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dc.contributor.advisorBorn, Richard Todd
dc.contributor.authorRuff, Douglas
dc.date.accessioned2012-12-17T19:44:02Z
dc.date.issued2012-12-17
dc.date.submitted2012
dc.identifier.citationRuff, Douglas. 2012. Neuronal Tuning and Its Role in Attention. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University.en_US
dc.identifier.otherhttp://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10062en
dc.identifier.urihttp://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:10058474
dc.description.abstractThe activity of sensory neurons can be modulated by both external stimuli and an animal’s internal state. Characterizing the role of these bottom-up and top-down factors as well as the way in which they interact is critical for an understanding of how the activity of sensory neurons contributes to perception. To this end, we recorded from the middle temporal area (MT) in awake-behaving primates in order to measure the joint tuning properties of these neurons for two commonly studied feature dimensions, direction of motion and binocular disparity. Additionally, we set out to determine whether attention directed to these two features can modulate the responses of MT neurons. We showed that MT neurons have fixed tuning preferences for direction of motion and binocular disparity and thus represent these features in a separable manner. Further, we have demonstrated that MT neurons can be modulated by feature attention for both direction of motion and binocular disparity and that the amount of this modulation depends on a neuron’s tuning strength. These results further our understanding of how stimulus features are jointly represented in the brain and how the attentional system interacts with these representations in order to facilitate perception.en_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dash.licenseLAA
dc.subjectneurosciencesen_US
dc.titleNeuronal Tuning and Its Role in Attentionen_US
dc.typeThesis or Dissertationen_US
dc.date.available2012-12-17T19:44:02Z
thesis.degree.date2012en_US
thesis.degree.disciplineNeurobiologyen_US
thesis.degree.grantorHarvard Universityen_US
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.namePh.D.en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMaunsell, Johnen_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberKreiman, Gabrielen_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberUchida, Naoen_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMartinez-Trujillo, Julioen_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberConway, Bevilen_US


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