Tuesday, 31 Aug 2004, 2pm:

<CENTER><B>Adaptation to Visual Motion
</B>

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Adam Kohn<BR>
NYU



</CENTER>

Adaptation has been studied extensively in primary visual cortex, where
neuronal responsivity is reduced most when adapting and test stimuli are
well matched, but it is unknown whether similar effects occur in
extrastriate cortex.  I will review our recent findings on how adaptation
affects the contrast sensitivity and direction tuning of MT neurons.
These experiments have revealed changes in MT tuning unlike those
previously observed in V1.  I will discuss a conceptual framework for
understanding how these effects arise, and present preliminary data in
support of this explanation.  I will also relate the adaptation-induced
changes in MT tuning to other forms of cortical plasticity and--using
these parallels--propose experiments for studying how adaptation affects
perceptual performance.  Finally, I will outline and present preliminary
data for experiments that explore the ability of MT neurons to adapt to
the statistics of a stimulus distribution--rather than to the prolonged
presentation of a single stimulus.  
<P>
*Note: My focus will not be on presenting published findings, but
rather on motivating and outlining a series of new experiments.