Systems and Computational Neuroscience

Research groups

Vision and Control of Action Group (VISCA)

ACTIVE PERCEPTION AND SENSORIMOTOR INTEGRATION

López Moliner, Joan >

Visió i Control de l’Acció

Super Hendrik, Anne >

ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR AND INTERACTION RESEARCH GROUP

Quera, Vicenç >

EVENT LAB

Slater, Mel >

GRUPS DE TÈCNIQUES ESTADISTIQUES AVANÇADES APLICADES A LA PSICOLOGIA

Guàrdia-Olmos, Joan >

Virtual reality applications for clinical and health psychology (VR-PSY Lab)

Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Jose >

GEIMAC- Study Group on invariances of analysis and mesurement instruments of change in the social and health areas

Bono Cabre, Roser >

Representative of the research area

Dr. Joan López-Moliner

Departament de Cognició, Desenvolupament i Psicologia de l’Educació

j.lopezmoliner (at) ub.edu

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Is it possible to represent with empirical data and computation techniques the cognitive processes which enable perception, analysis and decision-making?

Researchers from this area are interested in explaining the mechanisms involved in human and animal behaviour. Also, we aim to unravel the mechanisms underlying different cognitive processes like memory, language, learning, problem-solving and reasoning.

On one hand, we study the cognitive processes related with language learning, both in babies and in adults learning a foreign language. We also analyse the neural processes underlying the episodic memory, in order to understand how experiences are encoded, consolidated and later retrieved. Besides, another goal of our research is the study of the neural mechanisms involved in reward processing, for instance those mechanisms explaining why we enjoy music.

On the other hand, we address how people make optimal decisions in complex environments from a computational point of view. Optimal decision-making depends on the sensory information that we receive through our senses, the decoding of this information and the adjustments of our motor actions. This research line also focuses on the mechanisms involved in three-dimensional vision, and on the creation of a mental spatial representation of our environment.

Finally, researchers from this area compare behaviour and cognition in different animal species. Using virtual navigation tasks both in human and non-human subjects, we aim to understand which are the processes underlying the acquisition and maintenance of spatial information. Other research lines are concerned with the modeling analysis of collective behaviour, for instance the coordinated collective motion in animal groups. Besides, we conduct studies on behavior, cognition and conservation, from an evolutionary and comparative perspective in both primate (human and nonhuman) and other animal species. The studies are conducted both in captivity and in the wild.

Highlighted publications

· Sans-Dublanc A, Mas-Herrero E, Marco-Pallarés J, Fuentemilla L (2016) Distinct Neurophysiological Mechanisms Support the Online Formation of Individual and Across-Episode Memory Representations. Cereb Cortex. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhw231

· Keil MS (2015) Dendritic Pooling of Noisy Threshold Processes Can Explain Many Properties of a Collision-Sensitive Visual Neuron. PLoS Computational Biology 11(10): e1004479.

· de la Malla, C., and López-Moliner, J. (2015). Predictive plus online visual information optimizes temporal precision in interception, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 41(5):1271-80.

· Pons, F., Bosch, L. Lewkowicz, D.J. (2015). Bilingualism modulates infants’ selective attention to the mouth of a talking face. Psychological Science, 26(4), 490-498.

· Banakou, D., & Slater, M. (2014). Body Ownership Causes Illusory Self-Attribution of Speaking and Influences Subsequent Real Speaking. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(49), 17678-17683.

· Mas-Herrero E, Zatorre RJ, Rodriguez-Fornells A, Marco-Pallarés J. (2014).Dissociation between musical and monetary reward responses in specific musical anhedonia. Current Biology. 24:699-704.

· Fuentemilla, Ll., Miró, J., Ripollés, P., Vilà-Balló, A., Castañer, S., Salord, N., Monasterio, C., Falip, M., Rodríguez-Fornells, A. (2013). Hippocampus-Dependent Strengthening of Targeted Memories via Reactivation during Sleep in Humans. Current Biology. 23(18):1769-1775.

· López-Barroso, D., Catani, M., Ripollés, P., Dell’Acqua, F., Rodríguez-Fornells, A., De Diego-Balaguer, R. (2013). Word learning is mediated by the left arcuate fasciculus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(32):13168-73.

· Rodríguez, C.A., Chamizo, V.D., Mackintosh, N.J. (2013) Do hormonal changes that appear at the onset of puberty determine the strategies used by female rats when solving a navigation task? Hormones and Behavior, 64, 122-135.

· Keil, M. S. and López-Moliner, J. (2012). Unifying time to contact estimation and collision avoidance across species. PLoS Computational Biology, 8(8): e1002625.

· De Diego-Balaguer R., Couette M., Dolbeau G., Dürr A., Youssov K., Bachoud-Lévi A.C. (2008) Striatal Degeneration impairs Language Learning: Evidence from Huntington’s Disease. Brain, 131 (11), 2870-2881.

Highlighted projects