Central Representation of Electroacoustic Stimuli. Cochlear implantation, initially only provided to profoundly deaf individuals, is now routine in people with substantial residual hearing. Although stimulation via a cochlear implant and hearing aid in the same ear has been shown to improve speech understanding, particularly in noise, and to increase the aesthetic quality of sound, almost nothing is known about the physiological mechanisms underlying these benefits. The broad aim of our project ....Central Representation of Electroacoustic Stimuli. Cochlear implantation, initially only provided to profoundly deaf individuals, is now routine in people with substantial residual hearing. Although stimulation via a cochlear implant and hearing aid in the same ear has been shown to improve speech understanding, particularly in noise, and to increase the aesthetic quality of sound, almost nothing is known about the physiological mechanisms underlying these benefits. The broad aim of our project is to address this deficiency by measuring the patterns of neural activity evoked by speech sounds across the tonotopic axis in the inferior colliculus and auditory cortex and assess the extent to which the pattern of neural activity allows discrimination between the different speech sounds.Read moreRead less
Decoding neuronal populations for visually-guided decision and action. This project aims to investigate how the cerebral decodes visual information in order to guide sensory-guided actions. Using a high resolution technique, capable of monitoring the activity of many cells in real time, it will study how sensory signals about the motion of visual patterns interact with noise (fluctuations in neuronal activity that are not directly related to the sensation being encoded) in order to determine dec ....Decoding neuronal populations for visually-guided decision and action. This project aims to investigate how the cerebral decodes visual information in order to guide sensory-guided actions. Using a high resolution technique, capable of monitoring the activity of many cells in real time, it will study how sensory signals about the motion of visual patterns interact with noise (fluctuations in neuronal activity that are not directly related to the sensation being encoded) in order to determine decisions made by an animal. Expected outcomes include new knowledge about the cellular circuits responsible for vision, and new technologies for decoding brain activity from physiological measurements, which may in the future guide the development of improved bionic devices such as brain-computer interfaces. Read moreRead less
Neuronal origin of functional maps on the mammalian visual cortex. This project aims to study how the brain processes images. Basic features of objects in the visual scene seem to be coded on the visual cortex in an orderly way. By recording neurones’ electrical activity in a mammalian brain, this project aims to study how such organisation is determined at the neuronal level, namely how the individual nerves and synapses that form the brain and process the signals are organised to form the over ....Neuronal origin of functional maps on the mammalian visual cortex. This project aims to study how the brain processes images. Basic features of objects in the visual scene seem to be coded on the visual cortex in an orderly way. By recording neurones’ electrical activity in a mammalian brain, this project aims to study how such organisation is determined at the neuronal level, namely how the individual nerves and synapses that form the brain and process the signals are organised to form the overall functional architecture visible at a macroscopic level. This understanding could realise the basis of normal visual perception in robotic vision and brain-machine interfaces.Read moreRead less
Temporal interactions of dorsal/ventral visual streams. This project aims to understand the temporal interactions between the dorsal and ventral visual streams that control skilled actions. The neural pathways for visual perception of objects may be distinct from those associated with movements towards the object, but the speed of activation and interactions of these two cortical visual streams have not been investigated. This project will use the temporal sensitivity of neuroscience brain imagi ....Temporal interactions of dorsal/ventral visual streams. This project aims to understand the temporal interactions between the dorsal and ventral visual streams that control skilled actions. The neural pathways for visual perception of objects may be distinct from those associated with movements towards the object, but the speed of activation and interactions of these two cortical visual streams have not been investigated. This project will use the temporal sensitivity of neuroscience brain imaging techniques (MEG, EEG, fMRI) to measure the real-time sequence of interactions between the two visual streams during goal-directed grasping. It intends to extend the most influential model of visual processing by discovering ‘when’ these pathways activate and interact. Such knowledge will affect delivery of social and commercial outcomes, by providing new directions for the rehabilitation of sensorimotor performance in many neurodevelopmental disorders, and by improving design of control systems for robotic effectors, prosthetic limbs, and more seamless human-machine interfaces.Read moreRead less
Building a visual world: how brain circuits create and use representations. This project aims to demonstrate the presence, computation, and use of an invariant representation for texture structure. The proposed approach is interdisciplinary and combines image analysis, electrophysiology, optogenetics and computational modelling.
Expected outcomes of this project include learning how neurons encode properties of natural images, defining a novel computational tool for analysis of textures, and ne ....Building a visual world: how brain circuits create and use representations. This project aims to demonstrate the presence, computation, and use of an invariant representation for texture structure. The proposed approach is interdisciplinary and combines image analysis, electrophysiology, optogenetics and computational modelling.
Expected outcomes of this project include learning how neurons encode properties of natural images, defining a novel computational tool for analysis of textures, and new knowledge of how multiple brain areas work together to represent the visual world. This should provide significant benefits for the development of artificial visual systems, and impact on brain research broadly by increasing the number of tools available to predict complex representations at the cellular level.Read moreRead less