DESCRIPTION:\nSpeakers:\nMariam (Aly) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ae96ed0a-6411-4154-a74a-3064cc061a3f/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:How hippocampal memory shapes\, and is shaped by\, attent ion - Mariam (Aly) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Replay of Task State Representations in the Human Brain and How to Measure it with fMRI - Nico Schuck (Max Planck Institute) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20200331T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20200331T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/df8276ec-7f8c-438a-a935-a818d248f7e5/ DESCRIPTION:\nStatus: This talk has been cancelled\n: Many cognitive tasks cannot be solved by simply linking sensory input to actions. Instead\, pe rceptual information needs first to be mapped onto an internal representat ion that filters\, combines\, or augments perceptual input. If the 'right' representation has been created\, the brain can then find a link between its internal state and the actions that solve the task. In this talk\, I w ill present work in which we tested the hypothesis that such task-appropri ate internal representations are formed in the medial and orbital prefront al cortex\, and guide execution and improvement of behavior. Moreover\, we tested whether the transitions between such task-state representations ar e reactivated at rest during hippocampal replay events. We found evidence for both ideas in two fMRI experiments\, in which participants learned to make decisions about ambiguous stimuli that depended on their knowledge of the currently relevant stimulus feature and the events in the previous tr ial. Using a multivariate decoding approach\, we show that task state info rmation can be decoded during task execution from orbitofrontal fMRI signa ls\, and that this decoding is linked to behavior within and between parti cipants. Moreover\, we developed a novel fMRI analysis method that allowed to investigate sequential reactivation of previously experienced task sta tes in the hippocampus. These results indicate that adaptive task state re presentations are computed and replayed within the limbic system. I specul ate that these representations link to other core computations of the brai n\, in particular reward learning and generalisation. \nSpeakers:\nNico Sc huck (Max Planck Institute) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (2nd floor)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/df8276ec-7f8c-438a-a935-a818d248f7e5/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Replay of Task State Representations in the Human Brain a nd How to Measure it with fMRI - Nico Schuck (Max Planck Institute) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (BEACON) Seminar CANCELLED - Dr Athena Akrami (UCL) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20200317T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20200317T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5b018e3d-df79-4b1b-953e-fce5ac05cce9/ DESCRIPTION:\nStatus: This talk has been cancelled\n\nSpeakers:\nDr Athena Akrami (UCL) LOCATION:Radcliffe House (2nd Floor) TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5b018e3d-df79-4b1b-953e-fce5ac05cce9/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (BEACON) Seminar C ANCELLED - Dr Athena Akrami (UCL) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (BEACON) Seminar - Dr Clai re Gillan (Trinity College\, oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20200303T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20200303T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/66e80920-3e7e-4ab3-b11e-75d90247330a/ DESCRIPTION:\nSpeakers:\nDr Claire Gillan (Trinity College\, oxford) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (2nd Floor)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/66e80920-3e7e-4ab3-b11e-75d90247330a/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (BEACON) Seminar - Dr Claire Gillan (Trinity College\, oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Manipulat ing brain dynamics with non-invasive oscillatory electrical stimulation - Dr Ines Violante (University of Surrey) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20200121T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20200121T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/420252de-a983-4062-b8d1-efa7fd163173/ DESCRIPTION:Dynamic interactions between brain networks underlie complex b rain functions. Thus\, the ability to externally modulate brain dynamics h as great potential as a tool for both basic research and therapy. Transcra nial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a non-invasive neurostimula tion technique by which alternating currents are applied through the skull . TACS is emerging as a viable tool to study and modify the activity of br ain networks.\nHowever\, the traditional application of tACS\, as well as other classical stimulation techniques\, suffers from three main limitatio ns: 1) verifiability: the brain networks targeted by the stimulation canno t be verified without simultaneous brain imaging\; 2) inter-individual var iability: those stimulation parameters vary across participants due to a m ultitude of variables\, such as age\, sex\, genetic polymorphisms and path ophysiology\; 3) specificity: non-invasive electrical stimulation has limi ted capability for use in deep structures. In this talk\, I will present o ur recent studies that aim to address these challenges.\n\nSpeakers:\nDr I nes Violante (University of Surrey) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/420252de-a983-4062-b8d1-efa7fd163173/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Manipulating brain dynamics with non-invasive oscillatory electrical stimu lation - Dr Ines Violante (University of Surrey) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY: Dopaminergic and prefrontal basis of learning from sensory confid ence and reward value. Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Sem inar - Dr Armin Lak (DPAG\, University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191203T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191203T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/33cbfb77-8c6c-4ed3-89e5-f75fad2502c1/ DESCRIPTION:Deciding between stimuli requires combining their learned valu e with one’s sensory confidence. We trained mice in a visual task that p robes this combination. Mouse choices reflected not only present confidenc e and past rewards but also past confidence. Their behaviour conformed to a model that combines signal detection with reinforcement learning. In the model\, the predicted value of the chosen option is the product of sensor y confidence and learned value. We found precise correlates of this variab le in the pre-outcome activity of midbrain dopamine neurons and of medial prefrontal cortical neurons. However\, only the latter played a causal rol e: inactivating medial prefrontal cortex before outcome strengthened learn ing from the outcome. Dopamine neurons played a causal role only after out come\, when they encoded reward prediction errors graded by confidence\, i nfluencing subsequent choices. These results reveal neural signals that co mbine learned value with sensory confidence before choice outcome and guid e subsequent learning.\nSpeakers:\nDr Armin Lak (DPAG\, University of Oxfo rd) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/33cbfb77-8c6c-4ed3-89e5-f75fad2502c1/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk: Dopaminergic and prefrontal basis of learning from senso ry confidence and reward value. Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Be acon) Seminar - Dr Armin Lak (DPAG\, University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Neural Circuits of Cognition in Artificial and Biological Neural N etworks: Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: TBA - Da vid Freedman (University of Chicago) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191210T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191210T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/fd4188a1-c30f-4f93-8311-82fb3a680ed1/ DESCRIPTION:We have a remarkable ability to interpret incoming sensory sti muli and plan task-appropriate behavioral responses. This talk will presen t parallel experimental and computational approaches aimed at understandin g the circuit mechanisms and computations underlying flexible perceptual a nd categorical decisions. In particular\, our work is aimed at understandi ng how visual feature encoding in upstream sensory cortical areas is trans formed across the cortical hierarchy into more flexible task-related encod ing in the parietal and prefrontal cortices. The experimental studies util ize multielectrode recording approaches to monitor activity of neuronal po pulations\, as well as reversible cortical inactivation approaches\, durin g performance of visually-based decision making tasks. In parallel\, our c omputational work employs machine learning approaches to train recurrent a rtificial neural networks to perform the same tasks as in the experimental studies\, allowing a deeper investigation of putative neural circuit mech anisms used by both artificial and biological networks to solve cognitivel y demanding behavioral tasks.\nSpeakers:\nDavid Freedman (University of Ch icago) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/fd4188a1-c30f-4f93-8311-82fb3a680ed1/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Neural Circuits of Cognition in Artificial and Biological Neural Networks: Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: TBA - David Freedman (University of Chicago) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Neural co mputations underlying the arbitration between multiple systems for behavio ral control in humans - John O'Doherty (Caltech) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191118T120000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191118T130000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/357fa9c0-77b1-4928-854f-29952f906e60/ DESCRIPTION:Please note: this event is is collaboration with the Social Br ain and Behaviour Seminar Series Event\nSpeakers:\nJohn O'Doherty (Caltech ) LOCATION:Corpus Christi College (Auditorium)\, Merton Street OX1 4JF TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/357fa9c0-77b1-4928-854f-29952f906e60/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Neural computations underlying the arbitration between multiple systems fo r behavioral control in humans - John O'Doherty (Caltech) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Explorati on\, individual traits and nicotine addiction - Philippe Faure (CNRS\, Par is) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191112T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191112T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ec1dd639-0d53-4e03-a2eb-7023d3ad5026/ DESCRIPTION:TBA\nSpeakers:\nPhilippe Faure (CNRS\, Paris) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ec1dd639-0d53-4e03-a2eb-7023d3ad5026/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Exploration\, individual traits and nicotine addiction - Philippe Faure (C NRS\, Paris) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: TBA - Dr Lucie Charles (UCL) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191029T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191029T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/63ecd288-efcc-4ee9-83ef-a5173a11e2d0/ DESCRIPTION:TBA\nSpeakers:\nDr Lucie Charles (UCL) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/63ecd288-efcc-4ee9-83ef-a5173a11e2d0/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: TBA - Dr Lucie Charles (UCL) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Motivatio n\, Memory and Attractors - Dr Sanjay Manohar DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191015T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191015T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ee9a2ce6-5956-48dc-b2e0-54ec8bdc74c6/ DESCRIPTION:Performing well requires effort - which feels hard. But if mot ivation arises naturally and spontaneously\, then why should it feel hard? I am investigating the idea that this feeling of effort might come about when an inflexible system is influenced by a flexible one. A group of rela tively-isolated neurons will follow a particular rigid state trajectory\, but this can be stabilised by external inputs from flexible neural systems \, forming an attractor. The additional stabilising signals may constitute a cost\, that counts as effortful. I will outline three ways in which neu ral attractor states might be corrupted by random or irrelevant input\, an d thus deviate from a desired path. Simple attractor models can provide te stable predictions about how these disruptions impact behaviour. I will s how some of our attempts to study these mechanisms using saccades and work ing memory.\nSpeakers:\nDr Sanjay Manohar LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ee9a2ce6-5956-48dc-b2e0-54ec8bdc74c6/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Motivation\, Memory and Attractors - Dr Sanjay Manohar TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Mechanism s for Adaptive Learned Avoidance of Mental Effort - Asako Mitsuto Nagase ( Division of Neurology\, Department of Brain and Neurosciences\, Faculty of Medicine\, Tottori University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191008T133000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20191008T143000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/55fdabe9-e386-42f2-abec-4179d05f4563/ DESCRIPTION:In daily life\, we expend much mental effort e.g.