Integration of bottom-up and top-down processing in sleep-dependent (08)

• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2017 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 276693517

Robust visual inference requires that visual information processing adapts to changing contexts on different timescales. Here, we investigate perceptual learning as a prime example of adaptiveness on slow time-scales. Perceptual learning has traditionally been characterized as highly stimulus-specific, but recent studies show surprising flexibility. Our project is based on the hypothesis that robust perceptual learning involves sleep-dependent top-down influences in early visual cortices. We will investigate this hypothesis in humans using EEG and fMRI, as well as in monkeys, where we will establish wireless sleep recordings to bridge the gap between different species in research on perceptual learning.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1233: Robust Vision - Inference Principles and Neural Mechanisms
• Applicant Institution: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
• Project Heads: Dr. Hendrikje Nienborg, until 10/2019; Dr. Karsten Rauss