NDT, Massimo Scanziani

Talk title: Context in Visual Cortex

Abstract:

Animals and humans contextualize sensory information to extract meaning. Indeed, sensations are influenced by the context within which they occur. In the visual world, for example, the scene surrounding a stimulus, i.e. its context, modulates our perception of the stimulus as well as the neuronal response to that stimulus. I will discuss experiments addressing the mechanisms by which circuits of neurons in the visual cortex of the mouse contribute to contextual modulation. Revealing the logic through which neuronal circuits implement contextual modulation is providing us with a mechanistic understanding of among the most fundamental properties of sensory processing.