Symposia
It is increasingly clear that psychiatric conditions involving psychosis – such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder - are accompanied by problems with the processing of sensory information. In this symposium we will present work that uses techniques from sensory neuroscience to gain a better understanding of the neurobiological processes underlying such disorders. Using a combination of psychophysical, pharmacological and brain imaging methods we will show pervasive differences in sensory processing operating at the level of cells right through to human behavior. Practical and theoretical implications of this research for psychiatric populations will be discussed.
CHAIR: Chair TBC
SPEAKERS Dr Kiley Seymour
We are pleased to annouce the three confirmed Symposia for the ACNS Conference 2015 Programme.
'Can vision provide new insights into the neurobiology of psychosis?'
Dr Olivia Carter
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne
'Sensory integration deficits are not limited to schizophrenia but support a dimensional view of psychosis'
School of Psychology, University of NSW
'Functional and behavioural evidence for altered orientation processing in Schizophrenia'
School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Auckland
'Population receptive fields in people with schizophrenia have reduced inhibitory surrounds'
Schools of Pharmacy and Psychology, University of Auckland
'Visual gamma oscillations: from cells to perception and psychiatric disorders'
'The free energy principle in action'
The free energy principle is an overarching approach to brain function, promising to provide a unified explanation of perception, learning and action in terms of long-term average surprise, or prediction error minimization. The principle is however highly abstract and needs to be operationalized for concrete research. The talks in this symposium extract and explain its central concepts, and apply them to concrete domains of empirical research in cognitive neuroscience. This demonstrates the value of this ambitious explanatory framework for driving new empirical exploration, and for moving towards an inferential conception of not just perception but also action and learning.
CHAIR: Bryan Paton
Monash University
SPEAKERS
Karl Friston
University College London
'Active inference and epistemic value: explaining choice behavior'
Juanita Todd
University of Newcastle
'First-impressions distort prediction errors in sequence learning'
Marta Garrido
The University of Queensland
'Predictive and efficient coding in sensory learning'
Jakob Hohwy and Colin Palmer
Monash University
'Varieties of prediction error minimization'
'Neuromodulation in health and disease: effects on motor processes and timing'
Noninvasive neuromodulation techniques are being employed increasingly to study brain functions and in clinical rehabilitation. This symposium addresses the use of techniques involving electrical stimulation of central and peripheral structures to understand and influence the role of motor brain regions in timing perception and movement production. Topics include potential for peripheral electrical stimulation to induce motor cortical plasticity and improve movement in clinical disorders, the use of transcranial direct current stimulation to assess the involvement of motor areas in rhythm perception, and the use of transcranial alternating current stimulation to influence rhythmic movement and facilitate interpersonal synchrony in social settings.
CHAIR: A/Prof Peter Keller
The MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney
SPEAKERS
Dr Siobhan Schabrun
School of Science and Health, University of Western Sydney
'Peripheral electrical stimulation to drive motor cortical plasticity and improve movement in clinical disorders'
Dr Li-Ann Leow
Centre for Sensorimotor Performance, The University of Queensland
'Dissociating the roles of motor areas in beat-based timing using brain stimulation'
Dr Manuel Varlet
The MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney
'Influence of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) on the dynamics of self-paced rhythmic movement'
The MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney
'Improving interpersonal synchronisation via transcranial alternating current stimulation. A dual-tACS study'
