October 2014 - Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Special Issue on Cross-Frequency Coupling in Brain Networks

by Tjeerd Boonstra

Dear colleagues, We would like to draw your attention and cordially invite you to submit a manuscript to the Special Issue on Cross-Frequency Coupling in Brain Networks: Methodological Challenges and Functional Implications in BioMed Research International. Manuscripts are due on Friday, 5 December 2014. For more information and to submit a manuscript please see: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/si/897985/cfp/. We look forward to your contributions. Tjeerd Boonstra Ali Bahramisharif Andreas Daffertshofer Sylvain Baillet Cross-Frequency Coupling in Brain Networks: Methodological Challenges and Functional Implications Synchronous activity of oscillating brain networks plays a fundamental role in cognitive functioning. Cross‐frequency coupling (CFC) has been proposed to be the mechanism for interaction of local and global processes and hence to enable the integration of neural information processing across timescales. We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles to stimulate the continuing efforts to understand the neural correlates of CFC, the methodological and mathematical prerequisites for reliable detection of CFC in experimental data, and the functional role of CFC in organizing the temporal dynamics of neural computation.

Oct. 14, 2014

PhD position in neuro-computational research of modeling emotions

by Julien Vitay

Several PhD (E 13 TV-L, 100%) positions are available at the Technical University of Chemnitz (Germany) in the Department of Computer Science. The positions are funded for three years. Among other fields of human-machine interactions, we are particularly interested in neuro-computational research of modeling emotions, particularly brain-inspired or brain-like solutions of the emotional system involving vision and audition. Please see http://crossworlds.info/jobposting/ -------------------- Prof. Dr. Fred H Hamker Artificial Intelligence & Neuro Cognitive Systems Department of Computer Science Chemnitz University of Technology Strasse der Nationen 62 D - 09107 Chemnitz Germany Tel: +49 (0)371 531-37875 Fax: +49 (0)371 531-25739 email: fred.hamker(a)informatik.tu-chemnitz.de www: http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/informatik/KI/

Oct. 12, 2014

Petition for European Researchers "They have chosen ignorance"

by Alessandro Torcini

Petition for European Researchers "They have chosen ignorance" Scientists from different European countries describe in this letter that, despite marked heterogeneity in the situation of scientific research in their respective countries, there are strong similarities in the destructive policies being followed. This critical analysis, highlighted in Nature and simultaneously published in a number of newspapers across Europe, is a wake-up call to policy makers to correct their course, and to researchers and citizens to defend the essential role of science in society. This letter can be signed here. The national policymakers of an increasing number of Member States, along with European leaders, have completely lost touch with the reality of research. http://openletter.euroscience.org/ In the media Italy Repubblica http://www.repubblica.it/economia/2014/10/08/news/scienziati_europei_contro… Ansa http://www.ansa.it/scienza/notizie/rubriche/ricerca/2014/10/09/ricercatori-… Micromega http://temi.repubblica.it/micromega-online/%E2%80%9Csenza-ricerca-non-si-es… Il Fatto Quotidiano http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2014/10/09/tagli-alla-ricerca-la-lettera-de… Roars http://www.roars.it/online/hanno-scelto-lignoranza/ Uninews24 http://www.uninews24.it/mondo/5301-la-lettera-dei-ricercatori-contro-i-vert… France http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2014/10/09/la-recherche-est-en-peril-il… Spain http://www.elmundo.es/ciencia/2014/10/08/54356cc2e2704e1d3e8b4597.html?cid=… http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/10/08/ciencia/1412764866_249154.html http://www.elperiodico.com/es/noticias/opinion/han-elegido-ignorancia-35861… http://www.elperiodico.cat/ca/noticias/opinio/han-elegit-ignorancia-3586110 Portugal http://www.publico.pt/n1672264 Greece http://www.tovima.gr/science/article/?aid=639347 http://www.tanea.gr/news/science-technology/article/5167615/nature-oi-polit… Poland http://www.rp.pl/artykul/9129,1147605-Apel-europejskich-naukowcow.html UK http://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2014/oct/09/they-have-chos… Belgium http://www.lesoir.be/674747/article/debats/cartes-blanches/2014-10-08/victi… See also http://www.euroscientist.com/blog/2014/10/09/pan-european-coordindated-grou… http://www.euroscientist.com/blog/2014/10/06/special-issue-research-activis…

