摘要

Recent progress in high-resolution non-invasive imaging in humans confirmed the existence ofcolumnar structures known in the monkey. These fMRl experiments fueled the hope to identifymesoscale functional structures in largely unexplored cortical territories. Using implanted phasedarray coils and contrast-agent enhanced fMRl. we started to map the cortex of rhesus monkeys with0.6 mm isotropic voxels covering the entire brain and with a large variety of visua stimuli, l wipresent novel unpublished data showing highly reliable mesoscopic functional units (MFUs) which arepresent in occipital, parietal, temporal and frontal cortex. I will argue that the fine-grained functionaorganization of primate neocortex is considerably more complex than suggested by currentlyprevailing parcellation models, based on electrophysiology, tractography and low-resolution fMRevidence, The identification and the functional-anatomical characterization of the entire MFalphabet will be kev to understand vision and cognition. brain is a highly nonlinear complex network system supporting diverse cognitive abilities. The locally segregated and globally integrated processing are the two basic foundations to cognition.

个人简介 

Wim Vanduffel is the head of the research group Neurophysiology and of the Laboratory Neuroand Psychophysiology at the Faculty of Medicine at the KU Leuven Belgium. In addition, he still holds anassistant professorship at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, and is affiliated as researcher at the.

Massachusetts General Hospital. Boston.USAWim Vanduffel studies visual perception and cognition in human and nonhuman primates He haspioneered awake behaving monkey fMRI techniques and used it to investigate functionacorrespondences between the human and macaque brain, By combining fMRI with state-of-the artcausal techniques, his lab aims to study interactions between retinal and non-retinal internally.generated signals and the mechanisms driving adult cortical plasticitv underlving perceptual learning.ately, Vanduffel's group engaged in developing novel very high resolution imaging methods to studthe functional organization of the brain at mesoscale level.