開催日時：2012年7月30日（月）16:30-18:00
開催場所：京都大学総合人間学部棟　1102講義室
　　　（京都大学吉田南キャンパス内）
講演者： Adam Gazzaley, MD, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry
Director of Neuroscience Imaging Center,
University of California, San Francisco
演題：
Neural networks underlying top-down modulation of visual processing.
講演概要：
Top-down modulation is a bi-directional process that underlies our ability to focus our attention on task-relevant stimuli and ignore irrelevant distractions by differentially enhancing or suppressing neural activity in sensory cortical regions. It is believed that this modulation is not an intrinsic property of visual cortices, but is achieved via functional connectivity between sensory brain regions and a distributed network of frontal and parietal regions. I will present new data from our lab that reveals differential entrainment of stimulus-selective, visual association cortical areas with regions of the “frontal-parietal attention network” or the “default network” depending on the participant’s goals. Additionally, there is sparse evidence in humans that a direct causal connection exists between prefrontal control regions and visual cortical activity modulation. Using a multi-modal approach that couples fMRI, rTMS and EEG, I will present evidence for a direct role of the inferior frontal junction (IJF) in top-down modulation of feature processing and its influence on subsequent working memory.