Professor Bruno van Swinderen
Queensland Brain Institute
University of Queensland

 

Title:  The Predictive Fly Brain

 

Abstract: Brains are adaptive prediction machines. They draw from the past to anticipate what happens next. Predictive processing is typically studied in humans by using ‘oddball’ paradigms, where unexpected or ‘deviant’ stimuli embedded within a series of predictable ‘carrier’ stimuli evoke longer reaction times, alongside prediction error signatures in recorded brain activity. Yet, every successive percept in our consciousness can in some way be defined along a continuous spectrum of predictability and surprise, influenced by our immediate history. This provides an experimental framework for studying the phenomenon in animals. I will present a strategy drawn from human psychophysics to study visual predictive processing in the fruit fly model, Drosophila melanogaster, using behaviour, electrophysiology, and calcium imaging. I will outline optogenetic approaches to investigating how predictive processing might be regulated and will discuss a potential role for ‘active’ sleep in building and maintaining an adaptive level of subjective awareness in animals.

About Neuroscience Seminars

Neuroscience seminars at the QBI play a major role in the advancement of neuroscience in the Asia-Pacific region. The primary goal of these seminars is to promote excellence in neuroscience through the exchange of ideas, establishing new collaborations and augmenting partnerships already in place.

Seminars in the QBI Auditorium on Level 7 are held on Wednesdays at 12-1pm, which are sometimes simulcast on Zoom (with approval from the speaker). We also occassionally hold seminars from international speakers via Zoom. The days and times of these seminars will vary depending on the time zone of the speaker. Please see each seminar listed below for details. 

 

Neuroscience Seminars archive 2005-2018