June 2021 - Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Tutorials on Allen Institute data and tools for computational neuroscience at CNS*2021

by Anton Arkhipov

Starting soon: pre-CNS*2021 tutorials “From synapses to behavior – using open data, tools, and models from the Allen Institute in computational neuroscience”. Please register for CNS*2021 (https://www.cnsorg.org/cns-2021-quick) and find the Zoom link on the conference Sched page. Wednesday, June 30, 2021 11:30 am – 11:45 am ET (8:30 am – 8:45 am PT) - Introduction 11:45 am – 12:45 pm ET (8:45 am – 9:45 am PT) - Synaptic Physiology (Luke Campagnola) 12:45 pm – 1:00 pm ET (9:45 am – 10:00 am PT) - Break 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET (10:00 am – 11:00 am PT) - Visual Coding 2-photon (Saskia de Vries) 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm ET (11:00 am – 12:00 pm PT) - Visual Coding Neuropixels (Josh Siegle) Thursday, July 1, 2021 11:30 am – 11:45 am ET (8:30 am – 8:45 am PT) - Introduction 11:45 am – 12:45 pm ET (8:45 am – 9:45 am PT) - PatchSeq (Nathan Gouwens) 12:45 pm – 1:00 pm ET (9:45 am – 10:00 am PT) - Break 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET (10:00 am – 11:00 am PT) - Visual Behavior (Alex Piet) 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm ET (11:00 am – 12:00 pm PT) - Bio-realistic model of the mouse primary visual cortex (Anton Arkhipov and Kael Dai) Anton Arkhipov Associate Investigator T: 206.548.8414 E: antona(a)alleninstitute.org<mailto:antona@alleninstitute.org> [Text Description automatically generated] alleninstitute.org<https://alleninstitute.org> brain-map.org

June 30, 2021

Last chance to register: TEX2021 - Bringing together Predictive Processes and Statistical Learning

by Yamil Vidal

Last chance to register!! TEX2021 - Bringing together Predictive Processes and Statistical Learning A free online symposium organized by Yamil Vidal and Davide Crepaldi. We have few available spots left so do not wait until the last minute to register. Description: While the research communities studying Predictive Processes and Statistical Learning sprout from different traditions, they share a core interest in how our brains pick up on patterns in the environment. In this two-days symposium we will bring these communities closer by sharing talks by some of the leading researchers of these fields. When: 1st and 2nd of July (15:00 to 18:30, CET) Speakers: - Tristan Bekinschtein (Consciousness and Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge) - Lucia Melloni (Department of Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Department of neurology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine) - Padraic Monaghan (Department of Psychology, Lancaster University) - Maria Chait (Ear Institute, University College London) - Floris de Lange (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen) - Caspar Schwiedrzik (Neural Circuits and Cognition Lab, European Neuroscience Institute Goettingen. Perception and Plasticity Group, German Primate Center - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research) - Lori Holt (Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University) - Nicola Molinaro (BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language) Schedule and more info at the registration form: https://sissa-it.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nBOv5NWZQ36HSH7nyffazg We would be very happy to count you among the attendees. Please spread the word. Best regards, Yamil and Davide Dr. Yamil Vidal Cognitive Neuroscience Sector Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati - SISSA via Bonomea, 265 34136 Trieste, ITALY

June 29, 2021

Robustness, Adaptability and Critical Transitions in Living Systems satellite - Conference on Complex Systems 2021 Lyon, France

