B06
Societies of today demand communication speed and density which particularly taxes our capability of tracking visual input in parallel. This capability declines with age and degenerative brain disease. Here we investigate the cortical limits on parallel processing, guided by the hypothesis that those limits arise from the speed and efficiency of cycling through representations in the visual cortex hierarchy, and by structural factors like intracortical myelination linking hierarchical levels. Parallel processing shows a hemisphere specialization for object- and location-based tracking which we investigate by perturbating underlying circuits with transcranial magnetic stimulation. We finally investigate the trainability of parallel tracking as a function of the presence or absence of tau-pathology in a group of elderly subjects.
Principal Investigators
Prof. Dr. Eike Budinger
Prof. Dr. Toemme Noesselt
Prof. Dr. Janelle Pakan
Co-Workers
Julia Flicke-Grubert
Dr. Julia Henschke
Linda Sempf
Dr. Peter Vavra
Tim Adrian Wendlandt
Patricia Wenk
What are temporal expectations?
Information from past experiences regarding the timing of events is crucial to enhance performance in an ongoing situation. Imagine a sprinter preparing for the ‘ready, set, go’ signal – efficient temporal expectations can win the race and errors in expectation can result in disqualification. These formations of sensory-driven temporal expectations require learning mechanisms in the brain to establish the timing of incoming sensory input as well as the underlying neural resources to form expectations about future events. This dynamic processing requires coordination between primary sensory systems, association sensory areas (such as the posterior parietal cortex), and executive centres in the prefrontal cortex. However, many questions remain regarding the underlying neural resources supporting the formation of temporal expectations in the brain and how information processing across multiple sensory systems can alter these dynamics.
Multisensory representations of the environment
Real world events often stimulate more than one sensory modality – for instance, under normal conditions we rarely see without hearing. Since natural environments constantly present us with random and noisy sensory stimulation through which we must interpret behaviourally relevant information, utilising input from multiple senses may enhance our perceptual representations and allow us to form more efficient temporal expectations to improve behavioural outcomes. However, knowledge about temporal regularities may not always be easily transferred across sensory modalities and the way we use multisensory cues can differ across our lifespan, with the elderly often benefiting more from multisensory stimulus representations. Therefore, in this project we employ combinations of unisensory and multisensory input to probe the mobilisation of neural resources during temporal processing.
Neural circuits: from mice to men
The posterior parietal cortex is known to play a role in multisensory integration and temporal attention and is ideally positioned to integrate information from both primary sensory cortices and executive control centers in the prefrontal cortex. From humans to rodents, reciprocal connections with primary sensory cortices provide specific sensory inputs to the posterior parietal cortex, but also process task-dependent information. Reciprocal connections with the prefrontal cortex may play an important role in associative memory formation and feedback processing. Recent work on the effect of expectancy based on the presentation of temporally predictable stimulus sequences has revealed that humans and animals are able to extract regularities. While neuroimaging techniques allow us to investigate task-specific changes in fMRI responses in humans, mice offer the additional advantage to directly observe and manipulate activity within neuronal circuits down to the single-cell level. To this end, we relate behavioural readouts with fMRI in humans and two-photon calcium activity in mice, and directly compare fMRI readouts between species. Therefore, on the micro- and meso-scale level, our project targets local neurocircuitry within mouse posterior parietal cortex, as well as intracortical circuits on the macro-scale, also involving prefrontal cortex and sensory-specific areas in both humans and animals.
Project goals
The central aim of this project is to understand the mobilisation of neural resources governing the use of the temporal structure of multisensory information across learning and with ageing. In particular, we focus on frontoparietal and primary sensory-parietal circuits as dynamic neuronal resources and investigate how predictions regarding the sequential timing of incoming sensory stimuli are utilised for enhanced efficiency and speed of information processing, ultimately resulting in a successful goal-directed behavioural outcome. To this end, we will use variations of an audiovisual cue-target paradigm with known/unknown temporal expectancy about target events. Assessment of interindividual variability will establish differences in the use of these neuronal circuits across learning strategies and underlying memory retention in both young and aged individuals.
