Brain meeting: Daniel Margulies

Brain meeting 

Abstract: A primary challenge for cognitive neuroscience is understanding how the cerebral cortex transforms distinct sources of information into cohesive experiences, and this goal requires knowledge of how functional integration emerges from cortical structure. Insights into functional processing streams indicate that cortical areas are arranged stepwise, representing functional gradients along the cortical surface. Having been largely restricted to describing processing within specific sensory modalities, how do these principles generalize and extend to the surrounding association cortex? I will present work describing various features of a principal gradient in cortical connectivity that spans between sensory/motor areas, involved in processing the here and now, and higher-order transmodal association regions that are involved in memory-related and abstract functions. Based on the observation that these systems are also maximally distant from one another, I will introduce a macroscale model of cortical integration. By describing how the spatial layout of the cerebral cortex shapes its functions, this line of research proposes a framework for understanding the structural constraints that underpin the integrated nature of human cognition.

There will be coffee, tea and cake in the conservatory directly after the talk.