BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:See what you hear  - Constructing a representation of the world ac
 ross the senses - - Professor Uta Noppeney\, Department of Psychology and 
 Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics Centre\, University of B
 irmingham\, UK
DTSTART:20161021T153000Z
DTEND:20161021T170000Z
UID:TALK67108@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Louise White
DESCRIPTION:To form a coherent percept of the environment the brain needs 
 to integrate sensory signals from a common source and segregate those from
  different sources. Human observers have been shown to integrate sensory s
 ignals in line with Bayesian Causal Inference by taking into account the u
 ncertainty about the world's causal structure. Over the past decade\, evid
 ence has accumulated that multisensory integration is not deferred to late
 r processing in association cortices but starts already in primary\, putat
 ively unisensory\, areas. Given this multitude of multisensory integration
  sites\, characterizing their functional similarities and differences is o
 f critical importance.\n\nOur research demonstrates that multisensory inte
 gration emerges in a functional hierarchy with temporal coincidence detect
 ion in primary sensory\, informational integration in association and deci
 sional interactions in prefrontal areas. Combining Bayesian modeling\, mul
 tivariate decoding and EEG/fMRI we show that the brain integrates sensory 
 signals in line with Bayesian Causal Inference by simultaneously encoding 
 multiple perceptual estimates along the cortical hierarchy. Only at the to
 p of the hierarchy\, in anterior intraparietal sulcus\, at about 300-400 m
 s the uncertainty about the world's causal structure is taken into account
  and sensory signals are combined weighted by their sensory reliabilities 
 and task-relevance as predicted by Bayesian Causal Inference. The intrapar
 ietal sulcus arbitrates between signal integration and segregation to guid
 e behavioural choices and motor responses.\n\n\nUta Noppeney is Professor 
 of Computational Neuroscience and director of the Computational Neuroscien
 ce and Cognitive Robotics Centre at the University of Birmingham\, UK.  Sh
 e received a degree in medicine (1997\, Freiburg University\, Germany)\, a
  doctorate in medicine (1998\, Freiburg University) and a PhD in neuroscie
 nce (2004\, University College London\, UK). After training in neurology a
 t the University Hospital in Aachen and Magdeburg\, she conducted neurosci
 ence research at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging\, University C
 ollege London. In 2005\, she became research group leader at the Max Planc
 k Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen\, Germany. Her group's
  research employs psychophysics\, functional imaging (fMRI\,M/EEG\,TMS) an
 d models of Bayesian inference and learning to better understand the compu
 tational operations and neural mechanisms of multisensory perception and e
 arning.\n\n 
LOCATION:Ground Floor Lecture Theatre\, Department of Psychology
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR