All Welcome: Neuroscience talk - Wed., Oct 13 - Dr. Sliman Bensmaia

N650 Neuroscience talk - Wednesday, October 13 Psychology 101 at 4:00 pm

Sliman Bensmaia, Ph.D.
Program in Neurobiology
Neuroscience at the University of Chicago
will present a talk on:

“The Neural Mechanisms of Tactile Motion Integration”

Abstract: How are local motion signals integrated to form a global motion percept? We investigate the neural mechanisms of tactile motion integration by presenting tactile gratings and plaids, using the tactile analogue of a visual monitor, while recording the responses evoked in somatosensory cortical neurons. In parallel psychophysical experiments, we measure the perceived direction of the gratings and plaids. We identify a population of somatosensory neurons that exhibit integration properties analogous to those observed in visual area MT. We find that the responses of these neurons can account for the perceived direction of the stimuli across all stimulus conditions tested. We show that the preferred direction of the neurons and the perceived direction of the stimuli can be predicted from the weighted average of the directions of the individual stimulus features (edges and intersections).

Wednesday, October 13, 2010
4:00 p.m.
Psychology Building, Room 101