tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45797866091345414242024-03-07T20:31:15.824-08:00UC Irvine Center for Cognitive NeuroscienceCognitive Neuroscience News and Commentary from UC Irvine's Center for Cognitive NeuroscienceGreg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-73981251614311601812011-10-10T11:38:00.000-07:002011-10-10T11:39:21.364-07:00CCNS updateThe CCNS has shifted it's web activities to a new location: http://sites.uci.edu/ccns. Please visit for the most up-to-date information on center activities. We hope to see you there!Emily Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12913024827796414212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-692566630106171772009-07-29T11:40:00.001-07:002009-07-29T11:43:29.947-07:00Nature gives a nod to the TED talksThis week's Nature suggests that scientists take a lesson from the TED talks (many of which are posted freely on youtube) on how to give engaging talks to a more general audience. The article also gives a nod to developmental and cognitive neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe for her recent engaging presentation. Check it out: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v460/n7255/full/460552a.htmlEmily Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12913024827796414212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-30779459032457020542009-05-04T11:03:00.000-07:002009-05-04T11:07:13.490-07:00So you want to be famous?Scientists, increasingly caught up in some high profile publicity, are now suffering from some of the downsides of notoriety. Apparently the identities of some stem cell researchers are being pilfered to generate bogus Facebook profiles. These "friends" send out invites to colleagues, and so the network grows from this single fake seed. Except it doesn't appear to be happening to one person, but to many. See the article here: http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090423/full/news.2009.398.html . Now if we could just get rid of that damn paparazzi at our conferences...Emily Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12913024827796414212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-53412947183632521542009-04-01T11:16:00.000-07:002009-04-01T11:20:07.267-07:00Scrutiny for Stimulus PackageIn case you were wondering why NIH (and the other federal agencies) chose to spend their stimulus package money the way they have, look no further than Congress who is already implementing strict oversight as to how the money has been spent, by whom, and to what extent this "stimulated" the economy.<br /><br />Has anyone actually seen a dollar of this money yet? It's only April 1!<br /><br />There are good and bad sides to this. It's good to see increased scrutiny for government debt that is going to keep our grandchildren's grandchildren in hock (to China, I believe). On the other hand, this forces the funding agencies into very restricted avenues for allocating the money (read: keeping the status quo).<br /><br />Read more on this in today's Nature: http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090401/full/458556a.htmlEmily Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12913024827796414212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-44789551278781563172009-03-17T10:53:00.000-07:002009-03-17T11:02:09.454-07:00Ever wonder how all the sciences fit together?Did you ever wonder the the relationship between psychology and microbiology? Or ecology and architecture?<br /><br />Researchers from Los Alamos have constructed a map of the relationships between different domains of science, based on the chain of clicks that people make as they navigate through academic journals. The maps splits science into different disciplines and shows the connections between them.<br /><br />See the article here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0004803<br /><br />My favorite is Figure 5, the "Map of science...". That figure puts Psychology and the social sciences pretty square in the middle of things and highly interconnected with most other domains. Does this reflect some bias of the researchers, the accessibility of some disciplines on the web over others, or the actual relationships in how people do research? <br /><br />I also noticed that "Brain research" is a little tiny cluster down at the bottom, and "Brain studies" is another little cluster far to the left. Hmm... odd. It leaves me wondering a bit how these disciplines were determined. <br /><br />Still, very interesting.Emily Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12913024827796414212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-16001515100529482942009-02-25T14:45:00.001-08:002009-02-25T14:53:23.828-08:00Inflow of money for biomedical researchThe 'stimulus package' has been signed into law, and NIH has decided how to dole out the money. Information can be found here: http://www.nih.gov/about/director/02252009statement_arra.htm<br /><br />In short, those research grants already in line have a much better chance at actually being funded than they would have just a few weeks ago. Existing grants seem to be in even better shape -- they will have the opportunity to be expanded in scope. Both of these mechanisms allow NIH to get the money out fast. <br /><br />There is also a mechanism being put into place called "Challenge Grants". Currently the main NIH page for info on these grants states "Information Coming Soon" (http://www.nih.gov/about/director/02252009statement_arra.htm). I guess we'll have to wait and see what those are about.