by Samir Suweis

We are glad to announce the 4th hybrid (on site + virtual) edition of ReACT satellite <https://liphlab.github.io/REACT2021/> during the CCS 2021 <https://ccs2021.univ-lyon1.fr/> in Lyon, France - 25-29/10/2021 Confirmed invited speakers: Anna Levina (University of Tubingen) and Sergi Valverde (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra) Organizing commettee: Samir Suweis (UNIPD), Giorgio Nicoletti (UNIPD), Sandro Azaele (UNIPD), Jacopo Grilli (ICTP) Abstract submission open through EasyChair <https://easychair.org/account/signin_timeout?l=JRR3vhQlzxctciXkPU1pGc#>. Deadline 31 July 2021 All info are available also on the satellite website: https://liphlab.github.io/REACT2021/ <https://liphlab.github.io/REACT2021/> ***** After the success of the Satellite at ECCS 2014, CCS 2016, and CCS 2018, the ReACT Satellite: Robustness, Adaptability and Critical Transitions in Living Systems is back for a fourth edition at CCS 2021 in Lyon, France. We are very pleased to announce that the Satellite will be host in an hybrid format, welcoming participants both online and in person! The Satellite will last half a day and will take place during the main conference (25th - 29th October, 2021). The exact date and times will be announced soon. Living systems are characterized by the recurrent emergence of patterns: power-laws distributions, long-range correlations and structured self-organization in living matter are the norm, rather than the exception. All these features are also typical of systems poised near a critical point. The great lesson from Physics is that criticality can emerge as a collective behaviour in a many-body system with simple interactions and its characteristics depend only on few details, like the dimensionality or the symmetries. One of the most striking feature of living systems is that they are structured as evolving systems were interactions can turn-on or off, as well as strengthening and weakening, reconfiguring the system connectivity. Thus, by rearranging both the structural and functional topology, living interacting systems may demonstrate unique evolvability, scalability and adaptability properties. Among these systems, the brain is probably one of the most impressively complex and has received a considerable amount of attention in recent years, aided by the vast amount of experimental data available. The idea that the collective behavior of neurons might emerge from a self-organized critical state has been widely studied, from its fundamental mechanisms to its functional advantages, and it poses a fascinating question that is far from being answered. It is of crucial importance to make further steps in the understanding of the main properties that simultaneously confer to these systems high level of adaptability, robustness and optimality. If we can “learn” from evolution and unravel the basic principles then we would be able to both better manage/supervise these systems and also design more optimal and sustainable new systems. ***************** Samir Suweis www.liphlab.com Tel: +39 049 827 71 74

June 29, 2021

[CFP] 2nd call for abstracts (+deadline extended to July 16th): Computational Cognition workshop (COMCO 2021)

by Juliane Schwab

June 29, 2021

[JOBS] PhD @ Italian Institute of Technology, Ferrara

by Alessandro D'Ausilio

PHD PROGRAM in TRANSLATIONAL NEUROSCIENCES AND NEUROTECHNOLOGIES The Center for Translational Neurophysiology of Speech and Communication (CTNSC) @ Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), is opening 3 PhD positions starting in November 1st, 2021. Research areas: - Improving performance and biocompatibility of electrode arrays for brain-computer interfaces - Organic neuroelectronics for multimodal recordings and stimulation of the brain in vivo - Hardware and software development for innovative exploration of brain signals - Machine learning applications to multimodal brain and speech signals - Investigation of sensorimotor functions in animal models - Cortical recordings in human patients during awake Neurosurgery - Human non-invasive neurophysiology of speech and sensorimotor communication Who: chemists, physicists, materials scientists, computer scientists, biomedical/electrical engineers, biologists, biotechnologist, medical doctors and experimental psychologists eager to work in an international and multidisciplinary team. Where: The CTNSC (https://www.iit.it/it/ctnsc-unife <https://www.iit.it/centers/ctnsc-unife>) is hosted by the University of Ferrara (UNIFE) in a prestigious historical building in the city center. Ferrara is a well connected renaissance city (30-min to Bologna, 40-min to Padua, 60-min to Venice; 2 nearby international airports), bustling with students (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/733 <https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/733>). General INFO: http://www.unife.it/studenti/dottorato/it/corsi/riforma/neuroscience <http://www.unife.it/studenti/dottorato/it/corsi/riforma/neuroscience> Application INFO: http://www.unife.it/studenti/dottorato/concorsi/selection <http://www.unife.it/studenti/dottorato/concorsi/selection> DEADLINE: July 23rd, 2021

