Home Department: Symbolic Systems
Supported by: Bio-X
Mentor: William Newsome, Neurobiology

Bora is studying the neural basis of decision making in macaque monkeys. In a study in the lab, monkeys were trained to perform a perceptual decision making task and report their decision with either an arm or an eye movement. By analyzing the neural activity recorded from two brain areas while the monkeys performed the task, Bora plan to distinguish characteristics of the neural responses that are constant across motor responses and those that are not. Understanding these components and comparing them across brain areas will further our understanding of the decision making process in primates.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 26, 2015:

Representation of Decision Formation Signals in Premotor Cortex when Choice Is Reported by Eye and Hand

Bora Erden¹, Diogo Peixoto^1,2,  William T. Newsome^1,3
[Department of Neurobiology¹ and Howard Hughes Medical Institute ³, Stanford University; Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme²]