In the morning of July 14, 2010, Dr. Michael N. Shadlen, Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Professor at School of Medicine, University of Washington visited the Institute of Biophysics (IBP) at the invitation of Professor Shurong Wang.

Dr. Shadlen gave a presentation titled “Believing and Time: Neural Basis of Decision Making” at IBP lecture hall, in which he introduced the recent achievement of his research group in the field of neuron response in Lateral Intraparietal cortex. His group studied the neural correlate of gradual decision formation by recording activity from the lateral intraparietal cortex (area LIP) of rhesus monkeys. He showed that LIP activity appears to mark the confidence during the decision process and probabilistic reasoning function, illuminating the neural basis of advanced brain function. More than a hundred researchers and graduate students from IBP, the Institute of Psychology and local universities attended Dr. Shadlen’s lecture. The audience was impressed by his scientific excellence and obtained a better understanding of neural mechanisms of decision-making. 

Dr. Shadlen is Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Adjunct Professor of Neurology, and Core Staff Scientist of the National Primate Research Center at the University of Washington. He studies neurons in the association cortex that process information from the visual cortex to give rise to interpretations, decisions, and plans for behavior. His experiments combine electrophysiology and behavioral and computational methods to advance our knowledge of higher brain function.

Dr. Michael N. Shadlen

Dr. Shadlen’s lecture