Descrizione del progetto
Substrati neurali del modello bayesiano di percezione sensoriale
Nell'arco della giornata, siamo bombardati da una raffica di input sensoriali. Questi processi potrebbero essere semplificati attraverso un modello del nostro mondo creato dal nostro cervello crea , aggiornati con l’esperienza e utilizzati per fare previsioni che incidono sui nostri risultati. Recentemente, questa idea è stata rivisitata nell’applicazione delle teorie bayesiane, proposte per descrivere sia la percezione sensoriale sana sia la capacità predittiva compromessa associata ad autismo ad alto funzionamento. GenPercept è alla ricerca di meccanismi neurali sia nella normale elaborazione sensoriale che nei disturbi neuropsichiatrici, con particolare attenzione alle saccadi e alle oscillazioni ritmiche nell’attività cerebrale. Gli scienziati sperano di trovare il substrato neurale implicato nella nostra risposta a come il passato influenza la nostra percezione presente.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantIstituzione ospitante
50121 Florence
Italia