September 14, 2023, 3 PM, Old lecture Hall, German Primate Center
Jun 8, 2023, 3 PM, Michael Lankeit Lecture Hall, German Primate Center
Jun 1, 2023, 4 PM, Old lecture Hall, German Primate Center
May 16, 2023, 3 PM, Michael Lankeit Lecture Hall, German Primate Center
CONFERENCE
13th Annual Primate Neurobiology Meeting
April 26-28, 2023
The meeting is organized by Melanie Wilke and SFB members Stefan Treue, Alexander Gail, Hansjörg Scherberger, Igor Kagan, Caspar Schwiedrzik and Raymundo Baez-Mendoza.
Participants may present any aspect of their work at any stage – from
the presentation of methods to that of concepts, from the introduction
of very first results to the discussion of work that may have already
been presented at other conferences. Students and postdocs working in
nonhuman primate laboratories to are particularly invited to
participate. The registration is open until March 31st
SYMPOSIUM at the 15th Göttingen Meeting of the German Neuroscience Society (NWG)
Insights into the neural basis of cognition from human intracranial electrophysiology
March 24, 2023, 1 PM - 3 PM; ZHG
The human brain produces complex cognitive operations
and behaviors, some of which are arguably uniquely human.
The primary means to investigate their neural basis
have been noninvasive techniques. However, the limited
spatiotemporal resolution of noninvasive imaging hampers
progress in understanding health and disease.
Human intracranial electrophysiology has emerged as a key
technology in overcoming these difficulties. In particular, the
high spatiotemporal resolution of intracranial EEG (iEEG) in
epilepsy patients undergoing presurgical evaluation enables
studying (sub)cortical dynamics underlying human cognition.
With specialized research electrodes, it has become possible
to extend these investigations across spatial scales, to the
level of cortical layers and single cells. This allows unraveling
the neural basis of complex behavior directly in the human
brain in unprecedented detail.
This symposium, organized by SFB member Caspar Schwiedrzik aims to elucidate neural mechanisms
underlying human cognitive processes using intracranial
recordings. We will address different facets of cognition,
taking complimentary perspectives from different recording
and analysis techniques; as well as providing insight into
ethical aspects and technical challenges when working with
patients. Hui Zhang (Bochum) will demonstrate how the reinstatement
and transformation of stimulus-specific memories can be
studied using multivariate analyses to identify meso- and
macroscale networks. Lucia Melloni (Frankfurt) will show how continuous
input is segmented into episodic memories using tasks involving
sequences and visual narratives using electrocorticography.
Randolph Helfrich (Tübingen) will talk about how population dynamics
of human prefrontal cortex integrate contextual cues and
prior evidence to guide human goal-directed behavior. Caspar
Schwiedrzik (Göttingen) )will present recordings with laminar resolution
investigating neural computations underlying predictive processing
in perception. Marcel Bausch (Bonn) will address the question
how content and context are combined to process relevant
memories using single neuron recordings in the medial
temporal lobe. Together, these talks will provide an exciting
overview of the burgeoning field of human intracranial
electrophysiology.
SYMPOSIUM at the 15th Göttingen Meeting of the German Neuroscience Society (NWG)
Neuroscience of naturalistic navigation and foraging in non-human primates
March 23, 2023, 11 AM - 1 PM; ZHG
A
core topic of the SFB 1528 will be featured in a symposium organised by
SFB speaker Alexander Gail and Irene Lacal. SFB members Zurna Ahmed and
Neda Shahidi will present their work, and international guest speakers
Jan Zimmermann (U of Minnesota) and Dora Angelaki (NY University) will
also give talks in a SFB satellite lecture on March 20 and/or 21.
A
main aim of system neuroscience research in primates is to understand
the neural underpinnings of goal directed behavior. With the advance in
wireless technologies for neural recordings, video-based motion tracking
and powerful tools for full-body behavior quantification, unprecedented
opportunities arise for studying brain networks during naturalistic
behaviors. In particular, ecologically highly relevant behaviors such as
multi-source foraging, free exploration in complex environments and
social interactions have become accessible for neurophysiological
studies.
This symposium brings together international researchers pioneering the
field of neurophysiology in non-human primates during unrestrained
behaviors in complex environments.
Daniel Huber (University of Geneva) will present
the latest development of EthoLoop, a novel tracking system able to
follow movements and analyze complex behaviors of unrestrained mouse
lemurs in real time in combination with wireless neural recordings.
Dora E. Angelaki (NY University) will show how hippocampal and
cortical activity in unrestrained rhesus monkeys relate to foraging
behavior both in freely moving and virtual reality environments.
Zurna Ahmed (German Primate Center & SFB 1528)
will introduce the Exploration Room, a novel modular experimental
setting encouraging unrestrained, yet repetitive full-body behaviors
beyond walking in rhesus macaques while recording from the
frontoparietal reach network.
Irene Lacal and Neda Shahidi (German Primate Center & SFB 1528) will
highlight novel paradigms in the Exploration Room for studying spatial
cognition during naturalistic solo or dyadic foraging and the
frontoparietal representations of dynamic evaluation of choices.
Jan Zimmermann (University of Minnesota) will present how
unconstrained behavior is organized across multiple spatial and temporal
scales in rhesus monkeys and how electrophysiology experiments can give
us a unique insight into these processes. DOUBLE LECTURE
March 21, 2023, 3 PM Michael-Lankeit-Hörsaal, German Primate Center
Jan Zimmermann (University of Minnesota): Timescales of behavior and neural processing
Behavior is organized across multiple spatial and temporal scales,
ranging from sub-second motor commands over multi-second movement plans
to long term foraging patterns. Currently it is unclear how the brain
solves this coordination of multiple intertwined temporal demands. While
classical neuroscience experiments typically look at or engage a fixed
temporal scale or horizon, ethological studies have long focused on the
analysis of naturalistic behavior across freely elicited temporal
scales. Here I will show some of the approaches my lab is taking to
understand the organization of timescales in behavior and neural
processing ranging from ultra-high field fMRI to multi-region wireless
electrophysiology in freely moving rhesus macaques.
Dora Angelaki (NY University): Active sensing and flexible neural coding during visually guided navigation
Natural behavior is flexible and supported by abstracted away beliefs. To understand dynamic neural processing underlying natural behaviour, we use continuous-time foraging tasks either in virtual reality or in a freely-moving arena. Although task rules do not require any particular eye movement, we find that where subjects look is an important component of the behavior. For example, during a simple task in which macaques use a joystick to steer and catch flashing fireflies in a virtual environment lacking position cues, we find that subjects physically tracked this latent task variable with their gaze – an instance of embodied cognition. Restraining eye movements worsened task performance suggesting that embodiment plays a computational role. The above findings are well explained by a neural model with tuned bidirectional connections between oculomotor circuits and circuits that integrate sensory input. In contrast to other task optimized models, this model correctly predicted that leading principal components of the monkey posterior parietal cortex activity should encode their position relative to the goal. These results explain the computational significance of motor signals in evidence-integrating circuits and suggest that plasticity between those circuits might enable efficient learning of complex tasks via embodied cognition.