June 2016 - Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Postdoctoral positions available in Dr. Suzanne Haber's lab
by Sarah Heilbronner 16 Jun '16

16 Jun '16

2 Postdoctoral positions are available in Dr. Suzanne Haber’s lab at the University of Rochester. The studies use nonhuman primate anatomical connectivity studies in combination with MRI in nonhuman and human primates to investigate: 1. Reward pathways and their interface with cognitive and motor control circuits; and 2. Circuitry underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The first project is designed to delineate connectional hubs within cortex and basal ganglia structures that receive convergent inputs from reward and cognitive control regions. Specific focus is on dorsolateral, ventrolateral, ventromedial, orbital, and anterior cingulate cortices and the striatum and amygdala. The approach is to use traditional anatomical tract-tracing circuitry techniques in combination with state of the art imaging methods such as diffusion and functional MRI to explore the location of these hubs in both animal and human brains and their relationship to disease. The second project is designed to characterize the organizational principles that govern white matter organization and trajectories connecting frontal areas with particular emphasis on the connectional hubs. These data will form the basis for segmenting white matter with respect to function in order to identify and evaluate diffusion MRI changes associated with OCD and its treatments. These studies are part of a Silvio O. Conte Center grant involving several Institutions and multiple techniques investigating the neurocircuitry of OCD and effects of neurostimulation. The ideal applicants would have background in systems neuroscience and/or neuroimaging. These positions will give opportunities to interact with pioneering scientists through the Conte Center grant and will provide unique training at the forefront of anatomy, neuroimaging, and translational neuroscience. Applicants should submit a summary of research interests, a curriculum vitae and names of three references to: Dr. Suzanne Haber, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology: Email: Suzanne_Haber(a)URMC.Rochester.edu. (AA/EOE).

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Extended Deadline for Goettingen's Advanced Computational Neuroscience Summer School
by Agostina Palmigiano 16 Jun '16

16 Jun '16

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Extended deadline for applications for the Advanced COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE Summer School in Göttingen, Germany September 06th - 16th, 2016 DEADLINE *June 24, 2016* %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The aCNS School is a 10-day intensive course in mathematical and computational neuroscience. It offers students working in computational neuroscience and already familiar with its interdisciplinary nature, an intensive pedagogy of advanced mathematical and computational tools, designed to qualify young researchers to push the frontiers of the field. The course counts with and introductory day + 4 two-day theoretical blocks + 4 evening lectures in charge of the following researchers: * Vijay Balasubramanian <http://www.sas.upenn.edu/%7Evbalasub/public-html/Home.html>, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA * Jason Kerr <http://www.caesar.de/bbo.html>, Center of Advanced European Studies and Research, Bonn, Germany * Gilles Laurent <http://brain.mpg.de/research/laurent-department.html>, MPI for Brain research, Frankfurt, Germany * Tobias Moser <http://www.innerearlab.uni-goettingen.de/>, University Medical Center, Göttingen Germany * Erwin Neher <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1991/neher-bio.ht…>, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany * Magnus Richardson <https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/systemsbiology/staff/richardson/>, University of Warwick, Conventry, England * Wolf Singer <http://www.esi-frankfurt.de/research/singer-lab/>, Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience, Frankfurt, Germany * Misha Tsodyks <http://www.weizmann.ac.il/neurobiology/labs/tsodyks/>, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel The consecutive two day thematic blocks are dedicated to mathematical approaches to circuit dynamics. Each lecturer will give a self-contained introduction to a particular set of theoretical tools in a block of two morning lectures. In the afternoon, participants will work on problem sets designed to develop proficiency in both the mathematical and computational tools learned earlier that day. An additional set of evening ‘easy’ lectures will give the opportunity to discuss significant advances in the field. The course takes place at the Department of Nonlinear Dynamics of the Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen. Registration fee is 200 euros. Course language is English. Housing is provided by the school. Travel grants can be provided upon request. Only 15 participants will accepted. We invite applicants to apply by filling out the application form at: http://www.bccn-goettingen.de/events/cns-course <http://www.bccn-goettingen.de/events/cns-course> by *June 24, 2016*. Organizers: Rainer Engelken, Joscha Liedtke, Agostina Palmigiano, Manuel Schottdorf, Jens Wilting Best wishes and looking forward to seeing you in Göttingen, Agostina Palmigiano ___________________________ Agostina Palmigiano Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Am Fassber 17, 37077 Goettingen +49 551 5176 421 office +49 163 882 6689 mobile http://www.nld.ds.mpg.de/ <http://www.nld.ds.mpg.de/> ___________________________

