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SUMMARY:Thalamocortical Interactions for Flexible Cognition - Rui Xia\; Da
 niel Kornai
DTSTART:20251021T121500Z
DTEND:20251021T114500Z
UID:TALK239716@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:124819
DESCRIPTION:There has been an emerging view that the thalamus act as a cen
 tral hub for coordinating distributed cortical computations\, shaping how 
 the brain flexibly transitions between cognitive states. In this journal c
 lub\, we will begin by providing an overview [1] of the thalamus as a cent
 ral regulator of large-scale brain dynamics\, influencing cognitive proces
 ses such as attention\, awareness\, and adaptive behavior. Building on thi
 s framework\, we present an experimental study (Lam\, et al) [2] that exam
 ines how the mediodorsal thalamus (MD) contributes to uncertainty-guided d
 ecision-making. Using recordings from tree shrews performing a hierarchica
 l decision task with rule reversals\, the study finds that distinct MD pop
 ulations encode cueing and rule uncertainty separately. This representatio
 n enables the thalamus to drive prefrontal reconfiguration following behav
 ioral errors\, supporting adaptive switching through a trans-thalamic path
 way linking cingulate and prefrontal cortex. Complementing these findings\
 , Zheng et al [3] presents a circuit-level model of the PFC–MD loop that
  implements rapid\, online context inference via Hebbian plasticity. They 
 show how incorporation of biological properties of thalamocortical circuit
 s can alleviates catastrophic forgetting and enable transfer of knowledge 
 to novel contexts. Together\, these perspectives converge on a view of the
  thalamus as an active computational hub supporting flexible cognition thr
 ough dynamic interactions with prefrontal circuits.\n\n[1] Shine\, J. M. (
 2021). The thalamus integrates the macrosystems of the brain to facilitate
  complex\, adaptive brain network dynamics. Progress in neurobiology\, 199
 \, 101951.\n[2] Lam\, N. H.\, Mukherjee\, A.\, Wimmer\, R. D.\, Nassar\, M
 . R.\, Chen\, Z. S.\, & Halassa\, M. M. (2025). Prefrontal transthalamic u
 ncertainty processing drives flexible switching. Nature\, 637(8044)\, 127-
 136.\n[3] Zheng\, W. L.\, Wu\, Z.\, Hummos\, A.\, Yang\, G. R.\, & Halassa
 \, M. M. (2024). Rapid context inference in a thalamocortical model using 
 recurrent neural networks. Nature Communications\, 15(1)\, 8275.
LOCATION:CBL Seminar Room\, Engineering Department\, 4th floor Baker build
 ing
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