Long-term perspective and impact
Ultimately, we aim to understand the underlying neural resources that allow us to continuously adapt to incoming sensory information. Looking forward, we will utilise the analysis results towards enhanced MRI techniques across both human and animal experiments. We will further investigate the local dynamics across cortical layers in relation to the mobilisation of neural resources during multisensory learning paradigms in the posterior parietal cortex and other task-related brain regions. Ultimately, this knowledge will drive further experiments to specifically manipulate task-dependent neural circuits during behaviour and to develop neurobiologically plausible computational models.
Publications of the project B06
Cornelius Eichner, Michael Paquette, Christa Müller-Axt, Christian Bock, Eike Budinger, Tobias Gräßle, Carsten Jäger, Evgeniya Kirilina, Ilona Lipp, EBC Consortium, Markus Morawski, Henriette Rusch, Patricia Wenk, Nikolaus Weiskopf, Roman M. Wittig, Catherine Crockford, Angela D. Friederici & Alfred Anwander
T. Adrian Wendlandt, Patricia Wenk, Julia U. Henschke, Annika Michalek, Toemme Noesselt, Janelle M.P. Pakan, Eike Budinger
Mocellin P, Barnstedt O,Luxem K, Kaneko H, Karpova A, Henschke J, Dalügge D, Fuhrmann F, Pakan JMP, Kreutz MR, MikulovicS, and Remy S
Peng Liu, Juliane Doehler, Julia U. Henschke, Alicia Northall, Angela Serian, Dietrich S. Schwarzkopf, Oliver Speck, Janelle M.P. Pakan, Esther Kuehn
Li R, Huang J, Li L, Zhao Z, Liang S, Liang S, Wang M, Liao X, Lyu J, Zhou Z, Wang S, Jin W, Chen H, Holder D, Liu H, Zhang J, Li M, Tang Y, Remy S, Pakan JMP, Chen X, Jia H
Joanes Grandjean, Gabriel Desrosiers-Gregoire, Cynthia Anckaerts, Diego Angeles-Valdez, Fadi Ayad, David A Barrière, Ines Blockx, Aleksandra Bortel, Margaret Broadwater, Beatriz M Cardoso, Marina Célestine, Jorge E Chavez-Negrete, Sangcheon Choi, Emma Christiaen, Perrin Clavijo, Luis Colon-Perez, Samuel Cramer, Tolomeo Daniele, Elaine Dempsey, Yujian Diao, Arno Doelemeyer, David Dopfel, Lenka Dvořáková, Claudia Falfán-Melgoza, Francisca F Fernandes, Caitlin F Fowler, Antonio Fuentes-Ibañez, Clément M Garin, Eveline Gelderman, Carla E M Golden, Chao C G Guo, Marloes J A G Henckens, Lauren A Hennessy, Peter Herman, Nita Hofwijks, Corey Horien, Tudor M Ionescu, Jolyon Jones, Johannes Kaesser, Eugene Kim, Henriette Lambers, Alberto Lazari, Sung-Ho Lee, Amanda Lillywhite, Yikang Liu, Yanyan Y Liu, Alejandra López-Castro, Xavier López-Gil, Zilu Ma, Eilidh MacNicol, Dan Madularu, Francesca Mandino, Sabina Marciano, Matthew J McAuslan, Patrick McCunn, Alison McIntosh, Xianzong Meng, Lisa Meyer-Baese, Stephan Missault, Federico Moro, Daphne M P Naessens, Laura J Nava-Gomez, Hiroi Nonaka, Juan J Ortiz, Jaakko Paasonen, Lore M Peeters, Mickaël Pereira, Pablo D Perez, Marjory Pompilus, Malcolm Prior, Rustam Rakhmatullin, Henning M Reimann, Jonathan