Brain circuitry analysis of self-organizing interfaces between the brain and the external world

Abstract:

The function of the brain can be understood as an interplay between genetic pre-programming and learning mechanisms to establish the connectivity between neurons as well as the internal neuronal input-output functions. For the brain to develop working sensorimotor functionality it is essential to establish interfaces to the own body and to the external world. The talk will describe how these interfaces work at the circuitry level for sensorimotor functions in the spinal cord, brainstem and the cerebellum. Using in vivo recordings of neurons and network physiology, it is shown that the specificity of their connectivity and physiology requires a definition mainly acquired through learning, overruling potential genetic prewiring. Given the advanced properties of these subcortical interfaces, the traditional view of the neocortex is fundamentally challenged and the talk will also cover some resulting emerging new principles of the functional organization of the neocortex.