\, for perfor ming office work. Earlier work showed that humans have the tendency to avo id mental effort as well as other effort. However\, it remained elusive wh ether humans avoid purely mental effort in changing environment. Further\, it also remained unclear what behavioral and neural mechanisms underlie s uch learned avoidance and whether the same mechanisms worked regardless of cognitive-demand types. We addressed these issues by developing novel sel ection tasks\, where the association between option and cognitive demand l evel changed over time\, with two variations of mental arithmetic and spat ial reasoning problems. As a result\, most of participants avoided options of higher mental effort\, and the demand of the second preceding trials a ffected their current choices. We fitted these avoiding participant’s ch oice data by several mathematical models. The probabilistic selection mode l outperformed the prediction error model in terms of the likelihood\, but the sequential effect did not be explained by the probabilistic selection model but prediction error model. Therefore\, we conducted model-based fM RI based on the prediction error model\, and revealed that activity in the dorsomedial frontal cortex / dorsal anterior cingulate cortex\, and anter ior middle frontal gyrus was positively correlated with the trial-by-trial expected cost for the chosen option commonly across the different types o f cognitive demand. Further\, we identified brain areas correlating with c ost prediction error at time of answering the problem\, which partially ov erlapped with or were adjacent to the correlates of expected cost at time of choice cue in the dorsomedial frontal cortex. These results suggest tha t human avoid mental effort adaptively\, and represent expected cost and c ost prediction error irrespective of cognitive-demand types.\nSpeakers:\nA sako Mitsuto Nagase (Division of Neurology\, Department of Brain and Neuro sciences\, Faculty of Medicine\, Tottori University) LOCATION:Anna Watts Building (2nd Floor Room 10.62)\, Radcliffe Observator y Quarter\, Woodstock Road OX2 6GG TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/55fdabe9-e386-42f2-abec-4179d05f4563/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Mechanisms for Adaptive Learned Avoidance of Mental Effort - Asako Mitsuto Nagase (Division of Neurology\, Department of Brain and Neurosciences\, F aculty of Medicine\, Tottori University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY: Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Mapping the Evolution and Development of the Primate Brain by Neuroimaging Techniq ues - Dr Tomoko Sakai (National Institute of Radiological Sciences) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190910T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190910T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5317359e-54fd-42ce-96a0-f05895caa7e8/ DESCRIPTION:The brain size of humans (Homo sapiens) has increased dramatic ally during the evolution of Homo. As a result\, modern human brains are m ore than three times larger than the brains of chimpanzees (Pan troglodyte s). Elucidating the similarities and differences between humans and non-hu man primates regarding the phylogenetic and ontogenetic mechanisms underly ing brain structure is important for understanding the remarkable brain en largement in humans. Furthermore\, these biological insights will provide important clues to clarify the substrates of brain functions and mental de velopmental disorders seen in humans\, such as autism disorders\, learning disabilities\, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Over the pas t century\, studies of comparative primate morphology on a number of prese rved brain samples led to the proposal that prolongation of the high fetal developmental rate after birth and extension of the juvenile period were essential to promote the remarkable brain enlargement of humans and the em ergence of human-specific cognitive and behavioral traits. However\, the u nderlying phylogenetic and ontogenetic processes governing the brain enlar gement observed in humans remain unclear\, in part because the development al trajectory of the brain has not been adequately explored in our closest living primate relatives\, the chimpanzees. To address the above difficul ty and obtain empirical evidence about the remarkable enlargement of the h uman brain\, we tracked the development of the cerebral tissues in growing chimpanzees from the fetal period to the juvenile period using three-dime nsional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound scanning\, and com pared these results with previously recorded data from humans and rhesus m acaques (Macaca mulatta). Our results reveal common features of the devel opmental trajectory of brain tissues among primates\, common features betw een hominoids (humans and chimpanzees)\, as well as unique features of hum ans. In this talk\, I will introduce five representative topics about our comparative imaging studies of brain development among humans and non-huma n primates. Finally\, I will present our ongoing comparative primate MRI s tudy performed by combining high-field MRI and cutting-edge computational neuroanatomy. This novel approach will enable us to comprehensively clarif y the evolutionary similarities and differences in cortical and subcortica l structures during evolution from non-human primates to the human lineage . This effort will increase our understanding of human brain circuitry and function and may ultimately contribute to better diagnosis and treatment of human mental disorders.\nSpeakers:\nDr Tomoko Sakai (National Institute of Radiological Sciences) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5317359e-54fd-42ce-96a0-f05895caa7e8/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk: Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Mapping the Evolution and Development of the Primate Brain by Neuroimagin g Techniques - Dr Tomoko Sakai (National Institute of Radiological Science s) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: A divisiv e model of evidence accumulation - Bob Wilson (University of Arizona) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190708T140000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190708T150000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/904eb60c-efff-4c21-9ef4-215b08670149/ DESCRIPTION:\nSpeakers:\nBob Wilson (University of Arizona) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre )\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/904eb60c-efff-4c21-9ef4-215b08670149/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: A divisive model of evidence accumulation - Bob Wilson (University of Ariz ona) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:**CANCELLED** Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Semi nar: How does recent experience impact perception and memory? - Dr Athena Akrami (UCL) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190709T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190709T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/490bd60d-3317-413a-b08d-65a078faa422/ DESCRIPTION:As we navigate in the environment\, our brain receives only a restricted amount of information from a complex yet structured external wo rld. The intrinsic ambiguity of such sensory input calls for “prior expe rience” to help perception\, and to parse stimuli into predefined catego ries. In this talk\, I present two sets of studies\, one based on a rodent auditory Parametric Working Memory (PWM) task that involves the sequentia l comparison of two graded stimuli separated by a few seconds’ delay. Th is allows us to study “prior experience” via “contraction bias”\, the progressive shift of the first stimulus representation towards the cen ter of a prior distribution built from the past sensory experience. Using data from high-throughput semi-automated training protocols\, we develope d statistical models to quantify behaviour and characterise how and on wha t timescales priors are distributed\, and how they interact with other fac tors to form the final decision. Combining quantitative behavioural analys es with recordings and perturbations in Posterior Parietal Cortex (PPC)\, we discovered PPC’s crucial history-dependent contribution to working me mory behaviours\; specifically\, its impact on “contraction bias”\, vi a the memory of previous sensory events. The other study is based on psych ophysical paradigms of priming vs. adaptation aftereffect in humans\, wher e the perception of an ambiguous target stimulus is affected by an immedia tely preceding stimulus\, the ‘adapter’.I explore the hypothesis that these perceptual phenomena may arise from universal computational mechanis ms of local cortical networks. \nSpeakers:\nDr Athena Akrami (UCL) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/490bd60d-3317-413a-b08d-65a078faa422/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:**CANCELLED** Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Bea con) Seminar: How does recent experience impact perception and memory? - D r Athena Akrami (UCL) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: How we re member and how we forget - Dr Aiden Horner (University of York ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190702T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190702T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/851b29a6-d473-4169-8491-ca3bfd051d6b/ DESCRIPTION:Our ability to remember complex real-world events is thought t o be supported by ‘event engrams’ – coherent representations of the constituent elements of any event that allow for later recollection. The h ippocampus is thought to support these representations\, receiving input f rom multiple neocortical regions to bind together the multiple elements of any event. At retrieval\, a partial cue is thought to lead to the retriev al of a complete event engram (pattern completion) and subsequent reinstat ement in the neocortex. I will present behavioural\, computational and fMR I evidence to support the proposal that recollection is supported by the e xistence of complex event engrams in the hippocampus that are retrieved an d reinstated by a pattern completion process. I will then ask how such eve nt engrams are forgotten – do they fragment such that we forget some asp ects of an event whilst retaining others\, or are they forgotten in a rela tively all-or-none fashion? Across a body of research\, I will provide evi dence that complex events are both remembered and forgotten in a relativel y all-or-none manner – event engrams are encoded in a highly coherent ma nner and retain this coherence over time.\nSpeakers:\nDr Aiden Horner (Uni versity of York ) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/851b29a6-d473-4169-8491-ca3bfd051d6b/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: How we remember and how we forget - Dr Aiden Horner (University of York ) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: The Succe ssor Representation in Choice Evaluation - Dr Evan Russek (UCL) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190625T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190625T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f2bbbe5d-a8da-49c6-bf15-fb258e5a9a79/ DESCRIPTION:Computing the value of a choice in multi-step planning tasks i s typically thought to require simulating its resultant sequence of task s tates. In this talk\, I’ll present evidence that the brain simplifies th is potentially intractable computation using the successor representation (SR)\, which forgoes simulation and instead stores and re-uses predictions about states that will occur multiple time-steps following the choice. Su ch predictions are learned from experience and used to provide a represent ation for choices under evaluation. I’ll first present a behavioral stud y demonstrating that\, following task changes\, humans make a pattern of e rrors\, predicted by the SR\, in altering choices. I’ll then discuss an FMRI study providing evidence that previously documented neural markers of predictive representations\, observed in sensory cortex pre-activation\, as well as in the representations of task stimuli in hippocampus and media l prefrontal cortex\, relate to this pattern of errors\, thus providing ne ural evidence for this approach. Overall\, this work contributes towards a mechanistic understanding for how the brain accomplishes multi-step plann ing\, as well as a refined understanding as to why behavior is often infle xible in the face of change.