Reinwald, Rodrigo Triana Del Rio, Alejandro Rivera-Olvera, Daniel Ruiz-Pérez, Gabriele Russo, Tobias J Rutten, Rie Ryoke, Markus Sack, Piergiorgio Salvan, Basavaraju G Sanganahalli, Aileen Schroeter, Bhedita J Seewoo, Erwan Selingue, Aline Seuwen, Bowen Shi, Nikoloz Sirmpilatze, Joanna A B Smith, Corrie Smith, Filip Sobczak, Petteri J Stenroos, Milou Straathof, Sandra Strobelt, Akira Sumiyoshi, Kengo Takahashi, Maria E Torres-García, Raul Tudela, Monica van den Berg, Kajo van der Marel, Aran T B van Hout, Roberta Vertullo, Benjamin Vidal, Roël M Vrooman, Victora X Wang, Isabel Wank, David J G Watson, Ting Yin, Yongzhi Zhang, Stefan Zurbruegg, Sophie Achard, Sarael Alcauter, Dorothee P Auer, Emmanuel L Barbier, Jürgen Baudewig, Christian F Beckmann, Nicolau Beckmann, Guillaume J P C Becq, Erwin L A Blezer, Radu Bolbos, Susann Boretius, Sandrine Bouvard, Eike Budinger, Joseph D Buxbaum, Diana Cash, Victoria Chapman, Kai-Hsiang Chuang, Luisa Ciobanu, Bram F Coolen, Jeffrey W Dalley, Marc Dhenain, Rick M Dijkhuizen, Oscar Esteban, Cornelius Faber, Marcelo Febo, Kirk W Feindel, Gianluigi Forloni, Jérémie Fouquet, Eduardo A Garza-Villarreal, Natalia Gass, Jeffrey C Glennon, Alessandro Gozzi, Olli Gröhn, Andrew Harkin, Arend Heerschap, Xavier Helluy, Kristina Herfert, Arnd Heuser, Judith R Homberg, Danielle J Houwing, Fahmeed Hyder, Giovanna Diletta Ielacqua, Ileana O Jelescu, Heidi Johansen-Berg, Gen Kaneko, Ryuta Kawashima, Shella D Keilholz, Georgios A Keliris, Clare Kelly, Christian Kerskens, Jibran Y Khokhar, Peter C Kind, Jean-Baptiste Langlois, Jason P Lerch, Monica A López-Hidalgo, Denise Manahan-Vaughan, Fabien Marchand, Rogier B Mars, Gerardo Marsella, Edoardo Micotti, Emma Muñoz-Moreno, Jamie Near, Thoralf Niendorf, Willem M Otte, Patricia Pais-Roldán, Wen-Ju Pan, Roberto A Prado-Alcalá, Gina L Quirarte, Jennifer Rodger, Tim Rosenow, Cassandra Sampaio-Baptista, Alexander Sartorius, Stephen J Sawiak, Tom W J Scheenen, Noam Shemesh, Yen-Yu Ian Shih, Amir Shmuel, Guadalupe Soria, Ron Stoop, Garth J Thompson, Sally M Till, Nick Todd, Annemie Van Der Linden, Annette van der Toorn, Geralda A F van Tilborg, Christian Vanhove, Andor Veltien, Marleen Verhoye, Lydia Wachsmuth, Wolfgang Weber-Fahr, Patricia Wenk, Xin Yu, Valerio Zerbi, Nanyin Zhang, Baogui B Zhang, Luc Zimmer, Gabriel A Devenyi, M Mallar Chakravarty, Andreas Hess
Peter Vavra, Leo Sokolovič, Emanuele Porcu, Pablo Ripollés, Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells, Toemme Noesselt
Camila Silveira Agostino, Christian Merkel, Felix Ball, Peter Vavra, Hermann Hinrichs, Toemme Noesselt
Dercksen, T., Widmann, A., Noesselt, T. & Wetzel, N.
Weilun Sun, Ilseob Choi, Stoyan Stoyanov, Oleg Senkov, Evgeni Ponimaskin, York Winter, Janelle Pakan, and Alexander Dityatev
Felix Ball, Rosa-Marie Groth, Camila S Agostino, Emanuele Porcu, Toemme Noesselt
Felix Ball, Lara E. Michels, Carsten Thiele, Toemme Noesselt