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SUMMARY:Understanding generative learning in the individual brain - Profes
 sor Zoe Kourtzi\, University of Cambridge 
DTSTART:20160308T170000Z
DTEND:20160308T183000Z
UID:TALK63262@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Gabriela Pavarini
DESCRIPTION:Learning from experience and adapting to new situations is fun
 damental to human development and wellbeing. Research on human learning ha
 s primarily focused on domain-specific skills (e.g. learning language\, sp
 orts). However\, a wide range of everyday behaviours—from detecting targ
 ets in clutter (e.g. finding a friend in the crowd)\, to navigating a new 
 city\, and co-ordinating our social interactions—critically depend on ex
 tracting meaningful structure from an initially incomprehensible stream of
  events. Extracting meaningful structures is critical for optimising not o
 nly our ability to interpret incoming information but also to predict upco
 ming events and react successfully to novel situations. We refer to this d
 omain-general skill of extracting the principles of organisation that dete
 rmine the structure of the environment\, as generative learning. To unders
 tand individual ability for generative learning\, we combine behavioral an
 d brain imaging measurements with computational modeling. Our work determi
 nes prototypical strategies for generative learning and links individual l
 earning strategies to brain computations. Our behavioural findings suggest
  that successful learning relies on extracting behaviorally relevant struc
 tures that are predictive of upcoming events rather than simply memorizing
  all possible statistical dependencies. Further\, we provide evidence that
  generative learning is implemented by a cortico-striatal circuit that may
  select\, monitor and adjust individual learning strategies over time. We 
 propose that these brain computations may determine domain-general strateg
 ies for generative learning that can become specialized to support higher 
 cognitive functions\, such as navigating a new city\, understanding music 
 and language.\n
LOCATION:Lecture Room 1\, Faculty of Music\, 11 West Road\, CB3 9DP
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