\nSpeakers:\nDr Evan Russek (UCL) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f2bbbe5d-a8da-49c6-bf15-fb258e5a9a79/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: The Successor Representation in Choice Evaluation - Dr Evan Russek (UCL) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Construct ing\, integrating\, and navigating cognitive maps of social hierarchies - Dr Erie Boorman (University of California\, Davis) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190614T120000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190614T130000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/8bbfffaf-56ca-4884-866e-130d637152aa/ DESCRIPTION:Recent findings suggest the hippocampal-entorhinal (HPC-ERC) s ystem may serve a general mechanism for representing and navigating cognit ive maps of non-spatial tasks. These map-like representations can be used to guide flexible goal-directed decisions. However\, it is unclear whether this system\, and interconnected ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)\, use the same principles to guide everyday model-based decisions in the ab sence of continuous sensory feedback – such as whom to collaborate with or where to eat. In my talk I will present two fMRI studies designed to ad dress these gaps. \nIn study 1 participants first separately learned the r ank of neighboring people on each of two social dimensions–popularity an d competence–in two separate groups. Participants could infer the overal l structure of each group hierarchy\, which was never shown\, through tran sitive inferences. Next\, they learned the relative rank of select individ uals (“hubs”) in each group with the other group\, creating a unique a ssociative path between groups. Finally\, they made inferences about the r ank of novel pairs between the two groups. Reaction times and BOLD activit y in ERC and vmPFC during decisions depended on the Euclidian distance to the latent hub. FMRI suppression further revealed the latent hub was reins tated in HPC during decisions to guide inferences. Finally\, pattern simil arity analyses showed that people who were more proximal in Euclidian dist ance in the mentally reconstructed 2-D space were represented progressivel y more similarly in HPC and ERC\, consistent with a cognitive map of the a bstract 2-D social hierarchy. These results shed light on how abstract and discrete structures are represented\, navigated\, and combined in the hum an brain. \nIn study 2 we investigated the neural code that might underpin discrete decisions about individuals in the social network. In each trial \, an entrepreneur was presented with two potential collaborators. Partici pants were asked to choose the better partner between two for a given entr epreneur by comparing the ‘growth potential (GP)’ of two pairs. First\ , we replicated the finding that the level of pattern dissimilarity in the HPC and ERC increased with the pairwise Euclidean distance between entrep reneurs in the 2-D social network\, suggesting that separately learned dim ensions are integrated into a 2-D cognitive map. Second\, we found that th e ERC\, vmPFC\, intraparietal area\, and posteromedial cortex all display hexadirectional signals to encode the direction of trajectories between en trepreneurs over the abstract social space. Finally\, we found that the ER C and vmPFC encode the difference in GP between pairs at the time of decis ions\, suggesting their roles in comparing the values of each decision opt ion from the multidimensional cognitive map. Our findings show that a grid -like code in the human brain is extended to encode trajectories over an a bstract and discrete social space during decision making\, which may sugge st a general mechanism for how the brain implements model-based decisions. \n\nSpeakers:\nDr Erie Boorman (University of California\, Davis) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre )\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/8bbfffaf-56ca-4884-866e-130d637152aa/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Constructing\, integrating\, and navigating cognitive maps of social hiera rchies - Dr Erie Boorman (University of California\, Davis) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Nucleus a ccumbens circuits in reward and aversion - Dr Ana Rodrigues (Universidade do Minho\, Portugal) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190521T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190521T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2242c783-a76e-42ca-b8aa-c70a3a07313c/ DESCRIPTION:Reward perception is as equally as important for survival as a version. A core region involved in attributing valence is the nucleus accu mbens\, that is mainly composed by medium spiny neurons (MSNs)\, expressin g either dopamine receptor D1 or D2. Classically\, D1-MSNs have been assoc iated with positive reinforcement and reward\, whereas D2-MSNs neurons are associated with negative reinforcement and aversion. However\, recent evi dence challenged this functional dichotomy hypothesis.\nIn this seminar\, I will show that both D1- and D2-MSNs can drive reward and aversion. This bidirectional effect is dependent on the activation pattern of these neuro ns\, and consequent electrophysiological effects in downstream regions\, n amely the VTA and ventral pallidum.\nI will also present some data on the role of laterodorsal tegmentum inputs to nucleus accumbens in different as pects of reward-related behaviors.\n\nSpeakers:\nDr Ana Rodrigues (Univers idade do Minho\, Portugal) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre )\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2242c783-a76e-42ca-b8aa-c70a3a07313c/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Nucleus accumbens circuits in reward and aversion - Dr Ana Rodrigues (Univ ersidade do Minho\, Portugal) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: The surpr ising power of trial-and-error learning - Dr Eliot Ludvig (University of W arwick ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190514T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190514T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a1f158ba-1620-40c2-a882-e00dd00f6715/ DESCRIPTION:Humans and other animals are highly adept at adapting their be havior to changes in the rewards in their environments. Trial-and-error le arning is one of the simplest mechanisms for such improving from experienc e and forms the backbone of many of the key computational models of reward learning. These models\, however\, are unable to explain even basic learn ing phenomena\, such as spontaneous recovery\, where the degree of respond ing in a learning task can change with the passage of time. In this talk\, I present a computational model that extends trial-and-error to learning from imagined or replayed experiences. This extension provides a novel exp lanation for many puzzling aspects of conditioning as well as for memory b iases in risky choice and even potentially for curiosity and information-s eeking. The breadth of empirical phenomena addressed by the model illustra tes the power of a trial-and-error learning rule applied to both real and remembered experiences. \nSpeakers:\nDr Eliot Ludvig (University of Warwic k ) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre )\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a1f158ba-1620-40c2-a882-e00dd00f6715/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: The surprising power of trial-and-error learning - Dr Eliot Ludvig (Univer sity of Warwick ) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: White Mat ter plasticity and myelination in the adult brain in response to learning - Dr Cassandra Sampaio-Baptista (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190611T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190611T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/701408f1-9335-40e0-a59a-a14a35914555/ DESCRIPTION:White matter plasticity is a recently described mechanism by w hich experience shapes brain structure and function during adulthood. This phenomenon was first described in adult humans with complex motor skill l earning using whole brain non-invasive diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). I h ave used rodent models in combination with imaging techniques to further i nvestigate the underlying cellular mechanisms of white matter plasticity. I found evidence of myelin changes with learning and experience\, which co uld\, to some extent\, be related to the imaging findings in humans.\nSpea kers:\nDr Cassandra Sampaio-Baptista (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/701408f1-9335-40e0-a59a-a14a35914555/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: White Matter plasticity and myelination in the adult brain in response to learning - Dr Cassandra Sampaio-Baptista (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Learning and consolidating patterns in experience - Dr Anna Shapiro (UPenn (USA)) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190522T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190522T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/87d3aa87-e5c4-4b8a-9180-3a2e1db43c14/ DESCRIPTION:There is a fundamental tension between storing discrete traces of individual experiences\, which allows recall of particular moments in our past without interference\, and extracting regularities across these e xperiences\, which supports generalization and prediction in similar situa tions in the future. This tension is resolved in classic memory systems th eories by separating these processes anatomically: the hippocampus rapidly encodes individual episodes\, while the cortex slowly extracts regulariti es over days\, months\, and years. This framework fails\, however\, to acc ount for the full range of human learning and memory behavior\, including: (1) how we often learn regularities quite quickly—within a few minutes or hours\, and (2) how these memories transform over time and as a result of sleep. I will present evidence from fMRI and patient studies suggesting that the hippocampus\, in addition to its well-established role in episod ic memory\, is in fact also responsible for our ability to rapidly extract regularities. I will then use computational modeling of the hippocampus t o demonstrate how these two competing learning processes can coexist in on e brain structure. Finally\, I will present empirical and simulation work showing how these initial hippocampal memories are replayed during offline periods to help stabilize and integrate them into cortical networks. Toge ther\, the work provides insight into how structured information in our en vironment is initially encoded and how it then transforms over time.\nSpea kers:\nDr Anna Shapiro (UPenn (USA)) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/87d3aa87-e5c4-4b8a-9180-3a2e1db43c14/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Learning and consolidating patterns in experience - Dr Anna Shapiro (UPenn (USA)) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Spectral fingerprints of large-scale neuronal interactions - Dr Marcus Siegel (Univ ersity of Tübingen\, Germany) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190618T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190618T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e7d1d915-7f35-4f0e-9163-ab615daac175/ DESCRIPTION:\nSpeakers:\nDr Marcus Siegel (University of Tübingen\, Germa ny) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e7d1d915-7f35-4f0e-9163-ab615daac175/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Spectral fingerprints of large-scale neuronal interactions - Dr Marcus Sie gel (University of Tübingen\, Germany) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Reward in the motor system - Dr Joseph Galea (University of Birmingham) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190507T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190507T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a9203301-7460-4162-beef-51071af2aa18/ DESCRIPTION:The impact of reward on motor behaviour has gathered extreme i nterest over the last decade as beneficial effects have been shown on exec ution\, learning and retention. To explain such results\, it has been sugg ested that reward leads to dopamine-dependent habitual-like behaviour (Hai th and Krakauer\, 2013)\, making it a promising tool for rehabilitation. T his talk introduces an alternative hypothesis which proposes that the bene ficial effects of reward are mainly driven by the greater engagement of co gnitive control. Using a range of behavioural tasks\, we show that reward- based improvements in memory retention are driven by the development and e xpression of an cognitive-strategy that is strongly linked to spatial work ing memory capacity (Codol et al.\, 2018\; Holland et al.\, 2018). Next\, we show that the trial-by-trial effects of reward on reaching performance (enhanced accuracy and speed) can be\, at least partially\, explained thro ugh increased muscle co-contraction\, another possible cognitive-strategy. Finally\, we show that reward-based effects on complex sequential actions have initial transient properties\, more akin to cognitive control\, but which over time appear to become more habitual (reward-based motor chunkin g). These conclusions are discussed in the context of rehabilitation and s pecifically in the importance of accounting for reward-based cognitive-con trol mechanisms. \nSpeakers:\nDr Joseph Galea (University of Birmingham) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a9203301-7460-4162-beef-51071af2aa18/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: Reward in the motor system - Dr Joseph Galea (University of Birmingham) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Animal models of episodic memory - Dr Jon Crystal (University of I ndiana USA) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190325T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190325T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/0d9e7d29-126b-4f5b-a8ae-2fce51e5a74c/ DESCRIPTION:People retrieve episodic memories about specific earlier event s that happened to them. Accordingly\, researchers have sought to evaluate the hypothesis that nonhumans retrieve episodic memories. The central hyp othesis of an animal model of episodic memory is that\, at the moment of a memory assessment\, the animal retrieves a memory of a specific earlier e vent. We tested this hypothesis by ruling out non-episodic memory hypothes es. We developed a range of approaches\, so that we have working models to evaluate elements of episodic memory in animals. These approaches include : what-where-when memory (Zhou & Crystal 2009\, PNAS)\; source memory (Cry stal\, Alford\, Zhou\, & Hohmann 2013\, Current Biology)\; binding of epis odic memories (Crystal & Smith 2014\, Current Biology)\; multiple item-in- context memories (Panoz-Brown et al.\, 2016\, Current Biology)\; replay of episodic memories (Panoz-Brown et al.