- Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

2nd Announcement: Computational Neuroscience in Africa: isiCN IMBIZO 18

by Tim Vogels

Dear all, we would like to draw your attention to the IBRO SIMONS COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE IMBIZO #isiCNI2018 Get to know (and help to build) African Computational and Theoretical Neuroscience. from 7 - 28 January 2018, Muizenberg Beach, Cape Town, South Africa http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk <http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/> Application deadline: 15th August 2017 The #isiCNI2018 is a southern hemisphere summer school aiming to promote computational neuroscience in Africa. It will bring together international and local students under the tutelage of the world's leading experts in the field. Like its international sister courses, this three-week summer school aims to teach central ideas, methods, and practices of modern computational neuroscience through a combination of lectures and hands-on project work. Mornings will be devoted to lectures on topics across the breadth of experimental and computational neuroscience. The rest of the day will be spent working on research projects under the close supervision of expert tutors and faculty. Individual research projects will focus on the modelling of neurons, neural systems, behaviour, the analysis of state-of-the-art neural data, and the development of theories to explain experimental observations. Who should apply? This course is aimed at Masters and PhD level students though Honours or Postdoctoral students may also apply. Students should sufficient quantitative skills, (e.g. a background in mathematics, physics, computer science, statistics, engineering or related field). Some knowledge of neural biology will be useful but not essential. Experimental neuroscience students are encouraged to apply, but should ensure that they have a reasonable level of quantitative proficiency (i.e. at least second-year level mathematics or statistics and have done at least one course in computer programming). Please distribute this information as widely as you can. Essential details * Fee (which covers tuition, lodging, and meals): 1100 EUR * Generous scholarships and travel stipends are available based on merit and need * Application deadline: 15th August 2017 * Notification of results: End of September 2017 Information and application http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk <http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/> Application form http://tinyurl.com/yc6zbvpo <http://tinyurl.com/yc6zbvpo> Questions? isicn.imbizo(a)gmail.com <mailto:isicn.imbizo@gmail.com> What is an Imbizo? \ɪmˈbiːzɒ\ | Xhosa - Zulu A gathering of the people to share knowledge. FACULTY Larry Abbott - Columbia University Adrienne Fairhall - Washington University Surya Ganguli* - Stanford University Peter Latham - University College London Blake Richards - University of Toronto Timothy Lillicrap - Google DeepMind Mate Lengyel - University of CambridgeJoseph Raimondo - University of Cape Town Yiota Poirazi - Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas Srikanth Ramaswamy - EPFL Lausanne Tim Vogels - University of Oxford Byron Yu - Carnegie Mellon University Alex Antrobus (Gatsby Unit, UCL) Athanasia Papoutsi (Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas) William Podladski (University of Oxford ) Friedemann Zenke (Stanford University / University of Oxford) and others, to be announced *not confirmed DIRECTORS Peter Latham (Gatsby Unit for Computational Neuroscience, UCL, UK) Joseph Raimondo (University of Cape Town, South Africa) Tim Vogels (University of Oxford, UK) Sponsors The isiCNI is made possible by the generous support from the Simons Foundation (https://www.simonsfoundation.org <https://www.simonsfoundation.org/>) and IBRO, the International Brain Research Organisation (http://ibro.info <http://ibro.info/>) Organizational Affiliates University of Cape Town, University College London, University of Oxford, TReND in Africa <http://trendinafrica.org/>, CNCB <http://www.cncb.ox.ac.uk/>, Gatsby Foundation <http://www.gatsby.org.uk/>, IBRO African Center for Advanced Training in Neurosciences at UCT

July 20, 2017

Aspects of Neuroscience - Hackathon: Call for proposals (01.08) - Warsaw, 18-19th November

by Daniel Borek

On the weekend of 18-19th November, the first edition of Aspects of Neuroscience - Hackathon will take place. During this two-day event dedicated to students and PhD students, we will work in teams on neuroscience-related projects. The aim of the event is to meet new, enthusiastic researchers, to share the knowledge on data mining and brain research, but also to share the data and promote open science. We provide with a list of proposed open-access datasets, but we also encourage participants to share their own data during the event. At the moment, we opened the call for project proposals. The proposals can include various forms of a group activity, e.g., data analysis, app development, a discussion club on a particular topic, developing a software etc. Each proposal should indicate: [1] a title and abstract for the project; [2] a list of 1-5 key papers summarising the subject (which the participants should become familiar with before starting the project); [3] a list of requirements for taking part in the project (education level / English level / programming language required); [4] a maximum number of participants [5] a name of an author of the project, and a name of a senior researcher which will supervise the project during the Hackathon [6] what can the participant gain from the project? [7] an information on whether or not there is a plan for extending this work to a paper in case the results are promising An exemplary proposal is in link https://www.dropbox.com/s/ojui2h0wcz82mgy/EXEMPLARYPROPOSAL.pdf?dl=0 Location: University of Warsaw (Further information will be provided soon) Deadline for project proposals: 01.08.2017 Announcement of projects: 15.08.2017 Deadline for registration of participants: 01.11.2017 Please send your proposals to the conference email: neuroaspects(a)uw.edu.pl Proposals will be evaluated by members of our scientific committee before 15.08.2017 Main organizers: Michał Bola, PhD (Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS, Warsaw, Poland) Natalia Bielczyk, MSc (Statistical Imaging Neuroscience Research Group, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Nijmegen, The Netherlands) Daniel Borek, MSc (Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland) Beata Goźlińska (Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland) LIST OF EXAMPLARY OPEN ACCESS DATASETS: [1] calcium imaging datasets: Karl Svoboda https://crcns.org/data-sets/ssc [2] fMRI + DTI: Human Connectome Project http://www. humanconnectome.org/data/ [3] gene expression open-access database: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/ + information on gene function: www.uniprot.org [4] EEG, MRI & behavioural data from N=644 children & adolescents: http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/13/149369 [5] EEG data: http://neurotycho.org/ [6] