coginfocom 2014

1. HOW WE NAVIGATE IN SPACE
Cognitive map (Tollman, 1948)
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014
 John O’Keefe, May-Britt and Edvard I. Moser - "for their discoveries of cells that
constitute a positioning system in the brain„
So far what we know is mostly based on animal experiments
 Place cells (O’Keefe & Dostrovsky, 1971)
 Grid cells (Hafting, Fyhn, Molden, M. B. Moser & E. Moser, 2005)
 Head direction cells (Taube, Muller, Ranck, 1990)

2. WINDOWS INTO THE BRAIN
Several methods to measure neurak activity directly …
 ECoG
 Deep brain electrodes
 EEG
 MEG
And indirectly
 fMRI
 PET, SPECT
 NIRS

3. NECESSITY OF TOOLS
Measure brain activity during
 Active motion
 In a 3 dimensional space
Recent advancement
 Portable EEG devices
 CAVE and HMD systems (Oculus Rift)
 Motion tracking
 Online realistic graphical rendering
 Communication between neuroscientists and computer
scientists

4. HOW CAN WE SET UP AN EXPERIMENT
T-maze experiment
 Do they prefer one alley? Are the fruits associated with one alley?
Talk
 Define the experiment
 Define the terms
 Define the key features

5. IMPLEMENTATION
VirCA + Experiment Controller
 Experiments presented in Collaborative virtual environment
Following methodology of psychological experiments
 Experiment description provided in XML language
 Standard, general descriptor
 Schema support: validate Experiment descriptor schemantically
Provide features for analysis and synchronization
 Logging
 Triggering via Parallel Port
 Rewarding system

6. METHODOLOGY
Experiment
 Definition part and schedule part
 Scene description
 State of virtual environment for experiment
 Stimuli
 Including visual objects
 Complete visual impact
 Events
 Including stimuli
 Conditions and effects of stimuli
 Scenario
 Schedule of events
 Conditions
 time or user initiative (key press)
T-Maze Experiment Descriptor
 Movements depends on user choice

7. LET’S SEE HOW THAT WORKS !