Oct. 11, 2014

Post-doctoral research fellowship: modelling musical preference decisions

by Marcus Pearce

Dear All (with apologies for cross-posting), We seek to appoint a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London as part of an EPSRC-funded project <http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/M000702/1>on predicting musical choices using computational models of cognitive and neural processing. The goal of the project is to understand the cognitive and neural processes involved in musical preference decisions using computational modelling that incorporates the structure of the music, the psychological state and traits of the listener and the listening context. The successful candidate will be involved in the design and implementation of the models, data collection from human listeners in behavioural and EEG experiments, analysing the data to test the model predictions, and writing up the results for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Start date: 5 January 2015. Duration: 14 months (until March 5 2016). Salary: £34,283. For further information and to apply see: http://music-cognition.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/postdoc.html Marcus -- Lecturer in Sound and Music Processing Queen Mary, University of London Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7882 6207 Web: http://webprojects.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/marcusp Lab: http://music-cognition.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/

Oct. 11, 2014

Method development for coupled EEG-fMRI (1x Full EPSRC studentship)

by Etienne B. Roesch

Method development for coupled EEG-fMRI (1x Full EPSRC studentship) The goal of the project is to develop novel methods for the joint analysis of signals from electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), when they are obtained concurrently. Technological advances of the last 10 years make it possible for scientists to record both modalities concurrently, in what is now known as coupled EEG-fMRI. By simultaneously recording these two modalities, scientists can potentially say where and when neural activity is occurring, whereas previously researchers had to settle for one or the other. This engineering feat, however, has not yet been met with the ability to make use of the combination of these signals to infer more knowledge than would otherwise be gathered in separate experiments. Filling this gap is the ambition of the present project. This is a method project, which requires skills and knowledge in applied mathematics/statistics/physics and programming. One studentship is available, to join a research group in the remit of this project. Prior exposure to either/or EEG and fMRI is preferred, but training on both modalities will be provided. The emphasis of the studentship is on the development of novel analysis methods, but the successful candidate will have opportunities to join empirical work using EEG-fMRI. The student will be supervised by Dr. Etienne Roesch and receive support from Dr. Michael Lindner and Prof. Tom Johnstone, with R&D support from Brain Products. The CINN is host to a research-dedicated 3T Siemens TRIO, with a full license for sequence development, and a full suite of MR-compatible systems. Additionally, the student will be granted access to the cluster of NVIDIA Tesla GPUs and other facilities at CINN, as well as at the School of Systems Engineering. The University of Reading is ranked as one of the UK’s 20 most research-intensive universities and as one of the top 200 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2013). Our campus was voted first in the Times Higher Education Student Experience survey and has a Green Flag Award. It is situated 25 minutes West of London. Reading University Students’ Union was voted the 6th best in the UK (National Student Survey 2012). Essentials: Commitment to academic research and personal development; Ability to work collaboratively; Effective interpersonal and communication skills, including writing to a high standard, document preparation for technical notes and journal papers; Experience of work in interdisciplinary settings; Attention to details. Desirables: Self-guided work in developing statistical designs and approaches in research; Creative approach to problem solving; Ability to work independently; Experience in giving presentations and conveying complex ideas clearly. Eligibility: Applicants should hold a minimum of a UK Honours Degree at 2:1 level or equivalent in a relevant subject. Please note that due to restrictions on the funding this studentship is for UK/EU applicants only. Funding Details: Studentship will cover Home/EU Fees, pay the Research Council minimum stipend (£13,863 in 2014/15) for up to 3 years and include funding for international conferences. How to apply: To apply for this studentship please submit an application for a PhD in Cybernetics (full time) to the University – see http://www.reading.ac.uk/Study/apply/pg-applicationform.aspx . In the section ‘Research proposal’, please upload or copy-paste your covering letter. When prompted as part of your online application, you should provide details of the funding you are applying for, quoting the reference GS14-68. Once you have submitted your application, you should receive an email to confirm receipt of your online application. Please forward this email, along with your covering letter and CV (as pdf), to Dr. Etienne B. Roesch, e.b.roesch(a)reading.ac.uk, by the application deadline. Application Deadline: Monday November 10th, 2014 (interviews on November 21st, 2014, Skype or in Reading) Further Enquiries: Please contact Dr. Etienne B. Roesch, e.b.roesch(a)reading.ac.uk. Kind regards, Etienne Save the world from email! http://emailcharter.org ––– Dr. Etienne B. Roesch Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Cognitive Science University of Reading, UK http://doodle.com/MeetWithEtienne

