There is a dynamic and delicate balance between top-down vs bottom-up control. We all know that sometimes we are more on task and other times we are less focused and more distractible. The balance is critical: A relative weakening of top-down attention is readily apparent in ADHD. More severe and global losses of top-down control can explain the weak central coherence of autism and the disordered thought of schizophrenia (e.g., Uhlhaas & Singer, 2012). Our previous Aims employed many-electrode recording to trace top-down and bottom-up functional circuits across wide stretches of cortex for the first time at the neural level. The results suggest that oscillatory coherence between cortical areas regulates top-down and bottom-up communication. Now, we aim to leverage this understanding to determine how oscillatory dynamics fine-tunes these circuits for different balances of top-down vs bottom-up control. Our previous tasks switched between different types of top-down and bottom-up signals. We will now employ a task that varies the relative degree of top-down vs bottom-up control. Corresponding changes in neural dynamics across will powerful support for a role of oscillatory coherence in regulating top-down/bottom-up balance. Further support will come from non-invasive stimulation that modifies these neural dynamics and changes the balance of cognition.
There is mounting evidence for a role in oscillatory coherence in regulating neural communication and for its dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disorders like ADHD, autism, and schizophrenia. This project will shed new light on the role of oscillatory dyanmics in balancing cortical processing and can directly point to theraputic interventions.
| Lundqvist, Mikael; Herman, Pawel; Warden, Melissa R et al. (2018) Gamma and beta bursts during working memory readout suggest roles in its volitional control. Nat Commun 9:394 |
| Villagrasa, Francesc; Baladron, Javier; Vitay, Julien et al. (2018) On the Role of Cortex-Basal Ganglia Interactions for Category Learning: A Neurocomputational Approach. J Neurosci 38:9551-9562 |
| Wutz, Andreas; Loonis, Roman; Roy, Jefferson E et al. (2018) Different Levels of Category Abstraction by Different Dynamics in Different Prefrontal Areas. Neuron 97:716-726.e8 |
| Bastos, André M; Loonis, Roman; Kornblith, Simon et al. (2018) Laminar recordings in frontal cortex suggest distinct layers for maintenance and control of working memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115:1117-1122 |
| Lundqvist, Mikael; Herman, Pawel; Miller, Earl K (2018) Working Memory: Delay Activity, Yes! Persistent Activity? Maybe Not. J Neurosci 38:7013-7019 |
| Brincat, Scott L; Siegel, Markus; von Nicolai, Constantin et al. (2018) Gradual progression from sensory to task-related processing in cerebral cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115:E7202-E7211 |
| Jia, Nan; Brincat, Scott L; Salazar-Gómez, Andrés F et al. (2017) Decoding of intended saccade direction in an oculomotor brain-computer interface. J Neural Eng 14:046007 |
| Loonis, Roman F; Brincat, Scott L; Antzoulatos, Evan G et al. (2017) A Meta-Analysis Suggests Different Neural Correlates for Implicit and Explicit Learning. Neuron 96:521-534.e7 |
| Pinotsis, Dimitris A; Brincat, Scott L; Miller, Earl K (2017) On memories, neural ensembles and mental flexibility. Neuroimage 157:297-313 |
| Lindsay, Grace W; Rigotti, Mattia; Warden, Melissa R et al. (2017) Hebbian Learning in a Random Network Captures Selectivity Properties of the Prefrontal Cortex. J Neurosci 37:11021-11036 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 18 publications
