Causality and neural dynamics of context and generalization (A19)

• Subject Area: Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 316803389

Context is a critical variable in extinction learning. Yet it’s poorly understood what exactly constitutes a context and why extinction is so sensitive to it. By testing pigeons in a novel arena-setup we will establish if context is a physical or a learned stimulus property. We will further use optogenetic stimulation to probe the causality in the underlying neural network. Using modern, wireless, neurophysiology in crows we will also test if mechanisms of attention or of generalization can account for the difference in context-sensitivity between acquisition and extinction.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1280: Extinction Learning
• Applicant Institution: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
• Project Head: Dr. Jonas Rose