The Interaction of Evoked and Spontaneous Activity in Visual Processing

Professor Larry Abbott, Co-Director, Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University School of Medicine

Professor Larry Abbott of Columbia University School of Medicine gave the Keynote Address at 2007's Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting in Sarasota, Florida back in May. CRS sponsored and recorded this lecture, which is now available to listen to again here.

Click here to listen to the talk

Click the image above to view the sildes, and listen to Larry Abbott's talk, which was recorded live. The talk is about 60 minutes long. This presentation has been converted into a Flash file and uses streaming technology, so that you can start watching without waiting for the entire file to download. The presentation will open in a new window and run from start to end automatically, or you can use the controls in the bottom right corner to pause and navigate from slide to slide if you prefer. Don't forget to turn on your speakers!

Having trouble viewing the presentation? Try downloading the latest version of Flash Player by clicking here.

Abstract

In vivo recordings from primary visual cortex reveal that spontaneous background activity can be as complex as activity evoked by visual stimuli. Embedding visually evoked responses in such a strong and complex background seems like a confusing way to represent information about the visual world.  However, modeling studies indicate that, contrary to intuition, information about visual stimuli may be better conveyed by a network displaying chaotic background activity than by a network without spontaneous activity.

Professor Larry Abbott

Larry Abbott is a physicist-turned biologist who uses mathematical modeling to study the neural networks that are responsible for our actions and behaviors. Abbott’s thesis work at Brandeis University was in the area of theoretical elementary particle physics, ulminating in a PhD in 1977. He then worked in  theoretical particle physics at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and, later, at CERN, the European center for particle physics research. He became an assistant professor in the physics department at Brandeis in 1979, received tenure in 1982, and became a full professor of physics in 1988. His best-known achievements in particle physics include work on the cosmological constant, development of the background field method, calculations of the microwave background anisotropy, and work in gravity and gauge field theories.

Abbott began his transition to neuroscience research in 1989 and moved to the Biology Department at Brandeis in 1993. From 1994-2005, he was the co-director of the Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Brandeis, and from 1997-2002 was the director of the Volen Center. He held both the Nancy Lurie Marks and Zalman Abraham Kekst chairs in neuroscience. While at Brandeis, Abbott in collaboration with Eve Marder developed the dynamic clamp, a technique that has now become a standard tool of experimental electrophysiology. In 2005, Abbott joined the faculty of Columbia University where he is now the William Bloor Professor of Theoretical Neuroscience and co-director of the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience.

Research Interests

His research involves using analytic techniques and computer simulation to study the electrical characteristics of single neurons, to determine how neurons interact to produce functioning neural circuits, and to investigate how large populations of neurons represent, store, and process information. He is the author of numerous research articles in both particle physics and neuroscience and co-author with Peter Dayan of a widely used textbook on theoretical neuroscience.

Copyright © Cambridge Research Systems Ltd. Click for details.

^ Back to top