Descripción del proyecto
Sustratos neurales del modelo bayesiano de percepción sensorial
Durante todo el día, somos bombardeados con un aluvión de estímulos sensoriales. Estos procesos pueden simplificarse a través de un modelo que el encéfalo crea sobre nuestro mundo, que se actualiza con la experiencia y se utiliza para hacer predicciones que afectan nuestro rendimiento. Recientemente, se ha revisado esta idea en la aplicación de las teorías bayesianas, propuestas para describir tanto la percepción sensorial sana, como la capacidad predictiva alterada relacionada con el autismo de alto funcionamiento. GenPercept está buscando mecanismos neuronales tanto en el procesamiento sensorial normal como en trastornos neuropsiquiátricos centrándose en los sacádicos y las oscilaciones rítmicas de la actividad encefálica. Los científicos del proyecto esperan encontrar el sustrato neuronal implicado en nuestra respuesta a cómo el pasado influye en nuestra percepción del presente.
Objetivo
How do we rapidly and effortlessly compute a vivid veridical representation of the external world from the noisy and ambiguous input supplied by our sensors? One possibility is that the brain does not process all incoming sensory information anew, but actively generates a model of the world from past experience, and uses current sensory data to update that model. This classic idea has been well formulised within the modern framework of Generative Bayesian Inference. However, despite these recent theoretical and empirical advances, there is no definitive proof that generative mechanisms prevail in perception, and fundamental questions remain.
The ambitious aim of GenPercept is to establish the importance of generative processes in perception, characterise quantitatively their functional role, and describe their underlying neural mechanisms. With innovative psychophysical and pupillometry techniques, it will show how past perceptual experience is exploited to manage and mould sensory analysis of the present. With ultra-high field imaging, it will identify the underlying neural mechanisms in early sensory cortex. With EEG and custom psychophysics it will show how generative predictive mechanisms mediate perceptual continuity at the time of saccadic eye movements, and explore the innovative idea that neural oscillations reflect reverberations in the propagation of generative prediction and error signals. Finally, it will look at individual differences, particularly in autistic perception, where generative mechanisms show interesting atypicalities.
A full understanding of generative processes will lead to fundamental insights in understanding how we perceive and interact with the world, and how past perceptual experience influences what we perceive. The project is also of clinical relevance, as these systems are prone to dysfunction in several neuro-behavioural conditions, including autism spectrum disorder.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitución de acogida
50121 Florence
Italia