Neurolecture Seminar Series

The functional architecture of human visual cortex

Headshot of Speaker Alex PuckettAlex Puckett, Ph.D.,
School of Psychology
University of Queensland, Australia

  • October 16, 2020
  • 3:00 pm
  • For Zoom information to join the presentation, please email Zoey lsherwood at zisherwood@unr.edu.

Our rich, unified visual experience is made possible only through the concerted activity of many, specialized cortical areas. In this talk, I will discuss two distinct but complementary studies aimed at better understanding the functional architecture of these visual areas in humans. For the first, I will discuss a wavelet-based approach for parametrically and subtly manipulating the complex statistical properties of natural scenes with a high degree of control and flexibility. Using fMRI, I'll then show how our cortical visual areas are differentially sensitive to these subtle manipulations. For the second project, I'll detail our recent work using fMRI data from a large cohort of participants (N = 181) to develop a deep neural network able to predict the retinotopic organization of human visual cortex. These predictions are made at the individual level, directly on a surface model of the cortex, and from underlying anatomical information alone.

Neuro-CMB seminar series

Seminars by distinguished investigators are an essential component of the graduate curriculum. The Neuroscience and Cellular & Molecular Graduate Program's Seminar Series meets during the academic year on Wednesdays at 4 pm in DMSC. The seminar series features invited speakers locally and from around the world with informal discussions after the seminar at the local pub. The seminar series is supported by the COBRE Center for Integrative Neuroscience, and the Integrative Neuroscience and CMB Graduate Programs.

The following CMB 790 seminars are typically held Wednesdays from 4pm-4:50pm at DMSC 104, however due to COVID-19, our seminars are currently presented via Zoom. Contact Simon Pieraut, Ph.D. for Zoom invitation details at spieraut@unr.edu.

List of featured speakers for the Neuro-CMB lecture series
Date Featured speaker Topic
Sept. 2, 2020 Edward Ester, Ph.D.,
Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno		 Oscillatory mechanisms of attentional selection in working memory
Sept. 9, 2020 Anastasia Yendiki, Ph.D., 
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School Associate Investigator, Massachusetts General Hospital, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging 		Towards validated tools for mapping brain circuitry in vivo with diffusion MRI
Sept. 16, 2020 Dylan Kosma Assistant professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nevada, Reno Identification and Characterization of R2R3 Myeloblastosis Transcription Factors that Regulate Biosynthesis of the Plant Biopolymer Suberin
Sept. 23, 2020 TBA TBA
Sept. 30, 2020 Ukpong Eyo, University of Virginia, School of Medicine Microglia-evolutionary conserved cells orchestrating brain physiology and pathology
Oct. 7, 2020 David Raizen, Associate Professor of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania How and why animals get sleepy during sickness
Oct. 14, 2020 Kristi Townsend, Associate Professor of Neurobiology, University of Maine TBA
Oct. 21, 2020 Brad Voytek, Associate Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science, UC San Diego TBA
Oct. 28, 2020 Fernanda Ceriani, Fundación Instituto Leloir, Argentina TBA
Nov. 4, 2020 Annie Newall-Fugate, Assistant Professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Science, Texas A&M University TBA
Nov. 11, 2020 Veteran's Day - No seminar NA
Nov. 18, 2020 Hye Young Lee, Assistant Professor  in the Cellular and Integrative Physiology department, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio TBA
Nov. 25, 2020 Katsutomo Okamura Professor, Nara Institute of Science and Technology Crosstalk between miRNA biogenesis and other RNA processing pathways
Dec. 2, 2020 Uli Munderloh, Professor, University of Minnesota TBA
Dec. 9, 2020 TBA TBA
Dec. 16, 2020 TBA TBA