Colloquia

The CIMeC Colloquium Series is an annual set of invited talks given by leading researchers in the mind/brain sciences, both from Italy and abroad, aimed principally at our PhD Students. Given the multi-disciplinary backgrounds of the CIMeC students and researchers, the colloquia are aimed at a general scientific level rather than at a more specialized audience.

Where: Palazzo Fedrigotti, Conference Room 1st floor, Corso Bettini 31, Rovereto

Upcoming Colloquia

When: Monday, 14 January, 4:15 p.m.

Who: Markus Bauer  (University College London Department Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging)

Title: "Attention, neural oscillations and cholinergic neuromodulation"

Abstract:

An abundance of human and animal studies have documented strong correlations of oscillatory neural activity in different frequency bands with particular cognitive processes and states. In visual perception both stimulus driven (feedforward-) and contextual (top-down-) modulations of oscillations have been documented, particularly for the alpha-, beta- and gamma-bands. Whereas specific mechanistic roles have been suggested for these rhythms, the underlying neuronal mechanisms for cortical oscillations remain unclear, but particular neurochemical systems may be key.

During this talk I will outline the specific impact of bottom-up vs top-down pathways on neuronal oscillations in several attention paradigms as well as their modulation by cholinergic agonists – and their relation to behavioural performance. Furthermore, I will discuss some dissociations found between the fronto-parietal attention control network and sensory areas as well as their interactions.