BME PhD Thesis Proposal 

Date: Friday, October 30, 2020 

Time: 3:00PM 

Bluejeans Link: https://bluejeans.com/780409565  

Meeting ID: 780 409 565 

Advisor: Dr. Bilal Haider 

Committee Members: 

Dr. Gordon Berman 

Dr. Dieter Jaeger 

Dr. Dan O’Connor (Johns Hopkins) 

Dr. Chethan Pandarinath 

Title: Information Content and Routing of Visuomotor Signals in the Cortex 

Abstract: Sensorimotor transformations are a hallmark of natural behaviors.  The mechanisms by which sensory information is taken in, processed, and transformed into a motor action are not well understood.  A common framework in sensorimotor neuroscience suggests that as sensory information is propagated serially up the cortical hierarchy, stimulus-related information is lost and “transformed” into action-related information.  This proposal seeks to directly test two components of this framework.  In aim 1, a two-response visual detection task will be developed to allow for the direct interrogation of distinct routes of visuomotor processing.  In Aim 2, the information content of neural signals at multiple nodes along the visuomotor pathway will be quantified.  In Aim 3, simultaneous recordings from visual and motor areas will allow for the direct measurement of signal propagation through the cortex to assess the route of information flow.