\, 2018\, Current Biology)\; and ans wering unexpected questions after incidental encoding (Zhou\, Hohmann\, & Crystal 2012\, Current Biology). In each approach\, evidence for episodic memory comes from studies in which judgments of familiarity cannot produce accurate choices in memory assessments. These approaches may be used to e xplore the evolution of memory. \nSpeakers:\nDr Jon Crystal (University of Indiana USA) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/0d9e7d29-126b-4f5b-a8ae-2fce51e5a74c/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Animal models of episodic memory - Dr Jon Crystal (Univer sity of Indiana USA) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:A unifying perspective on working memory limits - Dr Paul Bays (U niversity of Cambridge) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190312T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190312T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b0ca8f99-1523-4758-a5b3-68e4fa640f64/ DESCRIPTION:coming soon\nSpeakers:\nDr Paul Bays (University of Cambridge) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b0ca8f99-1523-4758-a5b3-68e4fa640f64/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:A unifying perspective on working memory limits - Dr Pau l Bays (University of Cambridge) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Title TBC DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190212T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190212T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/58568c17-01a7-4ed5-8381-afef5cdfdd34/ DESCRIPTION:coming soon\nSpeakers:\nFiona McNab (University of York) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/58568c17-01a7-4ed5-8381-afef5cdfdd34/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Title TBC TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Title TBC DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190122T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20190122T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/02a10516-f601-43c5-a460-9ea17f345e81/ DESCRIPTION:Coming Soon\nSpeakers:\nMarcel Van Gerven (Nijmegen) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/02a10516-f601-43c5-a460-9ea17f345e81/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Title TBC TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Cognitive & Behavioural Neuroscience Seminar - Understanding Emoti onal Actions - Dr Inge Volman (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181204T131500Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181204T141500Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/210ca92a-70f9-40e2-9ac7-edb3cd65af74/ DESCRIPTION:Our emotions guide our actions. This can be beneficial\, for e xample when fear induces quick avoidance from threatening situations\, or detrimental when it leads to social isolation in highly anxious individual s. Emotional behaviour is shaped by an interaction of emotional action bia ses\, goal-directed action plans and control thereof. In this talk I will highlight the influence of those processes on emotional actions. I will pr esent a line of studies employing emotional approach-avoidance paradigms t o assess the neural and behavioural computations underlying emotional acti ons. I will focus on data from healthy participants\, as well as populatio ns with high aggression and anxiety problems. I will show how a distinct n eural network of anterior prefrontal cortex - amygdala interactions underl ies control of emotional actions. A change within the functioning of this network is related to several affective disorders and might underlie react ive aggressive problems.\nSpeakers:\nDr Inge Volman (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/210ca92a-70f9-40e2-9ac7-edb3cd65af74/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Cognitive & Behavioural Neuroscience Seminar - Understand ing Emotional Actions - Dr Inge Volman (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Forming beliefs about ourselves: encoding decision confidence in t he human brain - Dr Steve Fleming (UCL) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181127T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181127T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/905fce66-0667-42e6-bdac-eb63dbc42cec/ DESCRIPTION:Decisions are often made in the face of uncertainty and in the absence of immediate feedback. In these scenarios a metacognitive sense o f confidence in having made a correct choice can be used to guide future b ehaviour. Recent computational models propose that our sense of confidence reflects an estimate of the probability that a choice is correct. However it has proven difficult to experimentally separate decision confidence fr om its component parts\, such as our certainty about perceptual evidence o r requirements for explicit reports. We devised a task to dissociate these quantities and isolate a distinct encoding of decision confidence in the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) of the human brain. We show t hat fMRI activity in this area not only tracks expected performance on a t ask\, but also is related to both within- and between-subject variation in a subjective sense of confidence. In contrast\, brain areas previously pr oposed to encode decision confidence instead tracked sensory reliability ( posterior parietal cortex and ventral striatum) or criterion distance (pre supplementary motor area). In my talk I will expand on these findings in l ight of broader theories of the contribution of the human frontal lobe to metacognition. I will argue that metacognition research holds particular p romise for shedding light on disorders of mental health\, as it seeks to d evelop models of how we form beliefs about ourselves at multiple levels of abstraction.\nSpeakers:\nDr Steve Fleming (UCL) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/905fce66-0667-42e6-bdac-eb63dbc42cec/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Forming beliefs about ourselves: encoding decision confid ence in the human brain - Dr Steve Fleming (UCL) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dissecting the connection between dopamine\, cue salience and rein forcement learning - Dr Anna Huber (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181120T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181120T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/942748d9-e324-43ce-9c37-115a3284efcb/ DESCRIPTION:Using environmental cues to predict rewarding events is essent ial for adaptive behaviour in humans and animals alike. Dopamine is strong ly implicated in this process of reinforcement learning\, specifically pha sic changes in dopamine release in the ventral striatum\, which correlate with a reward prediction error signal necessary for such learning. Howeve r\, while much is known about striatal dopamine\, it is unclear what influ ence dopamine in other brain regions\, particularly the cortex\, might pla y in mediating other factors that influence how such associations are acqu ired and expressed. To address this issue\, we have investigated the behav iour and neurochemistry of a transgenic mouse model which exhibits lower l evels of dopamine turnover in the cortex by mimicking a polymorphism found in the human catechol-O-methyltransferase gene (COMT Val158Met). I will present a series of experiments that reveals that COMT genotype affects re inforcement learning in a manner that is dependent on cue salience. I will then relate this effect to specific and selective changes in phasic dopam ine release in the ventral striatum. Taken together\, these experiments sh ow that COMT genotype – and by implication\, cortical dopamine – impac ts striatal dopamine release during learning and controls the selection of a particular behavioural response to a reward-associated\, salient cue.\n Speakers:\nDr Anna Huber (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/942748d9-e324-43ce-9c37-115a3284efcb/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Dissecting the connection between dopamine\, cue salience and reinforcement learning - Dr Anna Huber (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Diametric Changes in Ventral Striatal Dopamine Release Underlie Dr ug-Taking and Drug-Seeking Behaviors - Dr Lauren Burgeno (University of Ox ford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181113T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181113T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1aedb29a-a35e-4c16-acf7-0470726e9e84/ DESCRIPTION:Though altered dopamine transmission is implicated in most con temporary theories of addiction\, the timing\, context\, and directionalit y of these changes remain a matter of debate. While some studies demonstra te dopamine in the nucleus accumbens core (NAcc) plays an important role i n producing drug satiety\, others suggest NAcc dopamine mediates craving a nd promotes drug seeking. \n \nHow might drug-cue elicited dopamine transm ission in the NAcc serve both as a satiety signal and to produce craving? Drug cues serve different purposes in different contexts. During drug-ta king\, cues confirm the success of drug-seeking actions and indicate immin ent drug delivery\, thus suppressing further drug-seeking. In contrast\, d uring reinstatement paradigms\, the same cues\, presented unexpectedly dur ing abstinence\, signal possible drug availability nearby and promote drug -seeking. For NAcc dopamine to both decrease drug-taking and increase dru g-seeking\, we hypothesize there must be a divergence in the dopamine sign als evoked by drug-paired cues when presented in drug-taking vs. -seeking contexts. To test this hypothesis we used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry in rats to measure changes in drug-cue elicited dopamine over time in both o f these contexts. Indeed\, we found that while cue-elicited dopamine tran smission significantly decreases over the course of weeks of drug-taking\, dopamine responses to the same cues presented in a drug-seeking context i ncrease. We also found that the cue-elicited dopamine signals observed du ring drug-seeking ‘incubate’ further during prolonged periods of absti nence\, and that this occurs in parallel with enhancements in drug-seeking behavior. To confirm that changes in dopamine release were regulating th e drug-taking and drug-seeking behavior we observed we also employed optog enetic manipulations of dopamine release to demonstrate that enhancing dop amine during drug-taking suppresses drug intake\, and enhancing dopamine d uring drug-seeking promotes drug-seeking behaviors.\nSpeakers:\nDr Lauren Burgeno (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1aedb29a-a35e-4c16-acf7-0470726e9e84/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Diametric Changes in Ventral Striatal Dopamine Release Un derlie Drug-Taking and Drug-Seeking Behaviors - Dr Lauren Burgeno (Univers ity of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Using therapy apps and brain stimulation to improve reading in pos t-stroke aphasia - Dr Zoe Woodhead (University of Oxford\, UCL) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181030T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181030T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ddbe61e4-97f5-4d2b-9a23-0bcaa509f282/ DESCRIPTION:Reading impairments are a common consequence of left hemispher e stroke. They can occur as isolated reading impairments (pure alexia) or in the context of a more general speech and language impairment (central a lexia). In both conditions\, the sudden loss of reading ability can have a very negative impact on quality of life and the ability to return to work . There is no standard treatment for reading impairments\, and as NHS prov ision of speech and language therapy diminishes\, evidence-based therapy a pps are one possible solution for the growing treatment gap.\n\nIn this ta lk I will describe the results of two clinical trials of reading therapy i n pure and central alexia\, using a novel word training app called ‘iRea dMore’. Both trials resulted in significant improvements in word reading ability\, but with limited generalisation to untrained words or sentence- level reading. In the central alexia trial\, non-invasive brain stimulatio n (transcranial direct current stimulation\, tDCS) of the left inferior fr ontal gyrus resulted in a facilitation of word learning\, and improved gen eralisation to untrained items. Neuroimaging studies using MRI and MEG inv estigated the neural networks involved in reading\, and gave insights into the possible mechanisms underlying the therapy effects. \n\nSpeakers:\nDr Zoe Woodhead (University of Oxford\, UCL) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ddbe61e4-97f5-4d2b-9a23-0bcaa509f282/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Using therapy apps and brain stimulation to improve readi ng in post-stroke aphasia - Dr Zoe Woodhead (University of Oxford\, UCL) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Selective memory retention and updating schematic knowledge - Dr T omonori Takeuchi (Aarhus University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181015T120000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181015T130000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/eb6890eb-667c-4d05-af25-d43a200d347d/ DESCRIPTION:Knowledge plays a central role in human life. Indeed\, we are who we are largely because of what we learn and what we remember. Our know ledge structure (‘schema’) consists of our past experiences and facts stored in our long-term memory. We use our schemas to organize current kno wledge and provide a framework for future understanding. A key but poorly understood issue is how the memories of everyday events initially stored i n the hippocampus are ‘selected’ and then ‘assimilated’ into a rel evant schema in the neocortex.