Oct. 10, 2014

ModelDB open source code for HH model with time-depended ion concentrations

by Markus A Dahlem

** We made our source code from two recent papers and one accepted manuscript now available on ModelDB ** *The code simulates the Hodgkin-Huxley model with time-dependent ion concentrations.* Briefly, the Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model has 4 dynamical variables. Including Na+,K+, and Cl- extra- and intracellular ion concentrations introduces 6 further variables. Various simple reduction techniques, such as adiabatic elimination, synchronization, mass conservation, and electroneutrality have been used to reduce this extended HH formalism to again only 5 dynamical variables, while the model still retains adequate biophysical realism. For example, bursting and cortical spreading depression (SD) can be simulated. The model conserves the HH action potential dynamics. See Refs. [1,2] The accession number for the HH model with time-dependent ion concentrations is 167714. http://senselab.med.yale.edu/ModelDB/ShowModel.asp?model=167714 Moreover, the ModelDB accession number for a wild-type and mutant SD model described in paper Ref [3] is 167715. http://senselab.med.yale.edu/ModelDB/ShowModel.asp?model=167715 The model can be further reduced to only 4 dynamic variables (without Cl-). For dynamic volume control and further features, please get in contact with me, see below. This models require XPP, which is freely available from: http://www.math.pitt.edu/~bard/xpp/xpp.html Refs [1] N. Huebel, E. Schöll, and M. A. Dahlem, Bistable dynamics underlying excitability of ion homeostasis in neuron models, PLOS Comp. Biology. 10, e1003551 (2014) [2] N. Huebel and M. A. Dahlem, Dynamics from seconds to hours in Hodgkin–Huxley model with time–dependent ion concentrations and buffer reservoirs (accepted PLoS Comp Biol, arXiv 1404.3031) [3] M. A. Dahlem, J. Schumacher, and N. Huebel. Linking a genetic defect in migraine to spreading depression in a computational model, PeerJ, 2:e379 (2014). -- Dr. Markus Dahlem Web: https://sites.google.com/site/markusadahlem Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems Department Biological Physics Nöthnitzer Straße 38 01187 Dresden Germany and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin AG NLD Cardiovascular Physics Robert-Koch-Platz 4 10115 Berlin Germany phone: +49 (0)351 871 2402 email: dahlem(a)physik.hu-berlin.de skype: markus.dahlem

Oct. 10, 2014

[COSYNE2015] Abstract submission is open, Workshop pre-proposals deadline on Oct 31

by Tomas Hromadka

================================================= Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING Mar 5 - Mar 8, 2015 Salt Lake City, Utah WORKSHOPS Mar 9 - Mar 10, 2015 Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah http://www.cosyne.org ================================================= IMPORTANT DATES: Abstract submission is now open! Abstract submission deadline: 26 Nov 2014 Workshop pre-proposal deadline: 31 Oct 2014 Workshop proposal deadline: 21 Nov 2014 The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience, in order to understand how neural systems function. MAIN MEETING The main meeting is single-track. A set of invited talks are selected by the Executive Committee, and additional talks and posters are selected by the Program Committee, based on submitted abstracts. Cosyne topics include but are not limited to: neural coding, natural scene statistics, dendritic computation, neural basis of persistent activity, nonlinear receptive field mapping, representations of time and sequence, reward systems, decision-making, synaptic plasticity, map formation and plasticity, population coding, attention, and computation with spiking networks. This year we would like to foster increased participation from experimental groups as well as computational ones. Please circulate widely and encourage your students and postdocs to apply. Please note that the main Cosyne 2015 meeting will take place in a different venue (Hilton Salt Lake City Center) one week later than usual, see www.cosyne.org for details. WORKSHOPS The workshops feature in-depth discussion of current topics of interest, in a small group setting. The goal is to provide an informal forum for the discussion of important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, comparisons of competing approaches, and alternative viewpoints are encouraged. PRE-PROPOSALS: In an effort to coordinate submissions, the organizers are encouraged to submit a pre-proposal by 31 Oct 2014. Pre-proposals will be shared among submitters. Pre-proposals are requested but not required. The organizers may submit the full proposal by its deadline (21 Nov 2014). The overarching goal of all workshops should be the integration of empirical and theoretical approaches, in an environment that fosters collegial discussion and debate. Preference will be given to proposals that differ substantially in content, scope, and/or approach from workshops of recent years (examples available at www.cosyne.org) Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: sensory processing; motor planning and control; functional neural circuits; motivation, reward and decision making; learning and memory; adaptation and plasticity; neural coding; neural circuitry and network models; and methods in computational or systems neuroscience. For details on submitting (pre-)proposals please visit www.cosyne.org (Workshops). CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: Amy Bastian (Johns Hopkins) Matteo Carandini (UCL) Sophie Deneve (ENS) Florian Engert (Harvard) Marla Feller (UC Berkeley) Wulfram Gerstner (EPFL) Shawn Lockery (U Oregon) Liam Paninski (Columbia) Nicole Rust (U Penn) Tatyana Sharpee (Salk) Mariano Sigman (UBA) Emo Todorov (U Washington) When preparing an abstract, authors should be aware that not all abstracts can be accepted for the meeting, due to space constraints. Abstracts will be selected based on the clarity with which they convey the substance, significance, and originality of the work to be presented. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: General Chairs: Michael Long (NYU) and Stephanie Palmer (U Chicago) Program Chairs: Maria Geffen (U Penn) and Konrad Kording (Northwestern) Workshop Chairs: Robert Froemke (NYU) and Claudia Clopath (Imperial College) Publicity Chair: Xaq Pitkow (Rice) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Anne Churchland (CSHL) Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud) Alexandre Pouget (U Geneva) Anthony Zador (CSHL) CONTACT cosyne.meeting [at] gmail.com