<br /><br />From my perspective, this stimulus package bodes very well for investigators already funded or on the verge of being funded. Anyone not already in the mix isn't likely to benefit.Emily Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12913024827796414212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-64481214638328477952009-02-10T15:06:00.000-08:002009-02-10T15:16:33.428-08:00Eight Problems for the Mirror Neuron Theory of Action Understanding in Monkeys and HumansA critical review of the mirror neuron theory of action understanding is now available in the<a href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/jocn/0/0"> early access section of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience</a> website. The basic conclusion is that there is little or no evidence to support the mirror neuron=action understanding hypothesis and instead there is substantial evidence against it.Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-35201693343311599822009-02-04T15:49:00.000-08:002009-02-04T15:53:12.845-08:00More $$ for science?The science community is abuzz with reports on the upcoming "stimulus package" (isn't that a dirty word?) providing a shot in the arm for NIH, NSF and other scientific agencies. Everyone is excited.. except, apparently, Nature. There's an article out this week warning scientists against the dangers of too much money, too soon, and without more to back it up.<br /><br />Worthy concerns, but is it enough to turn down $10 billion dollars? I don't think so.<br /><br />See the nay-sayer's article here: http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090204/full/457649a.htmlEmily Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12913024827796414212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-37484258622718991572009-02-02T16:35:00.000-08:002009-02-02T16:59:31.539-08:00Lip reading involves two cortical mechanismsIt is well known that visual speech (lip reading) affects auditory perception of speech. But how? There seem to be two ideas. One idea, dominant among sensory neuroscientists, is that visual speech accesses auditory speech systems via cross sensory integration. The STS is a favorite location in this respect. The other, dominant among speech scientists, particularly those with a motor theory bent, is that visual speech accesses motor representations of the perceived gestures which then influences perception. <br /><br />A hot-off-the-press (well actually still in press) paper in Neuroscience Letters by Kai Okada and yours truly proposes that both ideas are correct. Specifically, that there are two routes by which visual speech can influence auditory speech, a "direct" and dominant cross sensory route involving the STS, and an "indirect" and less dominant sensory-motor route involving sensory-motor circuits. The goal of our paper was to outline existing evidence in favor of a two mechanism model, and to test one prediction of the model, namely that perceiving visual speech should activate speech related sensory-motor networks, including our favorite area, Spt. <br /><br />Short version of our findings: as predicted, viewing speech gestures (baseline = non-speech gestures) activates speech-related sensory-motor areas including Spt as defined by a typical sensory-motor task (listen and reproduce speech). We interpret this as evidence for a sensory-motor route through which visual speech can influence heard speech, possibly via some sort of motor-to-sensory prediction mechanism. Viewing speech also activated a much broader set of regions along the STS, which may reflect the more direct cross sensory route. <br /><br />Have a look and let me know what you think!<br /><br /><br /><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Neuroscience+Letters&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1016%2Fj.neulet.2009.01.060&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Two+cortical+mechanisms+support+the+integration+of+visual+and+auditory+speech%3A+A+hypothesis+and+preliminary+data&rft.issn=03043940&rft.date=2009&rft.volume=&rft.issue=&rft.spage=0&rft.epage=0&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0304394009001165&rft.au=K+OKADA&rft.au=G+HICKOK&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Neuroscience%2CCognitive+Neuroscience%2C+Cognitive+Psychology%2C+Linguistics">K OKADA, G HICKOK (2009). Two cortical mechanisms support the integration of visual and auditory speech: A hypothesis and preliminary data <span style="font-style: italic;">Neuroscience Letters</span> DOI: <a rev="review" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2009.01.060">10.1016/j.neulet.2009.01.060</a></span>Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-35685958751866932662009-01-29T14:20:00.000-08:002009-01-29T14:22:08.377-08:00Mirror neurons go mainstream (sort of)For better or for worse, mirror neurons are getting some (somewhat) mainstream press: http://www.slate.com/id/2209882/Emily Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12913024827796414212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-1986705604935348332008-05-22T12:48:00.001-07:002008-05-22T12:48:51.200-07:00UCI Center for Cognitive Neuroscience DTI Workshop AnnouncementUCI Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Workshop <br />DTI Workshop<br />L. Tugan Muftuler, PhD<br />Center for Functional Onco-Imaging<br />University of California, Irvine<br /><br />Tomorrow, Friday, May 23, 2008<br />12:00-2:00pm<br />SSPA 2112<br /><br />Outline for the Workshop:<br /><br />1) Brief overview of DTI physics<br />2) Constructing DTI parameter maps, tractography and their meaning<br />3) Applications and examples<br />4) Live demo of how to process DTI data and get DTI maps, reconstruct white matter fiber tracts.