Calendar
When:
23. April 2021 @ 14:00 – 15:00
2021-04-23T14:00:00+02:00
2021-04-23T15:00:00+02:00
Where:
Zoom
Cost:
Free
Contact:
Prof. Dr Max-Philipp Stenner
Email
LIN Events

onLINe Seminar

Prof. Dr. Pieter Roelfsema (Director of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam):

’Conscious visual perception and restoring it in blindness’

23.04.2021
2 p.m.
Zoom
https://ovgu.zoom.us/j/3628581343
Passcode: onLINe

Abstract

Conscious visual perception and restoring it in blindness

I will discuss the mechanisms that determine whether a weak visual stimulus will reach consciousness or not. If the stimulus is simple, early visual cortex acts as a relay station that sends the information to higher visual areas. If the stimulus arrives at a minimal strength, it will be stored in working memory. However, during more complex visual perceptions, which for example depend on the segregation of a figure from the background, early visual cortex’ role goes beyond a simply relay. It now acts as a cognitive blackboard and conscious perception depends on it. Our results also inspire new approaches to create a visual prosthesis for the blind, by creating a direct interface with the visual cortex. I will discuss how high-channel-number interfaces with the visual cortex might be used to restore a rudimentary form of vision in blind individuals.