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Project

The functional role of frontal and parietal cortex in top-down and bottom-up driven processes: a combined optogenetic, electrophysiology and fMRI study.

To accomplish virtually any task, we rely on top-down processing in our brain, that is not directly driven by sensory stimulation. To improve our understanding of the neuronal mechanisms underlying such processes, we aim to investigate the behavioral and functional impact of very short interruptions of activity in key nodes of the brain’s network involved in top-down and bottom-up processes. First, we will use high resolution functional imaging to map the brain network activated during two tasks whereby the subject’s attention is guided to a location in the visual field with a spatial cue at that location (bottom-up driven), or alternatively using difficult symbolic cues whereby the color has to be translated in a spatial location (top-down-driven). Guided by these functional maps, we will target electrophysiological recordings to characterize the neuronal response properties and interactions between simultaneously recorded neurons in different nodes of the task-driven networks. Next, to unravel the importance of these brain sites during task performance, we will employ highly novel light-induced reversible perturbation methods (optogenetics) to shortly inactivate these regions. In summary, we will study causal interactions across important nodes of the top-down and bottom-up driven brain networks and investigate how altered activity is causally related to behavioral performance and functional network changes at different spatio-temporal scales.
 

Date:1 Oct 2018 →  30 Sep 2021
Keywords:frontal cortex, parietal cortex, top-down and bottom-up driven processes
Disciplines:Neurosciences, Biological and physiological psychology, Cognitive science and intelligent systems, Developmental psychology and ageing