Wir freuen uns auf Prof. Ueli Rutishauser vom California Institute of Technology aus Pasedena. Er ist am 11. September 2023 um 14 Uhr mit dem Titel „Probing human memory and decision making at the single-neuron level“ zu Gast im SFB 1436 und wird persönlich vor Ort einen Einblick in seine aktuelle Forschungsarbeit geben.
Abstract:
Memory and cognitive control are central to human behavior, but we still understand little about the underlying biology of these core human abilities. We are probing the underlying mechanisms by recording from individual neurons in humans undergoing neurosurgical procedures. We have developed new methods to quantify the structure of cognitive representations formed by neurons geometrically and relate changes in such to behavior and learning. In my talk, I will focus on recent progress on our understanding of the neural substrates of cognitive flexibility, memory-based decision making, and performance monitoring. I will discuss (i) how representations of cognitive boundaries in the hippocampus structure episodic memory formation and guide memory search, (ii) how human frontal cortex implements multiple tasks flexibly through selective frontal-hippocampal interactions, and (iii) the structure of domain-general representations of error-and conflict monitoring in medial frontal cortex. Together, these findings reveal single-cell correlates and their oscillation-mediated interactions of key aspects of human memory and suggest specific interventions for new approaches towards treatments for memory disorders.
About
Dr. Rutishauser is the Board of Governors Professor in Neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he also directs the Center for Neural Science and Medicine. He is a visiting faculty and teaches in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Rutishauser’ s training includes a BS in Computer Science, a PhD in Computation & Neural Systems from Caltech and postdoctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany. His research is on deciphering human cognition at the single-neuron level by performing invasive experiments in humans and by utilizing advanced computational methods to understand neural dynamics. His work has been recognized by the Troland Award by the National Academy of Sciences (2014), the NSF CAREER award (2016), and the NIMH BRAINS award (2017). His work has been funded by the NIH, NSF, Simons Foundation, Kavli Foundation, and McKnight Foundation.