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Postdoctoral Position in Computational Neuroscience at Georgia State University
by Yaroslav Molkov 16 Jun '16

16 Jun '16

A postdoctoral/research associate position in computational neuroscience for the initial duration of one year is immediately available in the externally funded project focusing on multi-scale computational modeling of motor control mechanisms, involving interactions between basal ganglia, thalamus, cerebellum, cortex, and spinal cord in connection with realistic simulation of pathological changes in motor control during Huntington’s disease. This collaborative project is performed jointly by the groups of Drs. Ilya Rybak (Dept. of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA) and Yaroslav Molkov (Dept. of Mathematics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA). Applicants must have a PhD degree in Neuroscience, Applied Mathematics, Physics, or a related discipline, a strong research record, and excellent C++ programming skills. Previous experience in computational neuronal modeling is a plus. Georgia State University is an urban public research university. Georgia State students and employees can take advantage of the university’s easy access to Atlanta’s rich creative environment, diversity of cultures and lifestyles, and wide variety of indoor and outdoor activities. The world’s busiest airport is just minutes from campus. Atlanta provides Georgia State’s faculty and students with an urban laboratory, enabling them to draw creative inspiration. Interested candidates are encouraged to contact Dr. Molkov (ymolkov(a)gsu.edu) by email. To apply, please send an email along with (1) curriculum vitae; (2) a cover letter describing previous research experience and interests; (3) the names and contact information of three references. Dr. Molkov will be available to answer questions about this position during Organization for Computational Neuroscience Annual meeting, July 2-7, 2016, Jeju, Korea. ================================= Yaroslav Molkov, Ph.D. Associate Professor Georgia State University Department of Mathematics and Statistics 30 Pryor St SW, 750-COE, Atlanta, GA 30303 Office: 722-COE Phone/fax: (404) 413-6422 Email: ymolkov(a)gsu.edu

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Final Call for Papers: Extracellular Space
by Reinoud Maex 16 Jun '16

16 Jun '16

JOURNAL OF INTEGRATIVE NEUROSCIENCE http://www.worldscinet.com/jin Call for Papers! Special Issue on Extracellular Space In experimental neuroscience, most electric signals are picked up from the electrolytic (or colloidal) solution that constitutes extracellular (interneuronal) space, yet the origin of these potentials is incompletely understood. Even more, theoreticians have recently argued about the physical principles underlying these phenomena. The present special issue invites experimental and theoretical work that can shed light on electric phenomena in extracellular space, with an emphasis on extracellular potentials and endogenous electric field interactions. The contributions solicited are original research papers and comprehensive reviews on methodological aspects. Submission deadline: 30 September 2016 Contact: Dr. Reinoud Maex reinoud.maex(a)ens.fr Questions that may be addressed are (but are not limited to): 1. The nature of extracellular potentials - What is nature of the electric currents, and what is the velocity (distribution) of the ions involved? Since membrane currents underlie the extracellular currents, what are the relative contributions of synaptic versus voltage-gated channels, excitatory versus inhibitory synapses, capacitive currents? How important are Lorenz forces between currents (due to the generated magnetic fields) and is there a contribution of polarization currents? - Is extracellular space purely resistive, or is a capacitive component involved, and what factors (such as ionic concentration, Debye shielding, etc.) contribute to its resistivity? 2. Modeling of extracellular potentials and electric field interactions - What level of detail is needed to model extracellular electrical phenomena, and which formalism can be employed? How valid is the cable equation, or need slow concentration changes of the major ionic components involved be modeled explicitly? How can LFP calculations be incorporated in simulation software? - Can volume transmission be simulated adequately as volume conductors? Are ephaptic coupling effects adequately simulated in one dimension? 3. Neuronal inference from measured extracellular potentials - What is the importance of the electrode characteristics for the proper interpretation of the measured signals? - What are the underlying assumptions, and limitations, of current-source-density analysis? How valid is the dipole approximation? Why are recent experiments being interpreted in terms of monopoles, and can single-compartmental model neurons generate local field potentials at all? - What can be learned from the power density distribution of signal frequencies? 4. Neurostimulation - What is the effect on neurons of an externally applied current or potential, and what mechanism (or rationale) underlies deep brain stimulation? 5. Physiological roles of extracellular potentials and endogenous electrical fields - Do extracellular potentials contribute to neuron-neuron and neuron-glia communication? Can there be a role for extracellular potentials in the homeostasis, clearance, and volume regulation of extracellular space, and in the control of blood flow and of the blood-brain-barrier. - What is the integrative role of endogenous electrical fields in brain function?

