Event
Applied Dynamics Seminar: Daniel Butts| University of Maryland
Thursday, April 6, 2017
12:30 p.m.
ERF 1207
Taylor Prendergast
301 40 -495
tprender@umd.edu
Speaker: Daniel Butts
Speaker's Institution: University of Maryland | Department of Biology
Title: Why Have Network Modulation of Sensory Cortex that Causes Variability to Sensory Processing?
Abstract: A fundamental goal in brain research is to understand how electrical activity of individual neurons represents information relevant for brain function. This is most often studied in sensory systems, where neural activity can be directly related to sensory stimuli that can be experimentally controlled. However, recordings in awake animals can reveal an enormous amount to variability — that is, different responses to the same stimuli. Such variability has traditionally been characterized as noise that imposes limits on sensory processing. However, with experimental technology allowing for access to large amounts of simultaneously recorded neurons, it is becoming clear that this noise is shared and purposeful, and likely relates to a larger view of the function of sensory cortex. My lab has been developing new methods for analyzing population activity (and its dynamics) to infer what information is being represented by this variability, and how it relates to the larger functions of sensory cortex. This points to a picture where sensory processing does not occur in a vacuum, but is implicitly tied to the behavioral and motivational context of the animal.