Oct. 10, 2014

Postdoctoral / Research Specialist position in Drosophila visual neurophysiology

by Reiser, Michael

Oct. 10, 2014

Faculty position in Computational Neuroscience / Cognitive Science, Cambridge

by Máté Lengyel

Faculty position in Computational Neuroscience / Cognitive Science Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK Applications are invited for a University Lectureship / Senior Lectureship (~ US Assistant / Associate Professor equivalent) in the broad area of Computational Neuroscience, including Computational Cognitive Science in the Computational and Biological Learning Lab (cbl.eng.cam.ac.uk). CBL combines expertise in computational neuroscience and cognitive science (Daniel Wolpert, Mate Lengyel, Rich Turner) and machine learning (Zoubin Ghahramani, Carl Rasmussen). We particularly encourage applicants who would complement our current research activities. The successful applicant’s research should use computational or theoretical approaches, and may combine these approaches with behavioural experiments. Informal enquiries are welcome to: Daniel Wolpert (wolpert(a)eng.cam.ac.uk) Mate Lengyel (m.lengyel(a)eng.cam.ac.uk) Richard Turner (ret26(a)cam.ac.uk) Timeline: - Closing date of applications: Friday November 28th - Interviews: February, 2015 Further information and details of the application process can be found at http://cbl.eng.cam.ac.uk/Public/VacancyFaculty2014

