[Seminar]"A possible link between autonomic arousal and contextual inference process in human motor learning and control" by Dr. Atsushi Yokoi

Dear all,

Neural Computation Unit (Doya Unit) would like to invite you to a seminar as follows.

Speaker: Dr. Atsushi Yokoi  

1. Center for Information and Neural Networks, Advanced ICT Research Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan
2. Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Japan

Zoom Information:
https://oist.zoom.us/j/92849107363?pwd=cQ1fXat8YIaHu5myoYWPHrkNwcgoka.1

Meeting ID: 928 4910 7363
Passcode: 155462

Title: A possible link between autonomic arousal and contextual inference process in human motor learning and control

Abstract: Facing the ever-changing world, animals must learn to adjust their movement to many different situations. Experience of an environmental change leads to changes in various internal states, such as surprise or uncertainty about a given sensory event. Changes in these subjective states are often accompanied by changes in autonomic arousal, which could be partially read out from, for example, heart rate, electrodermal activities, and pupil diameter. As highlighted in recent studies, such autonomic arousal plays a significant role in forming boundaries in episodic memory (Clewett et al., Nat Comm, 2020). One unexplored question is whether/how such autonomic arousal contributes to the formation and expression of motor memory.

In this talk, I will introduce a series of behavioral studies in which we simultaneously measured a single or a combination of these peripheral autonomic measures during human motor learning experiments (e.g., Yokoi & Weiler, JNP, 2022). Based on the results and some simulations using a recently proposed model for contextual inference (Healds et al., Nature, 2021), I will further discuss the potential link between autonomic arousal and the contextual inference process. I will also introduce an ongoing challenge of in vivo imaging of human locus coeruleus using 7T MRI.

Website:
https://scholar.google.co.jp/citations?user=xWoc6bEAAAAJ&hl=ja&oi=sra

We hope to see many of you at the seminar.

Sincerely,
Neural Computation Unit
Contact: ncus@oist.jp