The role of visual cortex in perceptual decisions
Abstract: The visual world changes quickly and continuously. Thus, the rapid detection of relevant features in the visual world is essential for an organism to cope with such ongoing changes. For example, humans are quick at identifying specific features, like an animal or a face, in the visual scene. The extraction of such features, however, is thought to require the sequential activation of many brain areas. This implies that each involved brain area must process information over a brief period of time. In this talk, I will address two fundamental questions. First, how long does it take a visual area in the mammalian cortex to process enough information for the organism to make a decision about the visual scene? Second, how is the visual scene represented in the visual cortex during this time period? I will address these questions in the mouse using optogenetics, electrophysiology, lesions and behavior, and show that the earliest activity in the visual cortex is sufficient to extract key features of the visual scene for the organism to make an appropriate decision.
Brief Bio: Arbora Resulaj is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at University of Toronto Mississauga. Her research is focused on understanding how neural circuits enable perception, memory and decision-making. Prior to joining UTM, she received a bachelor’s degree in engineering from University of Toronto. She received her Ph.D. from University of Cambridge, where she was a student in the Cambridge-Janelia Ph.D. program. She worked with Drs. Daniel Wolpert and Michael Shadlen to study decision-making in humans, and then Dr. Dmitry Rinberg to study the timing of olfactory decisions in mice. Her postdoctoral work was with Dr. Massimo Scanziani at UCSF, where she addressed: what is the speed of visual cortical processing when making a perceptual decision? She was awarded the K99 Pathway to Independence Award from NIH in 2019.
See below for link to join via zoom:
Topic: KCN Event: Arbora Resulaj
Time: Dec 14, 2021 10:00 Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/88442029840
Meeting ID: 884 4202 9840
Passcode: 804952
Recording available on kcnhub youtube channel