Graduate students and postdocs are invited to join the speaker for lunch after the seminar. Space is limited – to sign up, email: pennmindcore@sas.upenn.edu

Roozbeh Kiani
Professor of Neural Science and Psychology
NYU

Beyond Movement: Joint Encoding of Action and Cognition in the Human Pallidothalamic Circuit

Our decisions are flexible. We can commit to an action before evidence is complete, adjust while acting, and learn from outcomes after the fact. How neural circuits coordinate decision variables, motor commands, and post-action evaluation remains unresolved—especially in humans, where direct circuit-level measurements have been scarce. In this talk, I will discuss two human electrophysiology projects that probe complementary aspects of flexible control. First, I will describe recordings from the subthalamic nucleus (STN) during rapid replanning, when participants must switch an ongoing action. These data test prominent hypotheses that cast STN as a global “brake,” and instead motivate a more circuit-specific account of how switching is implemented during movement. Second, I will describe single-neuron recordings across multiple nodes of the human pallidothalamic circuit during perceptual decisions reported with graded, confidence-linked actions. These measurements reveal how cognitive variables are embedded within movement-related population activity, and how post-action signals may support learning and adaptive adjustment.

Pizza will be served. Please bring your own beverage.

We will also stream this seminar via Zoom.
For the link, please email: pennmindcore@sas.upenn.edu

This is a joint seminar with the Vision Research Center at Penn (VRC).