Memory and Prediction: That's what the brain is in business for

Professor Vincent DiLollo, Department of Psychology, SImon Fraser University, Canada

Professor Vincent Di Lollo gave the 2007 OPAM Keynote Address in November 2007 in Long Beach, CA which was sponsored by CRS. We are proud to contribute to the OPAM meeting each year to make sure the organisers can offer free registration to its attendees. Professor Di Lollo's talk was recorded live on the day and is available here to watch again.

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Click the image above to view the sildes, and listen to Vincenct Di Lollo's talk, which was recorded live. The talk is about 45 minutes long. This presentation has been converted into a Flash file and uses streaming technology, so that you can start watching without waiting for the entire file to download. The presentation will open in a new window and run from start to end automatically, or you can use the controls in the bottom right corner to pause and navigate from slide to slide if you prefer. Don't forget to turn on your speakers!

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Abstract

In agreement with neuroanatomical evidence, but contrary to conventional feed forward notions, my colleagues and I hold to a scheme in which perceptions emerge from iterative exchanges between brain regions linked by reentrant pathways. In this scheme, the brain is seen as a repository of memories in the form of neural networks (cell assemblies and phase sequences) established through Hebbian learning. Those networks are used in cortical reentrant loops to set up moment-to-moment action plans for perceiving objects and for predicting behaviour sequences. Long-standing problems, including the development of perceptual categories and the “binding” problem, are resolved naturally within this conceptual framework. I will illustrate this viewpoint with evidence from behavioural manifestations such as visual masking, and electrophysiological evidence from MEG and event-related potentials that provide converging evidence for a reentrant theory of perception and cognition.

Professor Vincent Di Lollo

Bio

“ I was born in Gorizia, in the Italian north-east. As a teenager, I was shipped to Western Australia along with my parents, two brothers, and lots of other WW2 refugees. There, I worked as a labourer in a steel foundry, as a stonemason's assistant, and as a "grizzly-man" (a glorified powder monkey) in a gold mine. Then I learned to speak English (some would disagree), and won a scholarship.

Having completed a Ph.D. at the University of Western Australia, I spent three years in the U.S.A. as a Fulbright Scholar (Indiana University, University of Michigan, Princeton University). After a second stint at the University of Western Australia, this time as Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer, then Reader, I discovered Canada, and never looked back! I've been here since 1975, as Professor of Psychology at the University of Manitoba (1975-78), at the University of Alberta (1978-96), as Honorary Professor at UBC (1996-2004) and now as Adjunct Professor at SFU in Vancouver, where life is most enjoyable.

My research has been, and continues to be, generously supported by NSERC and, to a lesser extent, by other granting agencies. At SFU, my students and I collaborate extensively with several colleagues, notably John McDonald and Tom Spalek. ”

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