\nSelective retention can be triggered by no velty-induced dopamine release in the hippocampus. We made a ground-breaki ng finding (Takeuchi et al.\, Nature\, 2016): projections from the noradre nergic locus coeruleus to the hippocampus can drive the novelty-induced me mory enhancement via a non-canonical release of dopamine. This study also raises a possibility that the impact of distinct novel experiences that be ar only minimal relationship to past experiences (‘distinct novelty’) may differ from novel experiences that share some commonality with past on es (‘common novelty’) (Yamasaki and Takeuchi\, Neural Plasticity\, 201 7\; Duszkiewicz et al.\, Trends Neurosci\, In press). We now propose that memory of events accompanied by novelty can be selectively retained throug h two distinct dopaminergic mechanisms\, depending on the nature of the no vel experience itself.\nSelected new memories can assimilate into the neoc ortical schema very rapidly if the relevant schema is already learned (Tse et al.\, Science\, 2007). The functional mapping with immediately-early g ene expression indicated that medial neocortical structures (the prelimbic \, the anterior cingulate and anterior region of the retrosplenial cortice s)-hippocampal connectivity was strongly associated with successful assimi lation of new information into the relevant schema (Tse\, Takeuchi et al.\ , Science\, 2011\; Takeuchi and Tamura\, unpublished). Pharmacological int erventions established that there was parallel memory encoding in the neoc ortex\, including the prelimbic cortex\, through NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartat e)-type glutamate receptor-dependent plasticity mechanisms during the hipp ocampal-dependent learning of new information against the backdrop of a sc hema (Tse\, Takeuchi et al.\, Science\, 2011).\nUnderstanding the neural m echanisms of selective retention and assimilation of selected new memories into relevant schema may bring us towards a more effective and consciousl y aimed behavioural schema therapy as well as provide suggestions for bett er teaching and learning strategies.\nSpeakers:\nDr Tomonori Takeuchi (Aar hus University) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/eb6890eb-667c-4d05-af25-d43a200d347d/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Selective memory retention and updating schematic knowled ge - Dr Tomonori Takeuchi (Aarhus University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Action-selection under threat: algorithms and neural circuits for survival - Professor Dominik Bach (University of Zurich) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181023T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181023T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f42a9615-9abe-4f67-8c95-329922d1de41/ DESCRIPTION:Behaving appropriately under threat is key to survival. In my talk\, I will provide a decision-theoretic view on this action selection p roblem and ask\, what are computational algorithms and neural controllers that underlie this behavior. Non-human animal data tentatively suggest a s pecific architecture that relies on tailored algorithms for specific threa t scenarios. To make this plausible in humans\, I build on fear-conditioni ng paradigms\, as well as on a translation of approach-avoidance conflict (AAC)\, a classical rodent anxiety model\, to human computer games. I will analyze possible cognitive-computational algorithms for behavioral contro l and learning in these tasks\, and their neural implementation. \nSpeaker s:\nProfessor Dominik Bach (University of Zurich) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f42a9615-9abe-4f67-8c95-329922d1de41/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Action-selection under threat: algorithms and neural circ uits for survival - Professor Dominik Bach (University of Zurich) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Cooperation: A Social Strategy? - Dr Wei Song Ong (University of P ennsylvania) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181001T150000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181001T160000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c63e1377-77e7-4c59-ad88-9f3674c826d8/ DESCRIPTION:Real world decisions are usually made within a social context. Many of our actions are chosen considering vicarious feelings of another ’s reward or pain. However\, there are times where this desire for anoth er’s wellbeing is in conflict with self-interest\, resulting in the need to rely upon strategic reasoning about the beliefs\, desires\, and goals of others to make our decisions. \n \nTo take a closer look at the neural mechanisms underlying such processes\, we utilize a iterated game which al lows interactive play between two players. We demonstrated that the primat es\, both human and non-human rely upon recursive reasoning to carry out g ameplay. In the non-human primates\, we obtained spiking activity in two b rain areas\, the primate homolog of the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) w hich is implicated in mentalizing\, and the anterior cingulate gyrus\, an area connected to empathy and vicarious experience. We found that the neu rons in TPJ were able to signal cooperative action\, an abstract concept t hat is independent of realized reward and motor action. This suggests that the capacity to reason strategically is deeply rooted in the social behav ior of primates. \n\nSpeakers:\nDr Wei Song Ong (University of Pennsylvani a) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Room SO10)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c63e1377-77e7-4c59-ad88-9f3674c826d8/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Cooperation: A Social Strategy? - Dr Wei Song Ong (Univer sity of Pennsylvania) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Retrospective metacognition and reward in humans and social decisi on-making in humans and macaques - Dr Igor Kagan (University of Goettingen ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181002T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181002T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/aa9fc4c9-3885-4a77-93d8-3c35fd9fd233/ DESCRIPTION:Higher order decision-making enables primates to behave adapti vely in uncertain and complex social environments. I will present three st udies that address metacognitive and social aspects of value-based decisio ns under uncertainty. \nI will show that metacognitive evaluation via post -decision wagering enables humans to read out not only the strength but al so both directions of certainty about preceding perceptual decision: certa inty of having done a correct choice or of being incorrect. In several bra in regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex\, the dorsal anterio r cingulate cortex and the intraparietal sulcus\, this paradigm elicited f MRI activity consistent with bidirectional certainty encoding.\nExtending previous finding that retrospective effort judgments are influenced by the magnitude of received rewards to a social setting\, I will demonstrate th at people also integrate reward information when judging the effort exerte d by others\, in Bayes optimal manner. Remarkably\, the extent to which re wards influence effort judgments was correlated with conservative world-vi ews\, indicating that this phenomenon might be related to more general bel iefs about the association between effort and reward in the society.\nIn t he third part\, I will compare the choice behavior in human\, macaque\, an d human confederate-macaque pairs in the classical dyadic coordination gam e (‘Bach or Stravinsky’)\, implemented in a real-time visuomotor setti ng with two agents sitting vis-à-vis separated by a transparent screen an d two-sided touch panel. I will describe different strategies the two spec ies employ to converge to optimal (Nash) equilibria and “fair” outcome s. I will conclude by placing these findings in the context of game-theore tic framework we call “transparent games”\, which addresses the probab ilistic impact of partner’s action visibility on emergence and maintenan ce of coordination\, and provides a model of interactions under time const raints.\nSpeakers:\nDr Igor Kagan (University of Goettingen) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/aa9fc4c9-3885-4a77-93d8-3c35fd9fd233/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Retrospective metacognition and reward in humans and soci al decision-making in humans and macaques - Dr Igor Kagan (University of G oettingen) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease—imbalances in top -down vs. bottom up information processing - Dr Claire O'Callaghan (Unive rsity of Cambridge) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181211T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181211T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/91afe3e5-f9fc-4b6f-a582-87661afa3666/ DESCRIPTION:Perception can be considered a process of inference where bott om-up sensory information is integrated with previously learnt information about the world. Imbalances in this process can contribute to the develop ment of hallucinations. My talk will cover work in Parkinson’s disease v isual hallucinations\, where we have used a variety of methodologies (i.e. \, cognitive tasks\, MRI\, and computational modelling) to explore sensory evidence accumulation processes and top-down influences over vision relat ed to the default network. These studies will be discussed with reference to the evolution of visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease and the potential role for a predictive processing account. \nSpeakers:\nDr Cl aire O'Callaghan (University of Cambridge) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/91afe3e5-f9fc-4b6f-a582-87661afa3666/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease—imbalanc es in top-down vs. bottom up information processing - Dr Claire O'Callagh an (University of Cambridge) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Neuroimaging of the catecholaminergic modulation of response inhib ition using the stop signal task - Professor Mitul Mehta (King's College L ondon) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181016T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181016T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e43114cc-2d64-405b-8fbf-667b497b964c/ DESCRIPTION:Response inhibition is a behavioural construct whereby planned or prepotent responses are to be inhibited or countermanded. Research in experimental animals and humans has consistently linked this to an intact catecholamine system with dopaminergic and noradrenergic systems proposed to have a role. In humans\, using the stop signal task to assess the neura l basis of countermanding behaviour\, the inferior frontal gyrus\, the (pr e-)supplementary motor areas and basal ganglia have been associated with s uccessful stopping\, although the network activated by stop signal tasks w ith fMRI is more widespread. One feature of stop tasks is the infrequent a nd salient nature of the stop signals. When this confound is accounted for in specific variants of task design the pre-SMA is specifically linked to stopping with important ‘attentional’ roles for other parts of the ne twork. The administration of methylphenidate\, a dopamine and noradrenalin e reuptake inhibitor\, alters behaviour and brain activity during the stop task but the precise effects depend on the inclusion of attentional contr ols. Similarly\, with atomoxetine\, a noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor\, t he modulation of the fMRI contrast during stopping varies depending on whe ther attentional confounds are included. For methylphenidate error related activity is increased by the drug in the medial prefrontal cortex\, where as atomoxetine increases activity during successful stops in the pre-SMA a nd supramarginal gyrus. Some of these effects can be predicted by the base line locus coeruleus integrity indexed on separate scans. Overall\, these data suggest differential dopaminergic and noradrenergic modulation of res ponse inhibition and highlight the need for more controlled investigations in patient groups.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Mitul Mehta (King's College Lond on) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e43114cc-2d64-405b-8fbf-667b497b964c/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Neuroimaging of the catecholaminergic modulation of respo nse inhibition using the stop signal task - Professor Mitul Mehta (King's College London) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Rewrite or Repress? Parsing the mechanisms of retrieval-extinction - Dr Amy Milton DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180703T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180703T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/fe117da5-e0b6-453a-bc4e-a1976401e01b/ DESCRIPTION:It has been widely reported - if not universally replicated - that presenting a reminder of a previously trained cue-drug or cue-fear me mory before extinction training can lead to a long-term reduction in subse quent responding for the cue\, that goes beyond the reduction in respondin g observed with extinction training alone. This 'retrieval-extinction' phe nomenon has been hypothesised to depend upon memory reconsolidation\; name ly\, that the cue-drug or cue-fear memory becomes unstable during the remi nder session\, and is overwritten by the subsequent extinction training. A n alternative explanation is that retrieval-extinction leads to an enhance ment of extinction. Here\, I will present our recent research addressing w hether retrieval-extinction is a reconsolidation-based or extinction-based phenomenon.