Invited lecture “Neurocognition of perceptual decision-making” by Hauke Heekeren from Max Planck Institute for Human Development/Berlin Neuroimaging

Summary

Findings from single-cell recording studies suggest that a comparison of the outputs of different pools of selectively tuned lower-level sensory neurons may be a general mechanism by which higher-level cortical regions compute perceptual decisions. For example, when monkeys must decide whether a noisy field of dots is moving upward or downward, a decision can be formed by computing the difference in responses between lower-level neurons sensitive to upward motion and those sensitive to downward motion.
I will present fMRI evidence that even for high-level object categories, the comparison of the outputs of different pools of selectively tuned neurons could be a general mechanism by which the human brain computes perceptual decisions. I will argue that the posterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has general decision-making functions, independent of stimulus and response modalities. Finally I will present data on the influence of other variables such as prior probability and reward on the neural correlates of perceptual decision making.

Time: 15:00 hours
Date: Friday November 3, 2006
Location: Colloquium Room F.C. Donders Centre.