Lectures and seminars Cognitive Neuroscience Club with Dr. Ella Striem-Amit: "Sensorimotor -independent brain representations in association cortices"
The Cognitive Neuroscience Club is hosting monthly webinars on the topic Cognitive Neuroscience. The webinars usually takes place during the last week of the month. At this first occasion, on 31 March 2021 at 16:00, we welcome Dr. Ella Striem-Amit from Georgetown University, USA.
"Sensorimotor -independent brain representations in association cortices"
Speaker
Dr. Ella Striem- Amit, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University, USA
Abstract
How flexible are association cortices? I will present a series of fMRI experiments addressing this question by investigating individuals born without hands, who use their feet as effectors to perform everyday actions. These results suggest that computations in association cortices are abstracted from visuomotor features and experience, similarly to the visual-independence of the association networks in people born blind, highlighting these regions’ ability to compensate for experience in any specific modality. These findings also open new avenues to utilize effector-independence in the action system for motor rehabilitation.