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SUMMARY:Flexible Adaptation in Perception and Action - Dr Anne-Marike Schi
 ffer - Department of Experimental Psychology\, University of Oxford
DTSTART:20150720T120000Z
DTEND:20150720T130000Z
UID:TALK60206@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lorraine Coulson
DESCRIPTION:To act efficiently in our environment\, we must accurately pre
 dict forthcoming events\, such as the consequences of our actions. This no
 t only requires maintenance of a predictive model\, but sometimes also fle
 xible adaptation of this model so that it stays up to date and thus useful
 . A core assumption is that prediction errors drive this adaptation. Such 
 learning from prediction errors is well established\, but nearly exclusive
 ly investigated in the context of reward and punishment.\n\nHowever\, ther
 e is only a limited number of human actions where reward constitutes the i
 mmediate feedback\; in other words: there is a wide range of external even
 ts beyond reward which we can learn to predict and can use to evaluate the
  correctness of our actions. In fact\, we can even achieve this when exter
 nal feedback is absent or delayed\, making use of our internal confidence 
 to assess whether we're right or wrong.\n\nThis complexity raises a lot of
  questions: does prediction-error coding for external events rely on the s
 ame neural structure as reward prediction error coding? Is the neural resp
 onse to unexpected events modulated by our beliefs about their significanc
 e? And how does our estimate of the correctness of our behaviour\, our con
 fidence\, influence how we process and judge what we perceive?\n\nI will a
 rgue that the basal ganglia\, typically associated with reward-prediction 
 error processing\, fulfil a similar function in coding unexpected perceptu
 al events\, driving the adaptation of predictions. I will further present 
 fMRI & EEG data which suggests that expectations and beliefs about our env
 ironment influence adaptation as well as the prediction error signal itsel
 f. Lastly\, I will discuss new results which show that we learn and adapt 
 predictions on how confident we are in specific situations - without exter
 nal feedback. This learned confidence influences neural signatures of stim
 ulus processing and behavioural adaptation\, and colours how we judge our 
 own performance.
LOCATION:Kenneth Craik Room\, Craik Marshall Building\, Downing Site\, Cam
 bridge
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