<br /><br />Links to the two free programs that will be demonstrated at Friday's workshop are included below if you are interested in doing some reading them before coming to the workshop. <br /><br />1) https://www.mristudio.org/<br />2) http://www.trackvis.org/Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-8395143611176372522008-05-07T12:55:00.000-07:002008-05-07T13:09:49.547-07:00CCNS Investigators selected to receive Department of Defense research grantCCNS members, Mike D'Zmura (PI), Ramesh Srinivasan, Kourosh Saberi, & Greg Hickok have won one of 34 grants award by the Department of Defense's Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program (see DoD announcement below). The project is titled, "Silent Spatialized Communication Among Dispersed Forces," which is a fancy way of saying we are studying how to make mental telepathy a reality. The project team also includes scientists at CMU and University of Maryland. More on this later... <br /><br /><a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11765">DoD announcement</a>:<br /><br />64 Universities to Receive $200 Million in Research Funding<br /><br /> The Department of Defense announced today 34 awards to academic institutions to perform multi-disciplinary basic research. The total amount of the awards is expected to be $19.7 million in fiscal 2008 and $200 million over five years. Awards are subject to the successful completion of negotiations between the academic institutions and DoD research offices that will make the awards: the Army Research Office (ARO), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).<br /> <br /> The awards are the result of the fiscal year 2008 competition that ARO, ONR, and AFOSR conducted under the DoD Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. The MURI program supports multi-disciplinary basic research in areas of DoD relevance that intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline. Therefore, a MURI effort typically involves a team of basic researchers with expertise in a variety of disciplines. For a research area suited to a multi-disciplinary approach, bringing together scientists and engineers with different disciplinary backgrounds can accelerate both basic research progress and transition of research results to application.<br /> <br /> To assemble a team with the requisite disciplinary strengths, most MURI efforts involve researchers from multiple academic institutions, as well as multiple academic departments. Based on the proposals selected in the fiscal 2008 competition, a total of 64 academic institutions are expected to participate in the 34 research efforts. Three non-U.S. academic institutions will participate in two of the MURI efforts, but will receive no funding from the MURI program.<br /> <br /> The MURI program complements other DoD basic research programs that support traditional, single-investigator university research by supporting multi-disciplinary teams with awards larger and longer in duration than traditional awards. The awards announced today are for a three-year base period with a two-year option contingent upon availability of appropriations and satisfactory research progress. Consequently, MURI awards can provide greater sustained support than single-investigator awards for the education and training of students pursuing advanced degrees in science and engineering fields critical to DoD, as well as for associated infrastructure such as research instrumentation.<br /> <br /> The MURI program is highly competitive. ARO, ONR, and AFOSR solicited proposals in 18 topics important to DoD and received a total of 104 proposals. The 34 proposals announced today were selected for funding based on merit review by panels of experts in the pertinent science and engineering fields.<br /> <br /> The list of projects selected for fiscal 2008 funding may be found at: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2008/d20080318muri.pdf .Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-42952716008453261182008-04-02T13:06:00.000-07:002008-04-02T13:07:53.215-07:00CCNS Seminar: Derek Bickerton<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_CKwHFey8tic/R_PneSTQIII/AAAAAAAAAfA/1RBHBn8urHA/s1600-h/3ba03e7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_CKwHFey8tic/R_PneSTQIII/AAAAAAAAAfA/1RBHBn8urHA/s400/3ba03e7.