The overall objective of this ongoing grant research is to further document how learned and remembered stimuli are represented by the distributed responses of cortical neurons; to further define the specific, distributed cortical unit response changes and the neuronal cell assembly changes that underly cortical contributions to learning and non-declarative memory; to further determine how these dynamic self- organizing cortical processes might contribute to the origins of and the expressions of functional human disabilities; and to further specify a realistic cortical network model, on the path to developing a general theory of cortical operations and function. At this stage of these studies, the research focus is directed toward resolving how learned, spatiotemporally complex stimuli are represented by distributed neuronal responses within somatosensory and auditory cortical fields; how cortical dynamics account for the representations of temporal input feature repertoires and temporal sequence learning; specifically how inputs delivered into the cortex are integrated or segregated, and are bound as singular perceptual events by cortical plasticity/representational processes; how strong, behaviorally documented plasticity-induced changes in cortical integration and segmentation times can be accounted for by cortical change mechanisms; how the processing of temporally sequenced inputs and their plasticity relates to, and possibly accounts for the genesis of the main behavioral expressions of speech reception/language- based learning disabilities (LDs); and how powerful effects of expectation shape our perceptions and learning in the dynamic cerebral cortical machinery. This continuation proposal research is organized to continue the development of a crucial foundation science for understanding the contributions of learning and brain self-organization to the many expressions of human neurological dysfunction and disability. Its findings contribute to the further specification of a general model of cortical dynamics and function, directed toward ultimately defining the basic principles of perception and cognition in terms of brain mechanisms and process rules.
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| de Villers-Sidani, Etienne; Simpson, Kimberly L; Lu, Y-F et al. (2008) Manipulating critical period closure across different sectors of the primary auditory cortex. Nat Neurosci 11:957-65 |
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