Apologies for cross-posting but the talk by Marta Zlatic hosted by YBRI
tomorrow is likely to be very compelling for anyone interested in the
fundamental organisation of the brain.
Hope to see some of you there :)
1pm, 6th Feb: Circuits for Memory-based Action Selection - Diana Bowles
Lecture Theatre B/K/018
Animal behaviour is shaped both by evolution and by individual experience.
In many species parallel brain pathways encode innate and learnt valences
of stimuli. Furthermore, within the learning centers, opposite valences may
be associated with the same cues, in parallel. How these opposing valences
are integrated into an overall predicted value and used to drive a single
coherent action and how the predicted values are compared with actual
outcomes and used to regulate future learning is not well understood. Our
recently published connectome of the entire Drosophila larval brain has
revealed a complex, multi-layered network of neurons that implements
learning and action selection. We are currently characterising the response
properties and behavioural roles of individual neurons in the network.
Together, these studies are revealing the principles by which learning and
action-selection are implemented in the brain.
--
Beth Jefferies
Department of Psychology, University of York, UK
+44 01904 324368