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184742103528251522" /></a>Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-68491129474446202662008-03-06T11:44:00.001-08:002008-03-06T11:44:57.505-08:00UCI CCNS Seminar Announcement: Dr. David EaglemanUCI Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar Announcement<br /><br />David M. Eaglman, PhD<br />Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry<br />Baylor College of Medicine<br /><br />Time and the brain<br /><br />Most of the actions our brains perform on a daily basis -- such as perceiving, speaking, and driving a car -- require timing on the scale of tens to hundreds of milliseconds. New discoveries in neuroscience are contributing to an emerging picture of how the brain processes, learns, and perceives time. We will demonstrate new temporal illusions in which durations dilate, perceived order of actions and events are reversed, and time is experienced in slow motion. Questions addressed include: Does your brain work in real time, or do you experience a delayed version of the world? How and why does the brain dynamically recalibrate its timing judgments? Does subjective time really slow down during a car accident? <br /><br />Friday, March 14, 2008<br />12:00-1:00pm<br />Herklotz Conference Center<br /><br />Lunch and beverages will be served, compliments of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience ( http://www.ccns.uci.edu/index.htm). This lecture is part of the Human Brain Mapping Series.Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-14954912226326970182008-02-06T09:51:00.000-08:002008-02-06T10:16:54.678-08:00Perception is more than meets the eye...<p:colorscheme colors="#ffffff,#000000,#808080,#000000,#bbe0e3,#333399,#009999,#99cc00"> </p:colorscheme><div shape="_x0000_s1026" class="O"> <div style=""><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div> <div style=""><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div> <div style=""><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As a visual neuroscientist, I am interested in the science of seeing. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The act of seeing starts when an image of the surroundings enters the eye. However, there is </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">more to perception than meets the eye. What people see is not simply a translation of the image </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">entering the eye. Thus people interested in visual perception investigate how<span style=""> </span>our brains create </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">what we actually perceive.<br /><br />To bring a better understanding of visual perception to the general public, I </span>will be speaking in an exhibit on perception at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art:<br /></div> </div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Take Your Time by Olafur Eliasson</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Special Event: </span><br /><span class="bodytext"><span class="eventDate">February 07, 2008<br /></span>6:30 p.m.<br />Phyllis Wattis Theater<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Talk Description</span><br />Eliasson’s celebrated projects integrate art, science, and natural phenomena to create multisensory experiences that engage the observer. The first U.S. survey of his work, <em>Take your time: Olafur Eliasson</em>, is currently on view in the fifth-floor galleries. This program features the artist in conversation with exhibition curator Grynsztejn and special guests in an evening of conversation and tabletop experiments about time, space, and perception.<br /><br />The program for the evening includes:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Kenneth Libbrecht</span>, the head of the physics department at California Institute of Technology, who's been working on the art & science of snowflakes. You can see more here:<a href="http://www.its.caltech.edu/%7Eatomic/snowcrystals/" target="_blank"> http://www.its.caltech.edu/<wbr>~atomic/snowcrystals/</a> <br />and here: <a href="http://www.snowcrystals.net/gallery1sm/index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.snowcrystals.net<wbr>/gallery1sm/index.htm</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Alyssa Brewer</span>, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at UC Irvine; she tracks visual perception (in people & animals) through mapping visual fields in the brain. She'll address how our visual perception works via a view of the ocean. She's here:<br /><a href="http://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news_item.php?nid=1569" target="_blank">http://www.socsci.uci.edu<wbr>/newsevents/news_item.php?nid<wbr>=1569</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TJ Clark</span>, art history from UC Berkeley, will look closely at Nicolas Poussin's painting The Sight of Death--paying particular attention to the treatment of reflections in the water surface. You can check out his faculty profile here: <a href="http://arthistory.berkeley.edu/faculty/clark.html." target="_blank">http://arthistory.berkeley.edu<wbr>/faculty/clark.html</a><a href="http://arthistory.berkeley.edu/faculty/clark.html.">.</a><br /><br />Artist <span style="font-weight: bold;">Olafur Eliasson</span> will conclude the evening by looking at after-images in visual perception. More information on his SF MOMA exhibit can be found here: <a href="http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail.asp?id=232">http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail.asp?id=232</a><br /><br /><span class="bodytext">Olafur Eliasson, artist<br />Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago</span>Alyssa Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00079020007554462672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-73547903716449149372008-02-01T11:11:00.000-08:002008-02-01T11:12:33.184-08:00Seminar Announcement: Melina UncapherUCI Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar Announcement<br /><br />Melina Uncapher, Ph.D.