\nSpeakers:\nDr Amy Milton LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/fe117da5-e0b6-453a-bc4e-a1976401e01b/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Rewrite or Repress? Parsing the mechanisms of retrieval-e xtinction - Dr Amy Milton TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Finding meaning in the noise: The functional role of spontaneous b rain activity - Marieke Schölvinck (ESI\, Frankfurt) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180619T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180619T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5fc33fda-5244-4f3e-b9ab-08d89c6936ec/ DESCRIPTION:In cognitive neuroscience\, brain activity is typically associ ated with certain cognitive functions\, such as decision making or working memory. However\, the majority of brain activity is not spent on such cog nitive functions\, but generated spontaneously. The brain devotes more tha n 95% of its energy consumption towards spontaneous activity\, pointing to wards a critical role for brain function. I study spontaneous brain activi ty using a variety of techniques and species\, ranging from fMRI in humans \, and in vivo electrophysiology in cats\, rodents and primates\, to compu tational modelling. In my talk\, I’ll explore various aspects of spontan eous cortical activity: its spatial structure\, its interaction with stimu lus-evoked responses\, and its significance for cognition and behaviour. T aken together\, these studies show that spontaneous brain activity plays a n important role in sensory processing\, and argue that understanding the brain’s internal dynamics is essential to understanding the brain as a w hole.\n\nhttp://www.esi-frankfurt.de/research/fries-lab/\n\nSpeakers:\nMar ieke Schölvinck (ESI\, Frankfurt) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5fc33fda-5244-4f3e-b9ab-08d89c6936ec/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Finding meaning in the noise: The functional role of spon taneous brain activity - Marieke Schölvinck (ESI\, Frankfurt) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Testing the core properties of the Brain Valuation System: an Intr acranial EEG investigation - Alizee Lopez-Perem (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180605T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180605T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/01ba079e-7708-45b6-b151-50aef3d2220b/ DESCRIPTION:Estimating the value of alternative options is a key process i n decision making. fMRI studies have identified a brain system\, with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) as a central component. Here\, we e xamined the properties of this brain valuation system using a different re cording technique\, intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG)\, which off ers direct access to the electrophysiological activity supposed to underpi n hemodynamic responses\, with much better temporal resolution. We recorde d iEEG signals in 36 epileptic patients while they performed judgment task s that involved rating different kinds of items (food\, face\, painting) a nd different features (age\, likeability). We identified several brain reg ions in which High-gamma activity (50-150 Hz) positively correlated with l ikeability ratings\, including not only the vmPFC but also the lateral orb itofrontal cortex (lOFC) and the hippocampus. Focusing on these three regi ons\, we characterized the dynamics of value coding across time and freque ncy bands. Then we investigated their functional properties of valuation i n the high frequency bands. All properties derived from fMRI results were replicated in the vmPFC: likeability ratings could be decoded in pre-stimu lus activity (anticipation of value judgment)\, for both food and non-food items (generality)\, during both explicit and distractive tasks (automati city)\, with both linear and quadratic functions (aggregation of value and confidence). Overall\, our findings provide a bridge between two literatu res on the neural underpinnings of subjective values: one based on electro physiological studies in non-human primates and one based on fMRI studies in humans.\nSpeakers:\nAlizee Lopez-Perem (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/01ba079e-7708-45b6-b151-50aef3d2220b/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Testing the core properties of the Brain Valuation System : an Intracranial EEG investigation - Alizee Lopez-Perem (University of Ox ford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Object representations and the influence of learning : insights fr om single neurons and fMRI patterns. - Leila Reddy (University of Toronto) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180531T150000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180531T160000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/6601983d-a83c-48d8-8a59-2a002c1a4301/ DESCRIPTION:Learning associations between co-occurring events enables us t o extract structure from our environment. However\, the neuronal processes underlying the formation of new associations in the human brain are not y et well understood. Human participants\, implanted with depth electrodes\, learned arbitrary associations between images presented in an ordered\, p redictable sequence. During learning we recorded from medial temporal lobe (MTL) neurons and found that single MTL neurons showed asymmetric shifts in activity and started firing earlier in the sequence in anticipation of their preferred stimulus. In contrast\, neurons in temporal cortex did not show anticipation effects as a result of this short-term learning. To inv estigate the consequences of longer-term associative learning\, we perform ed an fMRI study in which subjects learned arbitrary new associations betw een pairs of unrelated objects over 15 days. We found that as a result of this long-term learning\, multi-voxel representations of associated object s in the ventral visual pathway\, but not the MTL\, became more similar to each other. These results demonstrate flexible representations in the MTL that could support rapid learning\, while longer-term learning could be r eflected in the activity of visual regions.\nSpeakers:\nLeila Reddy (Unive rsity of Toronto) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/6601983d-a83c-48d8-8a59-2a002c1a4301/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Object representations and the influence of learning : in sights from single neurons and fMRI patterns. - Leila Reddy (University of Toronto) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Why do we need visual imagery? - Juha Silvanto (University of West minster) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180522T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180522T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7d0301f4-a2dd-4299-96ce-3aba603181c1/ DESCRIPTION:In this talk I will discuss studies attempting to understand t he relationship between visual imagery\, subjective experience of memory c ontent and their relationship to objective performance in cognitive tasks. Firstly\, I will discuss evidence from brain stimulation studies demonst rating that memory content can be brought to visual awareness – indicati ve of overlap in the representations associated with internally generated and external induced percepts. Secondly\, I will present studies indicatin g that memory content and its subjective experience do not always go hand- in-hand. Finally\, I will present new data on the cognitive profile of ind ividuals’ incapable of visual imagery. These studies indicate that visua l imagery may be particularly important for high precision working memory and certain tasks requiring manipulation of memory content.\nSpeakers:\nJu ha Silvanto (University of Westminster) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7d0301f4-a2dd-4299-96ce-3aba603181c1/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Why do we need visual imagery? - Juha Silvanto (Universit y of Westminster) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Title TBC DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180612T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180612T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1ef28649-aaf1-4fdd-bf79-29f64f03602b/ DESCRIPTION:TBA\nSpeakers:\nTobias Bast (University of Nottingham) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1ef28649-aaf1-4fdd-bf79-29f64f03602b/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Title TBC TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Intact action-outcome knowledge dissociates from excessive behavio ural responses in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Matilde Vaghi (Universit y of Cambridge) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180516T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180516T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/44b60db9-9936-4af5-bda0-3bf1c2ec4dc1/ DESCRIPTION:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is characterized by obsess ions\, intrusive\, unwanted thoughts\, and compulsions\, repetitive acts o r behaviours performed in an inflexible\, ritualistic way. OCD is ego-dyst onic in nature as patients are generally able to recognize their compulsiv e behaviours and thoughts as disproportionate\, excessive\, and maladaptiv e. Traditionally\, cognitive theories posited dysfunctional beliefs as a m ajor driver of OCD symptoms. More recently\, however\, experimental eviden ce showing a tendency for OCD patients to display habitual behaviour at th e expense of goal-directed actions has suggested that OCD is a disorder of habitual control. In this talk\, I will present data gathered from indepe ndent behavioural paradigms and computational modelling studies that teste d the hypothesis that autonomous\, habit-like behaviours are detached from intact\, explicitly reported knowledge of higher order environmental cont ingencies. Finally\, I will also present data from fMRI studies showing th at such inflexible behaviours are associated with dysfunctional organizati on of fronto-striatal circuits. \nSpeakers:\nMatilde Vaghi (University of Cambridge) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/44b60db9-9936-4af5-bda0-3bf1c2ec4dc1/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Intact action-outcome knowledge dissociates from excessiv e behavioural responses in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Matilde Vaghi ( University of Cambridge) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Context sensitivity of incentive value - Francesco Rigoli (City Un iversity\, London) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180508T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180508T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ae4fca05-ee00-4308-b52b-ab75ab5b49ef/ DESCRIPTION:Incentive value (also referred to as utility or subjective val ue) is a key construct of theories of decision making and motivation. Many perspectives (e.g.\, reinforcement learning and associative learning) oft en assume that certain stimuli (unconditioned stimuli) are imbued with an incentive value that is fixed. However\, recent accounts have proposed the notion that incentive value is a function of the distribution of incentiv es expected within a context. In this talk\, I will discuss these recent a ccounts\, and present behavioural data in support of their predictions. I will also present recent data on how context sensitivity of incentive valu e is realized in the brain. These highlight a critical role of hippocampus in processing contextual information\, and of dopaminergic midbrain in re presenting a value signal modulated by the contextual distribution of ince ntives.\nSpeakers:\nFrancesco Rigoli (City University\, London) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ae4fca05-ee00-4308-b52b-ab75ab5b49ef/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Context sensitivity of incentive value - Francesco Rigoli (City University\, London) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Choice and Consequence in Eye Movements and Beyond - Dr Amelia Hun t (School of Psychology\, University of Aberdeen) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180501T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180501T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/4f55a67b-4ded-4908-94e3-803a5099c5e3/ DESCRIPTION:Deciding how to allocate your attention and efforts when faced with multiple competing goals is a dilemma we all face in daily life. The se decisions can have serious consequences -- for example\, in splitting y our attention while driving\, or helping multiple casualties in an emergen cy. An important factor that should weigh into such a decision is the limi tations of your own abilities. That is\, if you have adequate time and ski ll\, you can complete multiple tasks in a given time interval\, but if the tasks are difficult and time is limited\, you should focus your efforts o n completing one task. Using eye movements as a starting point\, we have s hown that people fail to take the limitations of their own visual acuity i nto account when deciding where to look. We have extended this decision pa radigm beyond eye movements into several other tasks (throwing\, reaching to targets\, memorisation)\, with the same results: people fail to take in to account their own (known) performance limitations when deciding how to allocate resources between two goals. After ruling out a number of simpler explanations\, I will speculate on why people make these surprisingly ine fficient decisions.