题目:Human quantity processing, from sensory to cognitive systems
主讲人:Benjamin Mark Harvey(荷兰乌特勒支大学)
时间:2024年7月2日 上午10:00
地点:心理学院213
主讲人简介:
英国牛津大学博士毕业,目前在荷兰乌特勒支大学实验心理学系担任副教授。主要研究方向:脑成像技术、数量表征和时间感知、视觉系统功能等。以第一/通讯作者在Science、Nature Communications、NeuroImage、Current Biology、PNAS、Nature Human Behavior等期刊中发表四十余篇文章,文章总引用次数达2408次,h-index=21,i10-index=32。多次受邀到Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging、International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA)、意大利比萨大学、麻省理工学院、德国柏林自由大学、美国斯坦福大学等多所高校和科研院进行演讲和汇报。其研究工作受到Trends in Cognitive Science、The Guardian、The Independent、NPR(美国国家公共电台)、Le Monde(法国《世界报》)等二十余家媒体报道。
讲座内容:
Human perception of physical quantities like numerosity and event timing supports many cognitive functions, from foraging to mathematical and scientific thought. Investigation of the underlying neural processes has focussed on quantity-tuned neural responses, which respond maximally to different numerosities or timings in different neural populations. Here I will describe 7T fMRI studies in which we show quantity-tuned neural populations in many areas of the human brain and for many quantities. These are spatially organised to map the quantity across the cortical surface. I will then discuss recent studies in which we reveal how these quantity-tuned responses are derived from responses in sensory systems, how they are then transformed between different brain areas, and how responses to different quantities are related. I will first show how straightforward analyses of visual images can determine their numerosity with little effect of item size or spacing, and that this analysis predicts responses to numerosity in early visual cortex and neural network models more closely than numerosity itself. Once quantity-tuned responses have been derived, I will show how responses to visual numerosity and haptic numerosity are related. Finally, I will describe a set of brain areas whose responses depend on working memory load near those showing quantity-tuned responses. I propose that this grouping allows a linking of physical quantity representations and working memory, supporting higher cognitive functions. Together, these results give an integrated overview of quantity-tuned neural response, their derivation in sensory systems, and their extension into higher-level cognitive processing.