<br />Department of Psychology<br />Stanford University<br /><br />From experience to memory: characterizing neural correlates of episodic encoding<br /><br />Date: Monday, February, 4th<br />Time: 4:00 pm<br />Place: SSPA 2112<br /><br />Abstract:<br /><br />How are the complex neural representations of our experiences translated into those that will endure across time? And what do these transformed neural representations look like? Functional neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI have provided the opportunity to observe changes in the brain that temporally coincide with the birth of these experiential (or 'episodic') memories. Despite such powerful techniques, however, the precise neural and cognitive mechanisms responsible for the formation of memories remain unclear. Efforts to localize these mechanisms should account for at least three parameters of a neural representation of a memory. Namely, such a representation should: 1) reflect the specific processing engendered by the experience, 2) comprise a single (distributed) representation, unifying the multiple constituent elements of the experience, and 3) be enduring across time. In this talk, I will discuss an emerging conceptual framework for how the brain creates episodic memories, based on a number of fMRI studies aimed at addressing the foregoing parameters.Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-77106752041640801982008-01-22T11:53:00.001-08:002008-01-22T11:53:35.497-08:00New Program in Cognitive Neuroscience - UC IrvineA new doctoral-level program in Cognitive Neuroscience has recently been established here at UC Irvine. Although it is housed in the Department of Cognitive Sciences, it is a multidisciplinary program with participation from faculty members with primary appointments in departments ranging from Neurobiology and Behavior to Radiology. The program is approved to commence with the 2008-2009 academic year. A formal announcement with links to program details will follow. In the meantime, check out the list of participating faculty:<br /><br />Alyssa Brewer - Human vision, fMRI, neurology<br />Lawrence Cahill - Memory, Emotion, functional imaging<br />Nicole Gage - Development, autism, language, MEG<br />Emily Grossman - Biological motion, fMRI, TMS<br />Gregory Hickok - Speech/language, fMRI, neuropsychology<br />Donald Hoffman - Visual perception, EEG, fMRI<br />Mary-Louise Kean - Language processing, fMRI, neuropsychology<br />Leonard Kitzes - Mammalian auditory system<br />Jeffery Krichmar - Memory, vision, Computational neuroscience<br />David Lyon - Primate visual system<br />James McGaugh - Neurobiology of memory<br />Tugan Muftuler - fMRI, cognition<br />Michael Rugg - Memory, fMRI, EEG<br />Kourosh Saberi - Hearing, fMRI<br />John Serences - Attention, vision, fMRI<br />George Sperling - Vision, memory, attention, fMRI<br />Ramesh Srinivasan - Consciousness, sensory systems, EEG<br />Norman Weinberger - Auditory cortex physiology, plasticity, learning, and memory<br />Fan-Gang Zeng - Hearing, clinical audiologyGreg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-75656432045183254712008-01-15T14:26:00.000-08:002008-01-15T14:27:06.074-08:00ERP Boot CampThe ERP Boot Camp, an NIMH-funded summer workshop on the ERP<br />technique, will be held July 7-17 2008 at UC-Davis. Please forward<br />this announcement to students, postdocs, and faculty who might be<br />interested in attending.<br /><br />The ERP Boot Camp is an 11-day introduction to the ERP technique. It<br />is intended for beginning and intermediate ERP researchers, or people<br />who are interested in getting started in ERP research. It is designed<br />for both basic scientists and clinical researchers.<br /><br />The topics will include:<br /><br />1) Where do ERPs come from? What do they mean?<br /><br />2) ERP components<br /><br />3) The design and interpretation of ERP experiments<br /><br />4) EEG data acquisition<br /><br />5) Filtering, artifact rejection, and artifact correction<br /><br />6) Measuring and analyzing ERP components<br /><br />7) ERP localization<br /><br />8) Setting up and running an ERP lab<br /><br />The Boot Camp consists of lectures on these topics, accompanied by<br />discussions of classic and contemporary ERP papers and guided lab<br />activities. It is led by Steve Luck, and the faculty includes many<br />distinguished ERP researchers from UC Davis and other universities.<br /><br />Participants at previous Boot Camps have come from around the world<br />and have ranged from beginning graduate students to full professors.<br />They have included psychologists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists,<br />neurologists, and speech pathologists. However, predoctoral students<br />should not apply unless they will have had at least 6 months of<br />intensive ERP experience before attending the Boot Camp.<br /><br />We highly encourage the participation of individuals from<br />underrepresented groups.<br /><br />Funding is available from NIMH to defray some or all of the costs of<br />attending the Boot Camp, but is limited to U.S. citizens and<br />permanent residents. International participants are encouraged to<br />apply, but they must obtain their own funding.<br /><br />For more information about the Boot Camp and the application<br />procedures, see www.ERPinfo.org<br /><br />Applications are due on March 31, 2008.Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-3260230088620382872008-01-02T09:56:00.000-08:002008-01-02T10:05:13.862-08:00Graduate student reviews in Journal of NeuroscienceJournal of Neuroscience has a new section (at least, it's new to me) for graduate students and postdocs to write short reviews of recent papers. The format is described as being like a journal club, and as a venue for which junior scientists can "test their analytical and writing skills". Notably, the journal states that overly critical reviews of competitors, or glowing reviews of friend's work will not be considered (although the one I read was pretty glowing). And, they waive the submission fee for this format.<br /><br />What a great idea. It's wonderful to see a high impact journal take a leadership role in training young scientists.Emily Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12913024827796414212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-35994378559635777832007-12-19T13:56:00.000-08:002007-12-19T14:04:51.092-08:00Prof Little Helper<p class="MsoNormal">Ever need a little pick me up? I certainly do, and in fact, I’m sitting here drinking a cup of coffee as I write. In the wake of the steroids scandal in baseball and the increasing prevalence of drugs in the classroom (e.g. for ADD), an important debate is brewing on the role of pharmaceuticals in our daily life. A recent <a href="http://pccl.ss.uci.edu/pcclab/pdf/littlehelper.pdf">short article</a> in Nature by Barbara Sahakian and Sharon Morein-Zamir outlines several issues related to the increasing use of stimulants to improve memory and alertness. The most striking point is that when we talk about taking a pill to achieve a cognitive benefit, it seems somehow different from drinking a cup of espresso. Interesting…</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">At any rate, this article is worth checking out because it calls attention to the blurry line between ‘cheating’ and taking a reasonable step to ensure maximum cognitive capacity. Clearly defining this line is critical as the next generation of school children comes of age in an era of widespread standardized testing: who can afford to fall a little behind or go at their own pace anymore? </p>John Serenceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497789409613577272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-5970261401019425822007-12-18T08:49:00.000-08:002007-12-18T08:54:08.707-08:00CCNS faculty blog article on Scientific AmericanScientific American runs an interesting blog called <a href="http://science-community.sciam.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300005636">Mind Matters</a>. It contains news and comments on neuroscience and psychology, with many entries being written by researchers in the field. The most recent entry on mirror neurons was written by CCNS director, Greg Hickok. Click <a href="http://science-community.sciam.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300005636">here</a> to check it out!<br /><br /><a href="http://science-community.sciam.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300005636">http://science-community.sciam.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300005636</a>Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-91179489072909723162007-12-14T12:39:00.000-08:002007-12-14T12:42:02.412-08:00Congratulations, Kevin!Congratulations to Dr. Kevin Smith, PhD for successfully defending his thesis "Is there an auditory "where" stream?" Great work!Emily Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12913024827796414212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-2123103945692548602007-12-06T12:08:00.000-08:002007-12-06T12:09:04.673-08:00Interesting upcoming meeting on vision and memoryCOGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF VISUAL KNOWLEDGE: WHERE VISION MEETS MEMORY<br /><br />Sponsored by the American Psychological Association, Tufts University, and the Charles River Association for Memory<br />Dates: Thurs, May 29 - Sat, May 31, 2008<br />Location: Tufts University in Medford, MA<br /><br />March 31, 2008: Deadline for early registration<br /><br />How can people interact appropriately with and understand the world they see around them? Research suggests that prior knowledge about the world influences visual perception at both conscious and non-conscious levels. Emerging research on the neural basis of visual knowledge has begun to synthesize ideas from vision and learning and memory fields.<br />A group of twelve speakers has been carefully selected from the fields of Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, Neurobiology, and Computational Modeling to discuss vision and memory, two important fields of Psychology that have proceeded largely in parallel. The goal of the conference is to enable interactions among cognitive psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, and computational modelers who study the neural basis of vision and memory in humans and animals and who develop theories of visual knowledge through modeling. This conference will serve to facilitate not only the cross-pollination of ideas among scientists in each field but also to promote the emergence of a new field of visual knowledge that incorporates key ideas from these established research domains. For more information about this