Dr. Stewart Shipp's Lecture - The Functional Logic of Cortical Connections-the Neural Basis of Predictive Coding?
Title: Functional Logic of Cortical Connections– the Neural Basis of Predictive Coding?
Speaker: Dr. Stewart Shipp, University College London, UK
Chair: Prof. Tianzi Jiang, Brainnetome Center, CASIA
Time: 10:00-11:00 Nov. 14, 2016
Venue: The 1st meeting room, 3rd floor of the Intelligence Building
[Abstract]
Segregated, parallel transmission exists at several different levels of the primate visual system, and is taken to be the anatomical expression of neurophysiologically specialised processing for perceptual attributes of the visual scene relating to colour, form and motion. Integration is expressed by convergent interactions of these streams across hierarchical levels, serially reformulating the nature of their functional specialization. However, the traditional idea of perceptual synthesis through hierarchical analysis is now being transformed by theories of the Bayesian brain coupled to active sensory inference. This concept of 'predictive coding' places a sharper emphasis on the role of backward connections in the hierarchy, and allows fresh insight into the functional logic of cortical connectivity.
[Biography]
Undergraduate study at Cambridge University, UK (1977-80). PhD obtained from University College London, UK (1980-86). Subsequent work at UCL, initially in the Department of Anatomy with Professor Semir Zeki, and latterly at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology with Professor Adam Sillito, has approached primate visual function through the means of anatomy and single unit electrophysiology, plus human imaging and psychophysics. My current focus is to reinterpret past and envisage future research through the lens of predictive coding formulations of brain function.
