When: February 3rd, 2022 – 3:00 pm

Where: Zoom meeting

Abstract: Despite their general immaturity, human infants have sophisticated auditory and speech perception skills. This talk will present EEG and NIRS studies with newborns and older infants investigating the neural mechanisms underlying these abilities. The studies investigate how embedded neural oscillations, hypothesized to be crucial for speech processing in adults, emerge during early human development.

The talk will discuss the implications of these findings for language development.

Short bio: Judit Gervain is a Full Professor at the Department of Developmental and Social Psychology.

Webinar: Università di Padova, Ulster University, Harvard Medical School, University college Dublin

When: Dec 2nd, 2021 – 3:00 pm CET (9:00 am ET)

Where: Zoom Meeting (please enroll to receive the link)

Abstract: Rehabilitative and assistive robots are a rapidly emerging field. However, their efficacy is still hampered by the lack of adaptive interaction with the end user, disregarding ongoing changes in brain and muscle reactivity.

The collaborative, international research projects SOFTAct and PRO-GAIT are setting the foundation to revolutionize wearable robots: artificial intelligence techniques will provide the framework to use cerebro-muscular biosignals to control robots. This will allow wearable robots to become a natural extension of the human body in the near future.

When: June 17th, 2021 – 5:00 pm

Where: Zoom meeting

Abstract: The core idea in this talk is that brain-wide, ongoing activity is essential for brain function and behavior. This activity accounts for 20% of the energy consumption of an adult human even though the brain contributes only 2% to the weight of the body. Brain activity associated with task performance is associated with surprisingly small regional changes in brain energy consumption. These changes are so small that they have no effect on the overall brain energy consumption. The emerging challenge for neuroscience is to understand the contribution this very high-energy consumption makes to brain function.

When: Apr 29th, 2021 – 3:00 pm

Where: Zoom meeting

Abstract: Through the combination of in vivo optical imaging and chronic expression of genetically encoded calcium indicators it is now feasible to directly ‘watch’ brain activity patterns related to specific behaviors. I will introduce wide-field calcium imaging and multi-fiber photometry as two complementary methods that enable measurements across mouse neocortex and in large sets of subcortical regions, respectively. Specific patterns of brain-wide signal flow that occur in mice performing whisker-based or auditory sensory discrimination tasks will be discussed, highlighting salient patterns related to short-term memory.