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SUMMARY:Dynamics of visual perception and collective neural activity - Pro
 fessor Jochen Braun\, University of Magdeburg
DTSTART:20141203T130000Z
DTEND:20141203T140000Z
UID:TALK55193@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:John Mollon
DESCRIPTION:Visual perception has all the hallmarks of an ongoing\, cooper
 ative-competitive process: probabilistic outcome\, self-organization\, ord
 er-disorder transitions\, multi-stability\, and hysteresis.  Accordingly\,
  it is tempting to speculate that the underlying collective neural activit
 y performs an exploratory attractor dynamics (spontaneous transitions betw
 een distinct steady-states)\, perhaps at multiple spatial and temporal sca
 les.  Here I summarize our recent investigations of this dynamical hypothe
 sis.  In several instances\, a careful empirical study of perceptual dynam
 ics fully constrains an idealized model of the stochastic dynamics of coll
 ective neural activity.\n\nI conclude that the dynamical hypothesis outlin
 ed above permits a particularly close and direct back-and-forth between pe
 rceptual experiment and computational theory and thus has the potential to
  dramatically accelerate our progress in understanding visual function.
LOCATION:Kenneth Craik Room\, Craik-Marshall Building\, Downing Site
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