Oct. 9, 2014

PostDoc Openings - New techniques for vision-assisted speech processing

by Chiara Bartolozzi

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (http://www.iit.it<http://www.iit.it/undefined/>) is a private Foundation with the objective of promoting Italy's technological development and higher education in science and technology. Research at IIT is carried out in highly innovative scientific fields with state-of-the-art technology. http://www.iit.it/ iCub Facility (http://www.iit.it/icub) and Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences (http://www.iit.it/rbcs) Departments are looking for 2 post-docs to be involved in the H2020 project EcoMode funded by the European Commission under the H2020-ICT-2014-1 call (topic ICT-22-2014 - Multimodal and natural computer interaction). Job Description: Robust automatic speech recognition in realistic environments for human-robot interaction, where speech is noisy and distant, is still a challenging task. Vision can be used to increase speech recognition robustness by adding complementary speech-production related information. In this project visual information will be provided by an event-driven (ED) camera. ED vision sensors transmit information as soon as a change occurs in their visual field, achieving incredibly high temporal resolution, coupled with extremely low data rate and automatic segmentation of significant events. In an audio-visual speech recognition setting ED vision can not only provide new additional visual information to the speech recognizer, but also drive the temporal processing of speech by locating (in the temporal dimension) visual events related to speech production landmarks. The goal of the proposed research is the exploitation of highly dynamical information from ED vision sensors for robust speech processing. The temporal information provided by EDC sensors will allow to experiment with new models of speech temporal dynamics based on events as opposed to the typical fixed-length segments (i.e. frames). In this context, we are looking for 2 highly motivated Post-docs, respectively tackling vision (Research Challenge 1) and speech processing (Research Challenge 2), as oulined herebelow: Research Challenge 1 (vision @ iCub facility - BC 69721): the post-doc will mostly work on the detection of features from event-driven cameras instrumental for improving speech recognition (e.g. lips closure, protrusion, shape, etc…). The temporal features extracted from the visual signal will be used for crossmodal event-driven speech segmentation that will drive the processing of speech. In the attempt to increase the robustness to acoustic noise and atypical speech, acoustic and visual features will be combined to recover phonetic gestures of the inner vocal tract (articulatory features). Research Challenge 2 (speech processing @ RBCS - BC 69724): the post-doc will mainly develop a novel speech recognition system based on visual, acoustic and (recovered) articulatory features, that will be targeted for users with mild speech impairments. The temporal information provided by EDC sensors will allow to experiment with new strategies to model the temporal dynamics of normal and atypical speech. The main outcome of the project will be an audio-visual speech recognition system that robustly recognizes the most relevant commands (key phrases) delivered by users to devices in real-word usage scenarios. The resulting methods for improving speech recognition will be exploited for the implementation of a tablet with robust speech processing. Given the automatic adaptation of the speech processing to the speech production rhythm, the speech recognition system will target speakers with mild speech impairments, specifically subjects with atypical speech flow and rhythm, typical of some disabilities and of the ageing population. The same approach will then be applied to the humanoid robot iCub to improve its interaction with humans in cooperative tasks. Skills: We are looking for highly motivated people and inquisitive minds with the curiosity to use a new and challenging technology that requires a rethinking of visual and speech processing to achieve a high payoff in terms of speed, efficiency and robustness. The candidates we are looking for should also have the following additional skills: * PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering (or equivalent) with a background in machine learning, signal processing or related areas; * ability to analyze, improve and propose new algorithms; * Good knowledge of C, C++ programming languages with proven experience. Team-work, PhD tutoring and general lab-related activities are expected An internationally competitive salary depending on experience will be offered. Please note that these positions are pending the signature of the grant agreement with the European Commission (expected start date in early 2015) How to apply: Challenge 1: Send applications and informal enquires to jobpost.69721(a)icub.iit.it<mailto:jobpost.69721@icub.iit.it> Challenge 2: Send applications and informal enquires to jobpost.69724(a)rbcs.iit.it<mailto:jobpost.69724@rbcs.iit.it> The application should include a curriculum vitae listing all publications and pdf files of the most representative publications (maximum 2) If possible, please also indicate three independent reference persons. Presumed Starting Date: Challenge 1: January 2015 (but later starts are also possible). Challenge 2: June 2015 (but later starts are also possible). Evaluation of the candidates starts immediately and officially closes on November 10th, 2014. References: Lichtsteiner, P., Posch, C., & Delbruck, T. (2008). A 128×128 120 dB 15 μs latency asynchronous temporal contrast vision sensor. Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of, 43(2), 566-576. Rea, F., Metta, G., & Bartolozzi, C. (2013). Event-driven visual attention for the humanoid robot iCub. Frontiers in neuroscience, 7. Benosman, R.; Clercq, C.; Lagorce, X.; Sio-Hoi Ieng; Bartolozzi, C., "Event-Based Visual Flow," Neural Networks and Learning Systems, IEEE Transactions on , vol.25, no.2, pp.407,417, Feb. 2014, doi: 10.1109/TNNLS.2013.2273537 Potamianos, G. Neti, C. Gravier, G. Garg, A. and Senior, A.W. (2003) “Recent Advances in the Automatic Recognition of Audiovisual Speech” in Proceedings of the IEEE Vol. 91 pp. 1306-1326 Glass, J. (2003)“A probabilistic framework for segment-based speech recognition”, Computer Speech and Language, vol. 17, pp. 137-152. Badino, L., Canevari, C., Fadiga, L., Metta, G. "Deep-Level Acoustic-to-Articulatory Mapping for DBN-HMM Based Phone Recognition", in IEEE SLT 2012, Miami, Florida, 2012 In order to comply with Italian law (art. 23 of Privacy Law of the Italian Legislative Decree n. 196/03), the candidate is kindly asked to give his/her consent to allow IIT to process his/her personal data. We inform you that the information you provide will be solely used for the purpose of assessing your professional profile to meet the requirements of IIT. Your data will be processed by IIT, with its headquarters in Genoa, Via Morego, 30, acting as the Data Holder, using computer and paper-based means, observing the rules on the protection of personal data, including those relating to the security of data. Please also note that, pursuant to art. 7 of Legislative Decree 196/2003, you may exercise your rights at any time as a party concerned by contacting the Data Manager. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia is an Equal Opportunity Employer that actively seeks diversity in the workforce. Chiara Bartolozzi Researcher Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia Via Morego, 30 16163 Genoa, Italy Ph: +39 010 7178-1474

Oct. 9, 2014