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SUMMARY:Strategic brain routes for learning and plasticity - Professor Zoe
  Kourtzi\, Professor of Experimental Psychology\, Department of Psychology
DTSTART:20171120T180000Z
DTEND:20171120T190000Z
UID:TALK72363@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Beverley Larner
DESCRIPTION:When immersed in a new environment we are challenged to make s
 ense of initially incomprehensible event streams. At first\, it seems like
  a befuddling cacophony that leaves us completely unprepared for what will
  happen next. And yet\, quite rapidly\, the brain is able to find meaningf
 ul structures\, helping us to predict and prepare for future actions. We c
 ombine behavioural and brain imaging measurements with computational model
 ing\, to understand the dynamics of learning complex structures. We show t
 hat individuals adapt to changes in the environment’s statistics and ext
 ract predictive structures. Importantly\, extracting complex structures re
 lates to individual decision strategy: faster learning relates to selectin
 g the most probable outcomes (i.e. maximising) and is implemented by inter
 actions between executive and motor cortico-striatal mechanisms\, while le
 arning the exact stimulus statistics (i.e. matching) is implemented by vis
 ual cortico-striatal circuits. Our findings provide evidence for alternate
  routes to learning of behaviorally-relevant statistics that facilitate ou
 r ability to predict future events in variable environments. 
LOCATION:Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecture Theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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