题目：Neural basis of top-down automatic selection: auditory corticofugal modulation

报告人：Prof. Jun Yan

时间：2015年05月12日 星期二 13:00-14:30

地点： Room 1113, Wang Kezhen Building, Peking University

The brain selectively extracts the most relevant information in a top-down processing manner. A long-standing question is the underlying neural mechanisms of this top-down processing. The corticofugal projection is a backward projecting system. Does this system constitute the neural basis of such top-down selection?  Studies in the past 20 years suggest that focal cortical activation selectively enhances neural processing of specific auditory information and attenuates others based on auditory information (e.g., frequency) encoded in the auditory cortex. The corticofugal selection starts at the cochlear nucleus, the first neural processing level in the brain, and is enhanced step-by-step along the ascending pathway. The auditory cortex apparently implements a long-range feedback mechanism to select and filter incoming signals from the ear.