Neural basis of abstraction

Our main interest is in understanding how abstract properties of sensory information (say, the color of an object or its direction of motion) are stored and used to guide actions.

Abstraction is an essential substrate of thought, language and most higher order cognitive functions. It endows near infinite flexibility to our actions, allowing us to construct and follow instructions like "Press the red button if you saw something moving to the right".

To study abstraction, we train monkeys to decide on the abstract properties of ambiguous visual stimuli. We record neural activity in their brain while they are making such decisions to understand the underlying computations.

Relevant paper

Clinical relevance

We want to understand how the computations underlying abstraction are disrupted in psychiatric and neurological disorders that affect higher order cognition. Of particular interest are thought disorders (e.g., Schizophrenia) and early dementia (e.g., MCI).

To study these disorders, we use psychophysics to characterize deficits in abstract decision-making in schizophrenia and early dementia using the same behavioral tasks as monkeys. We then attempt to mimic those deficits in monkeys using causal manipulation techniques (e.g., pharmacology and chemogenetics). Our ultimate goal is to develop monkey models of these disorders.

Relevant paper

Pitt Neuroscience

Center for Neural Basis of Cognition

Email

shushruth @ pitt.edu

Address

CNBC 115 I, 440 Fifth Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Phone

+1 412 268 4486