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