BME Seminar Series: Dr. Daniel Merfeld, Harvard Medical School

BME Seminar Series presents Dr. Daniel Merfeld, Professor of Otolaryngology, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Merfeld will present the following topic:

"Vestibular Confidence: Quantitatively Studying and Modeling The Cinderella of Decision-Making"

 

Abstract:

In this talk, I will interweave scientific findings with a new model to potentially yield a more efficient way to estimate thresholds. More specifically, from the scientific perspective, we will quantify and model confidence in perceptual decisions with a new model. While not (yet) perfect, I will show that this new model matches perceptual confidence data much better previous models. I will then evaluate whether this new model will allow us to use confidence to measure thresholds more efficiently by simply using the available confidence information that is usually neglected. Numerous researchers, including us, had previously studied how to make threshold estimation more efficient. These efforts over the past 50 years have yielded incremental benefits – typically these new methods yield efficiency enhancements of 5 to 10%. Preliminary analysis – both from computational simulations and human studies – suggest that these new confidence methods may yield threshold estimates up to 5 times more efficient that traditional methods (i.e., 80% improvements). If these preliminary findings prove to hold true, such efficiency improvements could improve our ability to diagnose sensory disorders (e.g., taste, smell, vestibular function) that require excessive testing times with pre-existing techniques.

Short Bio:

Dr. Merfeld received his B.S.M.E. (1982) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his M.S.E. (1985) in Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University, and his Ph.D. (1990) in Biomedical Engineering from MIT. Dr. Merfeld is the founder and Director of the Jenks Vestibular Physiology Laboratory at MEEI and is a Professor of Otology and Laryngology at the Harvard Medical School. He is also a member of the Affiliate Faculty of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and a member of the Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Merfeld is an inventor of the vestibular implant. His primary research studies the processing of motion cues and sensorimotor integration through the use of physiological and psychophysical measures as well as computational neuroscience techniques such as dynamic systems modeling. Dr. Merfeld conducts such neurovestibular investigations in an attempt to (a) prevent falls and other spatial disorientation accidents, (b) better understand how the nervous system processes the ambiguous sensory cues from the otolith organs and (c) develop new diagnostic tools to help distinguish clinical disorders.