Related papers: The neural dynamics underlying prioritisation of t…
It is known that when multiple stimuli are present, top-down attention selectively enhances the neural signal in the visual cortex for task-relevant stimuli, but this has been tested only under conditions of minimal competition of visual…
To study information processing in the brain, neuroscientists manipulate experimental stimuli while recording participant brain activity. They can then use encoding models to find out which brain "zone" (e.g. which region of interest,…
The brain works as a dynamic system to process information. Various challenges remain in understanding the connection between information and dynamics attributes in the brain. The present research pursues exploring how the characteristics…
Neural systems process information across a broad range of intrinsic timescales, both within and across cortical areas. While such diversity is a hallmark of biological networks, its computational role in nonlinear information processing…
We consider the information transmission problem in neurons and its possible implications for learning in neural networks. Our approach is based on recent developments in statistical physics and complexity science. Combining sensory…
In natural scenes, objects generally appear together with other objects. Yet, theoretical studies of neural population coding typically focus on the encoding of single objects in isolation. Experimental studies suggest that neural responses…
Being attentive to task-relevant features can improve task performance, but paying attention comes with its own metabolic cost. Therefore, strategic allocation of attention is crucial in performing the task efficiently. This work aims to…
We investigate attention as the active pursuit of useful information. This contrasts with attention as a mechanism for the attenuation of irrelevant information. We also consider the role of short-term memory, whose use is critical to any…
Two prominent strategies that the human visual system uses to reduce incoming information are spatial integration and selective attention. Although spatial integration summarizes and combines information over the visual field, selective…
Humans can covertly track the position of an object, even if the object is temporarily occluded. What are the neural mechanisms underlying our capacity to track moving objects when there is no physical stimulus for the brain to track? One…
The activity of neurons within brain circuits has been ubiquitously reported to be correlated. The impact of these correlations on brain function has been extensively investigated. Correlations can in principle increase or decrease the…
Top-down attention allows neural networks, both artificial and biological, to focus on the information most relevant for a given task. This is known to enhance performance in visual perception. But it remains unclear how attention brings…
When selective attention is devoted to one of multiple stimuli within receptive fields of neurons in visual area V4, cells respond as if only the attended stimulus was present. The underlying neural mechanisms are still debated, but…
Understanding how brain networks learn and manage multiple tasks simultaneously is of interest in both neuroscience and artificial intelligence. In this regard, a recent research thread in theoretical neuroscience has focused on how…
Human perception and behavior are affected by the situational context, in particular during social interactions. A recent study demonstrated that humans perceive visual stimuli differently depending on whether they do the task by themselves…
Emerging evidence shows that the modular organization of the human brain allows for better and efficient cognitive performance. Many of these cognitive functions are very fast and occur in subsecond time scale such as the visual object…
Attention is not monolithic; rather, it operates in multiple forms to facilitate efficient cognitive processing. In the auditory domain, attention enables the prioritization of relevant sounds in an auditory scene and can be either…
When two stimuli are present in the receptive field of a V4 neuron, the firing rate response is between the weakest and strongest response elicited by each of the stimuli alone (Reynolds et al, 1999, Journal of Neuroscience 19:1736-1753).…
Neural correlations during a cognitive task are central to study brain information processing and computation. However, they have been poorly analyzed due to the difficulty of recording simultaneous single neurons during task performance.…
Experiments that study neural encoding of stimuli at the level of individual neurons typically choose a small set of features present in the world --- contrast and luminance for vision, pitch and intensity for sound --- and assemble a…