Israel Nelken
Wednesday 28th October 2015
Time: 4.00pm
Ground Floor Seminar Room
25 Howland Street, London, W1t 4JG
The coding of surprise in the auditory system
Israel nelken, ELSC and the Dept. of Neuroscience, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Abstract: Neurons in the auditory system, at least as early as the inferior colliculus, show stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA) - they respond more to the same stimulus when rare than when common. We studied SSA and its relationships with deviance detection, the specific responses to violations of expectations. I will show that whereas SSA in subcortical stations is well explained by adaptation mechanisms that do not show sensitivity to deviance, neurons in auditory cortex do show true deviance sensitivity. I will shortly discuss possible mechanisms that may contribute to cortical deviance detection.
(very) short bio: Since 1994 I'm a faculty member at Hebrew University
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