Cognitive Neuroscience Society

The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • Annual Meeting
        • General Information
          • What to Expect at CNS 2023
          • CNS 2023 Mobile App
          • CNS 2023 Giveaway
          • CNS 2023 Giveaway Winners
          • Accessibility at CNS
          • General Information
          • Code of Conduct
          • Dates and Deadlines
          • Hotel Reservations
          • Poster Guidelines
          • Poster Printing Discount
          • Annual Meeting Workshop Policy & Application
          • Exhibit with us!
        • Program
          • Thank you to our Partners
          • CNS 2023 Program Booklet
          • Schedule Overview
          • Program-at-a-Glance
          • CNS 30th Anniversary Dance Party
          • Keynote Address
          • George A. Miller Awardee
          • Distinguished Career Contributions Awardee
          • Young Investigator Awardees
          • CNS at 30: Perspectives on the Roots, Present, and Future of Cognitive Neuroscience
          • Invited-Symposium Sessions
          • Symposium Sessions
          • Data Blitz Session Schedule
          • Poster Schedule & Session Information
          • JoCN Travel Fellowship Award
          • GSA/PFA Award Winners
          • Workshops, Socials & Special Events
        • Registration
          • Registration
          • Registration FAQ
          • Registration Policies, Cancellations & Refunds
        • News/Press
          • CNS 2023 Press Room
          • CNS 2022 Blog
          • CNS 2021 Blog
          • CNS 2020 Blog
        • Submissions
          • 2023 Poster Printing Discount
          • Submission Requirements
          • Submit a Poster
          • Submit a Symposium
          • GSA or PFA Application
          • Data Blitz
          • Frequently Asked Submission Questions
        • Archive
          • CNS 2020 Conference Videos
          • CNS 2019 Conference Videos
          • CNS 2018 Conference Videos
          • CNS 2017 Conference Videos
          • CNS 2016 Conference Videos
          • CNS 2015 Conference Videos
          • Previous Meetings Programs & Abstracts
  • About CNS
    • Boards and Committees
    • CNS Statement: Black Lives Matter
  • Membership
    • Information and Benefits
    • Join or Renew Membership
    • Membership FAQs
    • Member Discounts
    • Newsletter
      • Submit an Announcement
      • Current Newsletter
      • Newsletter FAQs
      • Past Newsletters
  • Awards
    • George A. Miller Award
    • Fred Kavli Distinguished Career Contributions Award
    • Young Investigator Award
    • Young Investigator Award Nominations
    • 2023 YIA Nomination Form
    • JoCN Travel Fellowship Award
  • News Center
    • CNS Blog
    • CNS 2023 Press Room
    • CNS 2023 Blog
    • CNS 2022 Blog
    • CNS 2021 Blog
    • CNS 2020 Blog
    • CNS 2019 Blog
    • Blog Archives
    • Quick Tips for Getting Started on Twitter
    • Media Contact
  • My CNS
  • Contact Us
post

CNS 2013 Meeting: Making Decisions Based on Context: A New Mechanism Gains Traction

April 14, 2013

DirectionsThe audience for Sunday morning’s keynote lecture at CNS 2013 got to play the part of monkeys during a talk by William Newsome of Stanford University, though our task was a bit easier than what his test monkeys usually experience.

Normally, in Newsome’s experiment, monkeys have 750 milliseconds to determine either whether a flashing field of dots is moving left or right, or whether green or red is the predominant dot color. To receive a gulp of juice as a reward, they must indicate the correct answer by fixing their eyes on a single dot on the right or left side of the screen for the directional test, or on the green or red dot for the color test. The audience at Newsome’s lecture had 2 seconds to watch the dot field, and of course, we could respond verbally with our choice.

By examining the brains of these monkeys while these tests are under way and modeling what’s occurring in both individual and whole populations of neurons, Newsome’s team has shed light on how the brain separates relevant from irrelevant information to make context-dependent decisions.

In the monkey test case, both color and movement information make their way down the network of neurons, until the monkey has to decide if it’s being asked for an answer about color or direction. As individual neurons are stimulated, each one hangs onto all the information that the monkey is gathering. It’s not until much later in the process, when the signals of many neurons are integrated into a network on their way to the frontal eye fields (FEF) portion of the prefrontal cortex, that “gating” occurs – when the brain starts to select what information is relevant and what is not based on the decision it has to make. In the motion test, which direction the dots move is the relevant information, but whether the dots are green or red is irrelevant.

Because all of this information comes down the pipeline at once, it’s very difficult to home in on the exact point when gating occurs. To address this issue, Newsome collaborated with post-doctoral student David Sussillo to build a computer model that closely mimics the response of the monkeys’ brains to the dot tests. By plotting the data on 3-D axes, they have begun to tease apart where gating occurs and which mechanisms play a role.

Newsome says he was startled to learn from the model this gating mechanism actually selects for relevant information and that gating doesn’t occur as previously thought, where a mechanism suppresses irrelevant information, allowing just the relevant details to proceed. “This is a totally different view of how selection and gating can happen in the prefrontal cortex. It’s not one the field [of cognitive neuroscience] has entertained before,” Newsome said during his talk.

Acknowledging that more work lies ahead, he added, “The question is now, ‘Is this the way the brain is really working?’ because we don’t know.” As Sussillo and Newsome have scaled up their tests, the model’s outputs have remained robust, suggesting that this selection mechanism has much broader implications in the prefrontal cortex. Newsome believes it will play an important role in this line of research for years to come.

For more on Newsome’s research, read a recent Q&A with the scientist.

—
More than 1,500 scientists are attending the 20th annual meeting of CNS in San Francisco, CA, from April 13 to April 16,2013. Follow the meeting on Twitter: @CogNeuroNews #CNS2013

Media advisory

By lmunoz Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: decision-making, keynote, william newsome Leave a Comment

Previous article: CNS 2013 Meeting: The Generation of – and Learning Process for – New Nerve Cells in Our Brains
Next article: CNS 2013 Meeting: Controlling Emotional Response is Key to Treating Mental Illness

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

  • CNS 2023: Day 4 Highlights
  • Psychedelics and Cognition: A New Look
  • CNS 2023: Day 3 Highlights
  • CNS 2023: Day 2 Highlights
  • Forget About It: Investigating How We Purge Thoughts from Our Minds

Blog Archives

Quick Tips for Getting Started on Twitter

Cognitive Neuroscience Society
c/o Center for Mind and Brain
267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA 95618
916-955-6080: for CNS Membership Questions
805-450-7490: for annual meeting questions about- registration, posters, symposium
916-409-5069: Fax Line
email: meeting@cogneurosociety.org

Recent Posts

  • CNS 2023: Day 4 Highlights
  • Psychedelics and Cognition: A New Look
  • CNS 2023: Day 3 Highlights
  • CNS 2023: Day 2 Highlights
  • Forget About It: Investigating How We Purge Thoughts from Our Minds

Archives

Blog Archives

Previous Meeting Programs and Abstracts

Past Newsletters

All contents © Cognitive Neuroscience Society 1995-2019

Add to Calendar

Add to Calendar
04/16/2022 11:00 AM
04/16/2022 12:00 PM
America/Los_Angeles
How Prior Knowledge Shapes Encoding of New Memories
Description of the event
Grand Ballroom A
Create an Account

Login Utility