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Papers on networks of neurons with nonlinear dendrites and Binary Synapses trained by structural plasticity
by Arindam Basu 16 Jun '16

16 Jun '16

Dear all Let me draw your attention to some work done by our group over the past few years in developing networks of neurons with lumped dendritic nonlinearity and binary synapses. The connections on each dendritic branch is sparse and the neurons learn to classify patterns when trained using different structural plasticity rules. Thus learning happens by modiying network connection matrix and not by weight change. These networks have advantage for hardware implementations--reduced memory and resistance to mismatch due to binary synapses. We have demonstrated supervised and unsupervised spike time based learning rules and have used these networks as readout of liquid state machines, to improve the reservoir in a liquid state machine, to classify spike latency patterns like tempotron or to classify MNIST images. I summarize the papers below and also include arxiv links for your reading pleasure. 1. S. Hussain, S. C. Liu and A. Basu, "Biologically plausible, Hardware-friendly Structural Learning for Spike-based pattern classification using a simple model of Active Dendrites," Neural Computation , vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 845-897, April 2015 link: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1411.5881.pdf ** Margin based learning, spike time based supervised learning, results on UCI dataset 2. S. Roy, A. Banerjee and A. Basu, "Liquid State Machine with Dendritically Enhanced Readout for Low-power, Neuromorphic VLSI Implementations," IEEE Trans. on Biomedical Circuits & Systems , vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 681-695, 2014. link:http://arxiv.org/pdf/1411.5458.pdf ** Readout of LSM, 30X less binary synapses compared to parallel perceptron 3. S. Roy, P. P. San, S. Hussain, Lee Wang Wei and A. Basu, "Learning Spike Time Codes through Morphological Learning with Binary Synapses," IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks & Learning Systems , vol. 27, no. 7, July 2016. link: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1506.05212.pdf ** Classifying spike time latency patterns, comparison with tempotron 4. S. Hussain and A. Basu, "Multi-class Classification by Adaptive Network of Dendritic Neurons with Binary Synapses using Structural Plasticity," Frontiers in Neuroscience , Mar, 2016. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2016.00113 link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4814530/ ** Ensemble learning, adaptive allocation of dendrites, performance on MNIST, hardware savings analysis 5. S. Roy and A. Basu, "An Online Unsupervised Structural Plasticity Algorithm for Spiking Neural Networks," IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks and Learning Systems , accepted, 2016. link: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1512.01314.pdf ** unsupervised spike time based learning, sequence learning 6.S. Roy and A. Basu, "An online structural plasticity rule for generating better reservoirs," Neural Computation , accepted, 2016. link: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.05459.pdf ** Improving separation property of reservoirs in LSM Thanks Arindam Basu Assistant Professor School of EEE Nanyang Technological University http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/arindam.basu/ Regards, Arindam ________________________________ CONFIDENTIALITY: This email is intended solely for the person(s) named and may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it, notify us and do not copy, use, or disclose its contents. Towards a sustainable earth: Print only when necessary. Thank you.

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comp-neuro current status
by Wijnants Mike 16 Jun '16

16 Jun '16

Dear comp-neuro user, As you may have noticed the comp-neuro mailing list has been offline for a few weeks. Unfortunately we lost access to the previous domain name because of miscommunication with the domain provider. To serve the computational neuroscience community we have decided to restart the service with a temporary domain as comp-neuro(a)neuroinformatics.be We plan to migrate to another domain name in the future and will announce this when ready. Groetjes, Erik

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