Time: 3:00-4:00 p.m. Apr. 11, 2014

Venue: Room 143, New Biology Building

Reporter: Anna Roe, Professor, Dept. of Psychology, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University; Director, Zhejiang University Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology (ZIINT)

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges in modern science is to understand how the brain produces cognition and behavior. My research focuses on the elemental units of function in the cerebral cortex of nonhuman primates. Using neuroimaging methods in anesthetized and awake, trained monkeys, we have shown that these elemental 200 um sized functional domains encode object features and are modulated by attention. Towards the goal of modulating behavior via external means, we are also developing methods for selective ?stimulation via electrical microstimulation, pulsed laser stimulation, and optogenetics. These approaches will lead to new understanding and treatment of neurological and mental disease.

Lab webiste: ?https://my.vanderbilt.edu/annaroe/