June 29, 2021

Tutorial on NEURON and NetPyNE at CNS*2021

by McDougal, Robert

(Apologies for cross-posts.) Interested in learning how to build biophysically detailed neuronal models with NEURON and NetPyNE? Join us for a tutorial at CNS*2021 on Saturday, July 3rd starting at 10am EDT: Time (New York City / EDT) Presenter Subject 10:00 - 10:30 Bill Lytton Overview: implementing the conceptual model 10:30 - 11:50 Robert McDougal NEURON scripting basics 11:50 - 12:00 coffee break 12:00 - 1:00 Adam Newton Reaction-Diffusion 1:00 - 1:30 lunch break 1:30 - 2:50 Salvador Dura-Bernal NetPyNE GUI-based tutorials 2:50 - 3:00 coffee break 3:00 - 4:00 Salvador Dura-Bernal NetPyNE programming tutorial For more information, see: https://neuron.yale.edu/neuron/courses/2021-cns-neuron-netpyne-tutorial Register for CNS*2021 to attend; see https://www.cnsorg.org/cns-2021-registration-fees

June 28, 2021

PhD position with Prof. Laurenz Wiskott at the Institute for Neural Computation, Bochum, Germany

by Laurenz Wiskott

The Ruhr-Universität Bochum is one of the leading research universities. The university draws its strengths from both the diversity and the proximity of scientific and engineering disciplines on a single, coherent campus. This highly dynamic setting enables students and researchers to work across traditional boundaries of academic subjects and faculties. One particular strength of RUB is interdisciplinary research in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, see https://ml-ai.rub.de/. The Institute for Neural Computation is a central research institute, see https://www.ini.rub.de/. It focuses on the dynamics and learning of perception and behavior on a functional level but is otherwise very diverse, ranging from neurophysiology and psychophysics over computational neuroscience to machine learning and technical applications. There is an open position for a research assistant / Phd-student in the group „Theory of Neural Systems“ of Prof. Dr. Laurenz Wiskott to be filled at 15th of September. The appointment will be for three years. Salary is 75% of salary scale TV-L E13. Task: • Develop a cognitive system that learns to behave reasonably in new situations based on few episodic experiences. Central to the system shall be an episodic and a semantic memory. The application domain will be navigation. The candidate is free to put the focus on machine learning techniques or on the modeling of natural cognition. We offer: • An interesting interdisciplinary environment in the field of Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence / Computational Neuroscience. • Room to develop your own ideas in the project. • Infrastructure to integrate well into the institute and the group. • Opportunity to do a PhD (Dr). Requirements: • Very good Master in mathematics, computer science, engineering, or a related field. • Good programming and mathematical skills. • Interest in interdisciplinary research questions and cooperations. Advantageous: • Experience in Machine Learning and/or Computational Neuroscience. • Good communication and teamwork skills. • Experience in interdisciplinary projects. • Programming skills in Python. Applications (CV, transcript of records for MSc and BSc, statement of purpose) should be sent as a single pdf file to laurenz.wiskott(a)rub.de. Travel expenses for interviews will not be refunded. Ruhr-University Bochum is committed to equal opportunity in employment and gender equality in its working environment. We therefore look forward to applications from qualified women. Applications from appropriately qualified handicapped persons are also encouraged.

June 28, 2021

Bernstein Conference 2021 - Deadline for Contributed Talks extended until July 7

by Anja Dorrn

Each year the Bernstein Network invites the international computational neuroscience community to the annual Bernstein Conference for intensive scientific exchange. It has established itself as one of the most renown conferences worldwide in this field, attracting students, postdocs and PIs from around the world to meet and discuss new scientific discoveries. Due to the ongoing pandemic the Bernstein Conference will be held online. <www.bernstein-conference.de>www.bernstein-conference.de ____ IMPORTANT DATES & NEWS * Bernstein Conference: September 21-23, 2021 * Abstract submission open: * Deadline for submission of abstracts to be considered for Contributed Talks: extended to July 7, 2021, 1 pm CEST * Deadline for abstract submission: August 3, 2021 * Selected Satellite Workshops are now online<https://bit.ly/BC21_workshops> * Registration will open soon and be free of charge ____ ABSTRACTS We invite the computational neuroscience community to submit their abstracts: Submitted abstracts can either be considered as contributed talks or posters. All accepted abstracts will be published online and will be citable via Digital Object Identifiers (DOI). Abstract submission is open. Further information can be found here: https://bit.ly/BC21_abstracts ____ INVITED SPEAKERS Keynote Timothy Behrens (University of Oxford, UK) Invited Talks Athena Akrami (University College London, UK) Nadine Gogolla (Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany) Guillaume Hennequin (University of Cambridge, UK) Jennifer Li & Drew Robson (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany) Scott Lindermann (Stanford University, USA) Ashok Litwin-Kumar (Columbia University, New York City, USA) Ida Momennejad (Microsoft Research, New York City, USA) Cristina Savin (New York University, USA) Marion Silies (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany) Daniela Vallentin (Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany) ____ CONFERENCE COMMITTEE Christian Leibold (Conference Chair) Julijana Gjiorgjieva (Program Chair) Christian Machens (Program Vice Chair) Marion Silies (Workshop Chair) Moritz Helias (Workshop Vice Chair) & Matthew Botvinick, Megan Carey, Peter Dayan, Brent Doiron, Rainer Friedrich, Ann Hermundstad, Srdjan Ostojic, Nathalie Rochefort, Nicole Rust, Gasper Tkacik ____ For any further questions, please contact: <bernstein.conference(a)fz-juelich.de> bernstein.conference(a)fz-juelich.de -- Dr. Anja Dorrn Scientific Coordinator Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience | Bernstein Coordination Site (BCOS) Branch Office of the Forschungszentrum Jülich at the University of Freiburg Hansastr. 9A | 79104 Freiburg, Germany phone: (+49) 0761 203 9589 web: www.bernstein-network.de<http://www.bernstein-network.de> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt, Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 28, 2021