conference, and to register, please go to http://ase.tufts.edu/psychology/conference/Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-39951878720899524472007-12-05T11:07:00.000-08:002007-12-05T12:13:42.597-08:00Modularity of perception<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Well over 100 years ago, scientists realized that damage to specific brain regions resulted in specific behavioral deficits. For example, damage to left frontal cortex is often associated with impaired language abilities. Observations of this kind led to the hypothesis that each chunk of cortex performs a specific task (often referred to as the ‘modularity’ hypothesis). In contrast, others suggested that different regions of the cortex are not specialized at all – that all regions participate in all aspects of cognition. Time has taught us that both of these extreme views are probably incorrect. We would quickly run out of space in our head if we dedicated a chunk of cortex to each task that we needed to perform. On the other hand, given the knowledge that damage to certain brain regions leads to very specific behavioral deficits, we must acknowledge that some specialization occurs.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">How do we reconcile these two points of view? Recently, we investigated the issue of modularity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (or ‘fMRI’), a method that allows us to indirectly measure neural activity in humans (see article linked below). We focused on visual information processing, since we know quite a bit about the parts of the brain that are responsible for sight. Light comes into the eye, where it is converted into a series of electrical impulses by the retina (a process called ‘transduction’). These electrical impulses are then passed from neuron to neuron until they reach a region of cortex at the very back of the head that is referred to as V1. In V1, neurons respond to simple features in the environment, such as the orientation of edges and different colors. Neurons in V1 then pass along information to other visual areas for further processing. There are actually more than 30 visual areas that are involved in the process of analyzing visual inputs, and each one seems to contribute some unique bit of information to support perception. For example, area V4 – which is a few steps up the hierarchy from V1 – registers information about simple shapes, area MT registers the direction of moving objects, and some later regions register the identity of objects (such as faces). </p><p class="MsoNormal">On the surface, this functional specialization seems to support the ‘modular’ account of brain organization; however, no single visual area can support perception without working in concert with other areas. To give an extreme example, suppose the visual system has a module that only processes information about color. Now, suppose someone suffered damage to their eyes and could no longer transduce light coming into their retina. Obviously, this person wouldn’t be able to perceive colors, even though the color module was perfectly intact. Thus, functionally specialized brain regions cannot operate in isolation; some regions convert light into neural activity, some supply information about edge orientations, some about color, some about motion, and so on. Eventually this information is combined to create a coherent perceptual representation of the surrounding environment.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Even though no single area in isolation can give rise to perception, all areas are clearly not created equal. For example, in our study we examined brain activity in area MT while people watched videos of moving objects. Obviously, the ability of MT neurons to respond to motion depends on input provided by the eyes and by earlier visual areas. However, our experiment found that decisions about the perceived direction of motion are based primarily on the activity of MT neurons, even though activity in other areas is necessary to achieve the final overall percept. According to this account, modularity arises primarily when we need to make a judgment about some attribute of our environment. If we need to know about motion, we query the activity of neurons in MT, if we need to know about color, we might query the activity of neurons in V4, and so on. This viewpoint suggests that most cognitive operations rely on neural activity in a series of distinct cortical areas; however, the ultimate output of the process may be largely mediated by a single specialized area of the brain. One important future challenge will be to determine how more complex cognitive operations (beyond judging the direction of a moving object) are carried out and represented in cortex, and if the same organizational principles apply.