\n\n\n\nSpeakers:\nDr Amelia Hunt (School of Psychology \, University of Aberdeen) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\, Department of Plant Sciences\, South Parks Rd\, OX1 3RB)\, South Parks Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/4f55a67b-4ded-4908-94e3-803a5099c5e3/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Choice and Consequence in Eye Movements and Beyond - Dr A melia Hunt (School of Psychology\, University of Aberdeen) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Emotion Processing in Homo and Pan - Dr Mariska Kret (Leiden Unive rsity ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180410T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180410T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/04a040cd-7dde-4724-9b3e-cb93842032fa/ DESCRIPTION:Evolution prepared group-living species\, (non)human primates included\, to quickly recognize and adequately respond to conspecifics’ emotional expressions. Different theories propose that mimicry of emotiona l expressions facilitates these swift adaptive reactions. When species unc onsciously mimic their companions' expressions of emotion\, they come to f eel reflections of their emotions that influence emotional and empathic be havior. The majority of emotion research has focused on full-blown facial expressions of emotion in humans. However\, facial muscles can sometimes b e controlled\; humans know when to smile\, and when not to. Moreover\, the fact that emotions are not just expressed by the face alone but by the wh ole body is often still ignored. In this talk\, I therefore argue for a br oader exploration of emotion signals from sources beyond the face or face muscles that are more difficult to control. More specifically\, I will arg ue that implicit sources including the whole body and subtle autonomic res ponses including pupil-dilation are picked up by observers and influence s ubsequent behavior. Across different primate species\, seeing a conspecifi c being emotional and expressing that in one way or another\, immediately and automatically attracts attention\, yields mimicry and triggers action tendencies in observers. In my research\, I take a comparative approach an d investigate similarities and differences in the perception of emotions b etween humans\, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan Paniscus). I will here discuss new\, recently collected data and suggest avenues for future research that will hopefully eventually lead to a better comprehens ion of emotional expressions and how we come to understand each other’s emotions.\nSpeakers:\nDr Mariska Kret (Leiden University ) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/04a040cd-7dde-4724-9b3e-cb93842032fa/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Emotion Processing in Homo and Pan - Dr Mariska Kret (Lei den University ) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Learning\, Inference and Cognitive Control: Various Faces of Adapt ive Behaviour and their Neural Correlates - Dr Adrian Fischer (Leiden Uni versity ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180320T100000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180320T110000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/44f62920-4be5-49fa-81bc-752ba5c13ab9/ DESCRIPTION:In order to act adaptively\, we are remarkably capable in comb ining various sources of information to guide our behaviour. We learn from valenced experience\, incorporate information using inference\, and utili se errors to readjust information processing via increases in cognitive co ntrol.\nIn my talk\, I will show how valenced and unvalenced outcomes are differentially processed in the human brain using EEG. These processes can additionally predict future choices on a single-trial basis. I will also relate predictions from sequential sampling models of choice formation wit h beta power lateralization (BPL). Within this framework\, BPL was a relia ble neural marker of choice formation. BPL further allowed to test whether decision boundaries are time-invariant or dynamically adapted on a trial- wise basis. BPL measurements could also be used to test whether the brain uses errors in an adaptive fashion to quickly increase performance\, or if errors trigger an orienting response with maladaptive immediate consequen ces. \nWhile the first part is focused on moment-to-moment decision making for valenced and non-valenced choices\, the second part will address the interaction between valence processing and inference using a novel two-urn task and fMRI. This task allowed to behaviourally and neurally differenti ate reward-based (model-free) learning\, and inference (model-based learni ng) on a trial-by-trial basis. \nOverall\, my studies aim at a better unde rstanding of how error-processing\, simple valence learning and higher-lev el inference develop over time and interact to drive successful adaptive b ehaviours. \n\nSpeakers:\nDr Adrian Fischer (Leiden University ) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/44f62920-4be5-49fa-81bc-752ba5c13ab9/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Learning\, Inference and Cognitive Control: Various Faces of Adaptive Behaviour and their Neural Correlates - Dr Adrian Fischer (L eiden University ) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Neurophysiological Mechanisms of Cognitive Control In Anxiety: The me and Variations - Dr Jason Moser (Michigan State University ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180320T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180320T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/556024d1-7378-4f59-a4fe-7fd3eb4e0cd1/ DESCRIPTION:Anxiety impairs cognition. The exact neural mechanisms involve d remain somewhat unclear\, however. To address this ambiguity\, I will pr esent a line of work delineating associations between anxiety and neurophy siological measures of cognitive control-related error monitoring. Results from these studies demonstrate that anxiety\, and worry\, in particular\, seems to interfere with processes supporting active goal maintenance ther eby forcing the cognitive system to compensate by increasing processes ded icated to transient reactivation of task goals on an as-needed basis when salient events (i.e.\, errors) occur. A number of variations on this theme have also emerged. Specifically\, developmental and sex/gender differenc es in this association point to the potential role of gonadal hormones in anxiety’s effects on cognitive control function. Findings will be discus sed in the context of contemporary theories of anxiety and cognition (i.e. \, Attentional Control Theory)\, error monitoring (i.e.\, Conflict Monitor ing Theory) and cognitive control (i.e.\, Dual Mechanisms). Finally\, impl ications for targeted cognitive and psychological interventions will be ad dressed.\n\nShort Bio: \nJason Moser\, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Psy chology and Neuroscience and Director of the Clinical Psychophysiology Lab at Michigan State University. He received his bachelor’s of arts degree from the Pennsylvania State University in 2001\, and his master’s of ar ts and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware in 2006 and 2009\, respective ly. Prior to joining the faculty at Michigan State\, he spent 1-year at th e Boston Veterans Affairs Hospital completing a clinical internship where he worked with military veterans in the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. He specializes in the study of self-regulation deficits i n anxiety and exposure-based behavioral therapies for anxiety disorders.\n \n\nSpeakers:\nDr Jason Moser (Michigan State University ) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/556024d1-7378-4f59-a4fe-7fd3eb4e0cd1/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Neurophysiological Mechanisms of Cognitive Control In Anx iety: Theme and Variations - Dr Jason Moser (Michigan State University ) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Interplay Between Prediction and Perception In Post-Stroke Fatigue - Dr Anna Kuppuswamy (University College London ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180313T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180313T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1e0da181-aa6e-458c-9dae-5e49c436a29a/ DESCRIPTION:Irreversible\, chronic fatigue is a prominent symptom in many neurological conditions. I investigate such fatigue in stroke survivors. I n the first part of my talk\, I will first put forward a model of fatigue based on the active inference framework of sensorimotor control and then p resent neurophysiological\, behavioural and perceptual data that corrobora tes the proposed model of fatigue. In the second half of my talk\, I will discuss a new implicit measure of perceived effort. I will also present pr eliminary data from ongoing studies in stroke survivors and discuss how th ere may be a disconnect between explicit and implicit effort perception in stroke survivors with high fatigue.\nSpeakers:\nDr Anna Kuppuswamy (Unive rsity College London ) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1e0da181-aa6e-458c-9dae-5e49c436a29a/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Interplay Between Prediction and Perception In Post-Strok e Fatigue - Dr Anna Kuppuswamy (University College London ) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY: Lying brains: neuroimaging and deception research - Dr Giorgio Ga nis (University of Plymouth) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180306T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180306T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f6746357-cac0-4b59-964d-bf17df7e9abe/ DESCRIPTION:The first part of my talk will be an overview of cognitive neu roscience research on deception\, defined as the attempt to convince someo ne of something the liar believes is untrue\, typically with the goal of g aining something. Although there are many ways to deceive\, deception ofte n is associated with several classes of cognitive processes\, including: ( a) deciding to deceive\, (b) generating plausible deceptive scenarios base d on information in memory and details of the situation\, such as what one believes the target may know\, and (c) producing the deceptive behavior ( including the choice of withholding information) and inhibiting all potent ial overt signs that could betray the truth. The neural basis of some of t hese processes will be examined\, focusing on fMRI research. The second p art will summarize how fMRI methods have been used to attempt to detect de ception\, discussing some of their potential and limitations. Finally\, th oughts about future directions will be discussed. \nSpeakers:\nDr Giorgio Ganis (University of Plymouth) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f6746357-cac0-4b59-964d-bf17df7e9abe/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk: Lying brains: neuroimaging and deception research - Dr G iorgio Ganis (University of Plymouth) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Rewrite or Repress? Parsing The Mechanisms of Retrieval-Extinction - Dr Amy Milton (Cambridge University ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180227T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180227T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f7d3e490-8cf3-4964-9859-9f9ed97707fb/ DESCRIPTION:It has been widely reported - if not universally replicated - that presenting a reminder of a previously trained cue-drug or cue-fear me mory before extinction training can lead to a long-term reduction in subse quent responding for the cue\, that goes beyond the reduction in respondin g observed with extinction training alone. This 'retrieval-extinction' phe nomenon has been hypothesised to depend upon memory reconsolidation\; name ly\, that the cue-drug or cue-fear memory becomes unstable during the remi nder session\, and is overwritten by the subsequent extinction training. A n alternative explanation is that retrieval-extinction leads to an enhance ment of extinction. Here\, I will present our recent research addressing w hether retrieval-extinction is a reconsolidation-based or extinction-based phenomenon.\nSpeakers:\nDr Amy Milton (Cambridge University ) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f7d3e490-8cf3-4964-9859-9f9ed97707fb/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Rewrite or Repress? Parsing The Mechanisms of Retrieval-E xtinction - Dr Amy Milton (Cambridge University ) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dissociating Social and Non-Social Learning: Influences of Social Nature Versus Informational Status - Dr Jennifer Cook (University of Birmi ngham) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180220T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180220T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/3eb77f7e-6389-427a-96fb-fe58835210a9/ DESCRIPTION:The last decade has seen a burgeoning interest in studying the neural and computational mechanisms that underpin social learning (learni ng from others). Many findings support the view that learning from other p eople is underpinned by the same\, ‘domain-general’\, mechanisms under pinning learning from non-social stimuli. Despite this\, the idea that hum ans possess social-specific learning mechanisms - adaptive specializations moulded by natural selection to cope with the pressures of group living - persists. In this talk I explore the persistence of this idea. First\, I present dissociations between social and non-social learning - patterns of data which are difficult to explain under the domain-general thesis and w hich therefore contribute to the persistence of the adaptive specialisatio n view. However\, I argue that most studies that have dissociated social a nd non-social learning have employed paradigms in which social information comprises a secondary\, additional\, source of information that can be us ed to supplement learning from non-social stimuli. Thus\, in most extant p aradigms\, social and non-social learning differ both in terms of social n ature (social or non-social) and status (primary or secondary). I conclude that status is an important driver of apparent differences between social and non-social learning and\, when accounted for\, there is insufficient evidence to conclude with any certainty that there are special mechanisms for specifically social learning.