Program and preliminary schedule for CNS*2021 Online

by Martin Zapotocky

**Organization for Computational Neurosciences 2885 Sanford Ave SW #15359 Grandville, MI 49418 USA*** Program and preliminary schedule available for 30th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS*2021 Online, **July 3-7)***** The program of the CNS*2021 Meeting can now be viewed at https://www.cnsorg.org/cns-2021-calendar <https://www.cnsorg.org/cns-2021-calendar> Please note that this year, the main days of the meeting (*July 3-7*) are preceded by software tutorials on *J**une 28-29*, and satellite tutorials on *June 30 - July 2*. For registration information, please visit https://www.cnsorg.org/cns-2021-registration-fees <https://www.cnsorg.org/cns-2021-registration-fees> Following registration, the attendees can use the conference Sched page to access detailed information for each session and to assemble a personalized schedule. Instructions are sent upon registration. Please follow the Sched page for up-to-date information on the event schedule. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OCNS is the international member-based society for computational neuroscientists. Become a member to be eligible for awards and other benefits. Visit our website for more information: https://www.cnsorg.org <https://www.cnsorg.org> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 27, 2021

Open postdoctoral position in Niv lab at Princeton University

by Angela Langdon

The lab of Dr Yael Niv in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology at Princeton University is looking for a talented and motivated postdoctoral researcher to join our team to study the neural mechanisms of reward prediction and learning in animals. This position is to work primarily with Dr Angela Langdon on a NIDA-funded project modeling behavior and neural recording data from rodents in a reward learning task (start date: as soon as possible). The ideal candidate will 1) have experience in computational or theoretical modeling, such as reinforcement learning, Bayesian inference, machine learning and/or neural circuit modeling; 2) be excited about mapping theories of learning and decision making onto behavior and its neural basis; 3) be keen to work in a collaborative and interdisciplinary scientific environment. More broadly, members of the lab study the behavioral and neural computations that support learning and decision making, and their interaction with attention and memory mechanisms. Our research spans a diverse set of theoretical tools from reinforcement learning, Bayesian inference and machine learning alongside various empirical techniques, including targeted behavioral experiments, eye tracking and fMRI. In addition, we work closely with our collaborators on model-guided analysis of animal behavior and neural activity across a number of learning paradigms – the current position is for a project in this domain, working with existing neural and behavioral data from rodents. We have a particular interest in research that can shed light on the changes to learning and decision making that are prevalent in a range of clinical disorders. The Princeton Neuroscience Institute and the Psychology Department at Princeton are highly interdisciplinary and collaborative, and provide excellent support for career development. You will be joining a vibrant and international research group, and will have opportunities to interact with and learn from a large number of researchers in cognitive and computational neuroscience. To apply, send your CV and statement of research interests to Yael Niv: yael(a)princeton.edu <mailto:yael@princeton.edu> and Angela Langdon: alangdon(a)princeton.edu <mailto:alangdon@princeton.edu>.

June 25, 2021