Mapping the spatio-temporal dynamics of perception in the human brain
Abstract
A fundamental function of the human brain is the recognition of sensory objects andevents which are dynamic and complex mechanisms underlying much of our successfulinteraction with the external environment. While many of the brain regions involved inperceptual and cognitive functions have been described, integrating the temporal andspatial dynamics of this processing stream has posed decades-long challenge to humanneuroscience. While some loci and time courses of these processes have beendescribed, the nature of the computations remains poorly understood. Spatio-temporaldynamics in the human brain remain largely unchartered territory, and thus the natureof the neural computations remains poorly understood.Here the PI aims to characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics of perceived events,a crucial step towards understanding how the human brain creates mentalrepresentations, and switch between mental states. She proposes a novel brain mappingapproach to combine magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional MRI (fMRI)measurements by representational similarity analysis to yield a spatially and temporallyintegrated characterization of neuronal activation when people perceive or predict visualand auditory events. The approach is well suited to developing functional biomarkers toaid clinicians in diagnosing disorders, or pinpointing impairments as a precursor totherapeutic interventions. Importantly, the approach is well suited to study how toenhance or maintain a perceptual or cognitive function in the healthy brain.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 23, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141613116
Entities
People
- Aude Oliva
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy