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Project

How does experience shape brain representations? An fMRI comparative investigation in human and nonhuman primates

Throughout evolution, our species developed unique cognitive abilities that set us apart from other nonhuman primates. Behavioural and cognitive differences must be reflected in the brain’s functional organization. Yet, accumulating evidence points towards homologues brain organization across species. Do monkeys represent the world the way we do? In a series of functional neuroimaging (fMRI) studies, we will investigate how different types of species-specific experience shape brain representations. In the first part, we will test how visual experience shapes representations in visual cortex by explicitly dissociating different aspects of object information and combining this experimental design with novel state-of-the-art computational simulations (with deep neural networks). In the second part, we will focus upon one specific type of experience and test the hypothesis that action experience plays a role in driving the organization of visual cortex. To do so, we will compare the distribution of object representations in the monkey visual cortex before and after action training. Taken together, results from these non- invasive comparative studies will shed new light on the human brain mechanisms. Ultimately, brain representations evolved to support adaptive behaviour. Therefore, a comparative approach that takes into account speciesspecific differential expertise is fundamental to understand how evolution shaped our brain in a way that sets us apart from other primates.

Date:1 Jan 2018 →  31 Dec 2018
Keywords:fMRI comparative investigation, Brain representations
Disciplines:Neurosciences, Biological and physiological psychology, Cognitive science and intelligent systems, Developmental psychology and ageing