Emergence of functional modularity in the cortex built from repeated canonical local circuits
This is a hybrid event.
With technological advances in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, neuroscience of multi-regional brain-wide neural circuits is taking off. However, recent studies in this area have renewed the debate on local versus global neural representation and processing. Here, focusing on working memory (a core cognitive function), I will propose a mechanism for functional specificity in a cortex made of repeated canonical local circuits à la Kevan Martin and Rodney Douglas. First, I will introduce large-scale modeling of cortex based on connectomic data for monkeys and mice. Second, I will show that our model naturally gives rise to a hierarchy of timescales, and I will highlight macroscopic gradients of synaptic excitation and inhibition as a general principle of the large-scale cortical organization. Third, I will present our modeling of distributed working memory and simple decision-making. This line of work gives rise to the new concept of “bifurcation in space” to explain the emergence of functional modularity in a cortical system.

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us06web.zoom.us/j/88502753345?pwd=VnB3ZmY2Nlc5WE1YaGlqYWg2dnF0dz09

Meeting ID: 885 0275 3345
Passcode: 368450
Date: 17 April 2023, 14:00 (Monday, 0th week, Trinity 2023)
Venue: New Radcliffe House, Walton Street OX2 6NW
Venue Details: Seminar Room, New Radcliffe House (2nd Floor), Department of Experimental Psychology, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6GG
Speaker: Professor Xiao-Jing Wang (New York University)
Organising department: Department of Experimental Psychology
Organiser contact email address: hod.office@psy.ox.ac.uk
Host: Professor Matthew Rushworth (University of Oxford)
Part of: Departmental Seminar Series (Experimental Psychology)
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Regula Dent