\nSpeakers:\nDr Jennifer Cook (University of Birmingham) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/3eb77f7e-6389-427a-96fb-fe58835210a9/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Dissociating Social and Non-Social Learning: Influences o f Social Nature Versus Informational Status - Dr Jennifer Cook (University of Birmingham) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Causal explanation of individual differences in sensorimotor memor y formation - Dr Jacinta O'Shea (Oxford University ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180213T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180213T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a1d56da6-fe82-4551-9624-62fa9feffdd5/ DESCRIPTION:There is an explosion of interest in the therapeutic potential of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) for neurological and psychiatric disorders. A common target is to try and augment intact or impaired cogni tive function\, or potentiate some form of behavioural therapy. Despite t hese cognitive goals\, most work in this field is physiological. The aim i s to identify neural factors that mediate (variable) NIBS effects. There i s a striking absence of psychological models of how the target behaviour i s generated in the first place. This is a critical explanatory gap. I will present some of our recent work on sensorimotor adaptation to illustrate the explanatory value of a model-based approach. Our information processin g model accounted for ~99% of participants' baseline behavioural variation . A single parameter within the model enabled us to identify neurochemical \, functional and white matter structural connectivity correlates of the t arget function. To test a causal hypothesis about how targeted stimulation changes behaviour\, we stimulated sensorimotor cortex. As predicted\, acr oss individuals\, NIBS induced co-varying change in neurochemistry\, compu tation and behaviour. Thus the model enabled us to generate a mechanistic explanatory account of how sensorimotor memories are formed\, retained and potentiated via NIBS. We propose increased use of models to understand me chanism\, explain variation\, and advance NIBS therapeutics towards indivi dually tailored interventions. \nSpeakers:\nDr Jacinta O'Shea (Oxford Univ ersity ) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a1d56da6-fe82-4551-9624-62fa9feffdd5/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Causal explanation of individual differences in sensorimo tor memory formation - Dr Jacinta O'Shea (Oxford University ) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Reduced reactivity to food cues: New insights on the role of intri nsic excitability alterations on nucleus accumbens neuronal ensembles - Dr Eisuke Koya (University of Sussex) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180206T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180206T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2b2d1a32-51f9-48b7-95b4-911a330da3fc/ DESCRIPTION:Both humans and animals need to respond appropriately to cues that predict the availability of food for nutrient procurement. For exampl e\, we may be on the lookout for a supermarket sign when hungry while walk ing in town\, or wild mice may follow sweet smells that lead them towards ripe berries. Such reactive actions to cues depend on the brain’s abilit y to efficiently store and retrieve learned associations about food and it s predictive cues (‘food-cue’ associations). However\, in certain indi viduals\, the reactivity to these cues can be undesirable when they evoke food cravings. Also\, if mismanaged these episodes result in excessive eat ing leading to obesity. It is therefore important to understand the neurob ehavioral factors that can prevent harmful responses to cues connected wit h food.\n\nAlthough the brain areas implicated in food-cue associations ha ve been well-characterised\, the specific neuronal populations that help e ncode these associations have not been fully elucidated yet. Animal resear ch has allowed us to obtain better insight of the precise mechanisms behin d how these associations are formed and established at the level individua l neurons such as their activity patterns. Moreover\, animal studies allow the characterisation of how individual neurons undergo physiological chan ges such as changes in their intrinsic excitability properties\, which are thought to be critical for information storage and retrieval. We and othe rs have shown that food-cue associations are encoded in specific patterns of activity from a population of sparsely distributed neurons\, called ‘ neuronal ensembles’ in brain areas implicated in reward\, such as the nu cleus accumbens. In my talk\, I will discuss how factors such as the stren gth of food-cue associations\, the current value of food reward\, and cogn itive and physical stimulation\, modulate cue-evoked food-seeking and the activity patterns and excitability properties of accumbens neuronal ensemb les. \nSpeakers:\nDr Eisuke Koya (University of Sussex) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2b2d1a32-51f9-48b7-95b4-911a330da3fc/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Reduced reactivity to food cues: New insights on the role of intrinsic excitability alterations on nucleus accumbens neuronal ensem bles - Dr Eisuke Koya (University of Sussex) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Multimodal studies of human motor plasticity - Dr Charlotte Stagg (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180123T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180123T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f5668ce2-24e3-4a26-bc69-685e4f335850/ DESCRIPTION:Learning new motor skills\, such as taking up a sport or pract icing a new musical instrument is a central part of our daily lives. Howe ver\, there are still fundamental gaps in our understanding of the neuropl astic mechanisms that underpin skill acquisition. Filling these gaps is v ital not only for understanding skill acquisition in health\, but also in studying reacquisition of skills in the chronic stages of recovery after b rain injury such as a stroke.\nThis is perhaps a uniquely complex question \, as plastic changes in the brain occur across a vast range of spatial an d temporal scales: from synapses\, to cells\, to intra-regional\, and inte r-regional changes\, underpinned by mechanisms playing out from minutes to hours\, days and months to years. Studying and linking changes across al l these spatial and temporal scales is vital if we are to truly understand brain plasticity. However\, in humans\, available imaging approaches are necessarily indirect and often non-specific. \nHere\, I will describe a series of experiments using multimodal brain imaging and non-invasive brai n stimulation approaches to go beyond correlational studies to explore the physiological basis of a number of imaging metrics\, including long-range functional connectivity\; local cortical organisation\; as well as the ro le of local oscillatory activity in functional connectivity and plasticity . \n\nSpeakers:\nDr Charlotte Stagg (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f5668ce2-24e3-4a26-bc69-685e4f335850/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Multimodal studies of human motor plasticity - Dr Charlot te Stagg (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Using artificial orthographies as a window onto how the brain lear ns to read - Dr Joanne Taylor (Aston University ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180130T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180130T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7c06a23a-e28e-41b5-9465-2945e5e040a0/ DESCRIPTION:My work explores how readers of alphabetic languages learn to break words down into letters and map these onto sounds\, as well as to re cognize words and access their meanings. In a meta-analysis of neuroimagin g studies of reading\, Taylor\, Rastle\, and Davis (2013) showed that\, in accordance with cognitive models of reading\, there is evidence for two p athways to reading in the brain. A dorsal pathway maps spelling to sound a nd a ventral pathway maps spelling to meaning. To explore the role of thes e brain regions in learning\, I will discuss artificial orthography experi ments in which adults learned to read novel words written in novel symbols . Experiment 1 (Taylor\, Rastle\, & Davis\, 2017) examines how a focus on print-to-sound versus print-to-meaning associations influences performance and neural activity when learning to read. This revealed that letter–so und knowledge is crucial both to learning to read aloud and comprehend wor ds and that left hemisphere dorsal brain regions (inferior parietal cortex \, inferior frontal gyrus) are of primary importance in the earliest stage s of literacy acquisition. Experiment 2 used representational similarity a nalysis (RSA) to probe how ventral occiptotemporal cortex (vOT) represents newly learned words. We revealed that\, with only two weeks of training\ , mid-to-anterior vOT abstracts across letter-position (i.e. responds simi larly to the B in BAD and the B in CAB). Furthermore\, in the left hemisph ere\, anterior vOT representations abstract from visual form entirely to c apture similarity between the sounds and meanings of words.\n\n \n\nSpeake rs:\nDr Joanne Taylor (Aston University ) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7c06a23a-e28e-41b5-9465-2945e5e040a0/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Using artificial orthographies as a window onto how the b rain learns to read - Dr Joanne Taylor (Aston University ) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Prefrontal circuits underlying anxiety and anhedonia in a primate - Professor Angela Robert (University of Cambridge) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180116T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180116T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b83a17d6-08e2-406d-8128-3c229fba166e/ DESCRIPTION:\n\nDysregulated emotions are a core feature of many neuropsyc hiatric disorders and are often associated with altered activity in limbic emotional circuitry that includes the amygdala\, hippocampus and prefront al cortex (PFC). Front line treatments include drugs that target the sero tonin system and more recently the glutamate system\, but how they work\, and in which patient\, is poorly understood. Recently\, much insight has b een gained into the role of the medial PFC in the regulation of the amygda la-dependent freezing response to a fear conditioned stimulus\, primarily from studies in rodents. However\, the comparability of medial PFC across rodents and primates\, including humans\, is far from clear. Moreover\, th e neuroimaging of patients with mood and anxiety disorders have revealed s tructural and activity changes not only in the medial but also the ventral PFC\, including orbitofrontal and ventrolateral PFC. All these regions ar e at their most highly developed in primates and thus\, to further our und erstanding of the prefrontal regulation of amygdala-dependent emotional le arning and we have developed models of negative and positive emotional lea rning and expression in a new world primate\, the common marmoset. Since e motional states are composed of both physiological and behavioural compone nts we use an automated telemetry system to allow the simultaneous measure ment of behavioural and cardiovascular emotional responses e.g. heart rate and blood pressure\, in freely moving marmosets. We employ three main exp erimental strategies. The first\, to determine the effects of localized pr efrontal manipulations on emotional states\, their impact on activity in d ownstream targets using fluorodeoxyglucose microPET and their sensitivity to drugs targeting the glutamate and serotonin system. Second\, we have in itiated a neuroimaging program to characterize the development of prefront al circuits across childhood and adolescence in the marmoset since the maj ority of anxiety and mood disorders have their onset during these critical periods of development in humans. The third\, to study the impact of know n behavioural and genetic risk factors for mood and anxiety disorders\, i. e. trait anxiety and a polymorphism in the upstream promotor region of the serotonin transporter gene\, on these prefrontal circuits using microPET\ , structural mri\, microdialysis and post mortem mRNA analysis. The first two strategies will be the focus of this presentation.\n\nRecent review: S hiba et al (2016) Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 10:12.\n\nSpeakers:\nP rofessor Angela Robert (University of Cambridge) LOCATION:Biology South Parks Road (Schlich Lecture Theatre\,)\, South Park s Road OX1 3RB TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b83a17d6-08e2-406d-8128-3c229fba166e/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Prefrontal circuits underlying anxiety and anhedonia in a primate - Professor Angela Robert (University of Cambridge) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR