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<br><br>
<div align="center"><font size=4><b>The UCSD Department of Cognitive
Science is pleased to announce a talk by<br><br>
</font><font size=6>Leslie Osborne Ph.D.<br><br>
</font><font size=4>Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neurobiology,
UCSF<br><br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=4>Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at
12pm<br>
Cognitive Science Building, room 003<br><br>
</b></font><font size=6>"Insights into neural mechanisms of behavior
from analysis of variation".<br><br>
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<font size=4><b>It is difficult to swing a golf club the same way every
stroke, or hit a baseball on every swing. Variation in how our brains
record what we see, and program how we act, creates variability in our
behavior. An analysis of that variation can reveal more than the overall
level of precision in the system, it can tell us about the brain’s
underlying computational processing as well. I am studying how sensory
estimates are converted into actions using pursuit as a model. Pursuit
is an eye movement behavior in which we track a moving visual target
smoothly with our eyes in order to stabilize its image on our retinas.
By analyzing the fluctuations of neural and behavioral responses in the
context of a theory of optimal performance in pursuit, I am developing a
framework for investigating signal processing in a sensorimotor
system.<br><br>
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