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://pccl.ss.uci.edu/pcclab/pdf/Serences_JNeuroscience_2007.pdf">Paper</a><br /></p>John Serenceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497789409613577272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4579786609134541424.post-61285099390233411202007-12-03T14:29:00.000-08:002007-12-03T14:34:35.598-08:00Left-Brain/Right-Brain: Wrong-MindedThere’s no shortage of left-brain/right-brain propaganda in pop culture. Browse the shelves at your local bookstore and you’ll find titles like Daniel Pink’s <span style="font-style: italic;">A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future</span>; peruse the booming educational toy market and you’ll find products like Brainy Baby’s “Left Brain” and “Right Brain” DVDs; or just open your ears to the ramblings of a motivational speaker or the chit chat of the office break room, and you’re likely hear some reference to left- and right-brain tendencies. In fact, a quick Google search turns up tens of thousands of documents touting the concept’s usefulness for everything from improving elementary school education or business management strategies, to understanding biblical symbolism, or why men are, and I quote, “beer-guzzling, TV-glued, [and] sex-driven.” You can even test your own left-brain/right-brain tendencies with a multitude of online personality tests. But don’t waste your clicks: if you tend to focus on artistic/holistic/spatial aspects of things you will be labeled “right-brained,” whereas if you lean towards logical/detail-oriented/sequential features, you are “left-brained.” Given its pervasiveness, you may be surprised to learn that most cognitive neuroscientists – scientists who study the relation between mind and brain – cringe when they hear popular references to left- versus right-brain function. To us, hearing someone say, “let’s learn to think with our right hemispheres…” is about as stimulating as fingernails on a chalkboard. <br /><br />But, you say, isn’t it true that the brain is divided into two hemispheres? Yes it is. And isn’t it the case that the two sides are not identical in function? Yes, of course. Then what’s the problem with all this left-brain/right-brain stuff? Well, let me illustrate by example. Suppose I told you I could read your personality strengths and weaknesses – your self esteem, cautiousness, wit, secretiveness, destructiveness, and so on – simply by measuring the bumps and indentations on your skull. Perhaps you’d be interested in me examining your fiancée (or wish I had before you tied the knot), but more likely you’d think I was blowing smoke. And you’d be right. What I’ve described, in fact, is the 19th century doctrine of phrenology, which held that different brain areas controlled different personality traits, which could be more or less developed. A well-developed trait would command more neural bulk and therefore press on the skull to produce a measurable bump on the head; vise versa for under-developed traits. As ridiculous as it sounds today, phrenology was all the rage in 19th century popular culture, even making its way into political, management, and yes, marriage decisions.<br /><br />What’s interesting, though, is that while the application of phrenology was seriously misguided, the underlying science was quite legitimate, even accurate in important respects. Indeed, just replace self-esteem, cautiousness, and wit, with motor control, speech, and memory and suddenly phrenology doesn’t seem so ridiculous (well except for that bump-on-the-head thing, but that’s not the core of the theory). In fact, that is precisely what many scientists of the time did with the idea: they ran with the fundamental concept, and ditched the personality trait lunacy.<br /><br />So what does phrenology have to do with the current left-brain/right-brain mentality? In short, everything. Just like phrenology, the left-right craze is based on a fundamental scientific observation, namely that the two hemispheres are not identical in function, and just like phrenology, the concept has been seriously overblown and misapplied. The fact is, with few exceptions, just about any function or ability you can imagine involves a host of coordinated brain circuits in both hemispheres. The two sides may make somewhat different contributions to these abilities, but these differences generally pale in comparison to differences in function we see between networks within the hemispheres, such as those networks that support visual recognition versus those that enable language comprehension. <br /><br />The parallels between popular left-brain/right brain dichotomies and phrenology run even deeper, though, as both concepts are based on a more fundamental misconception about brain organization, namely that complex functions are carried out by circumscribed islands of brain tissue. Look at just about any map of brain function and you will find tidy parcellations, like cuts of beef, with labels such as “language,” “memory,” “vision,” and “thought.” But this drastically oversimplifies the picture. For example, there is no “language area.” Instead our ability to use language is supported by a coordinated and widely distributed network of circuits spanning many regions in both hemispheres. These circuits may be individually specialized in function, to be sure, but it is the integrated action of the network that gives rise to our capacity for language. Furthermore, some of these circuits are not slaves to a linguistic taskmaster, but participate in other abilities as well. The same holds true of other functions.<br /><br />So to say that the left-brain does one thing, and the right-brain does another, is a throw-back to phrenology (and a clumsy one at that!), that fails to recognize the more dynamic, interactive, network-based organization of brain function. So get with the network. Left-brain/right-brain is so 19th century!Greg Hickokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656473495682901613noreply@blogger.com0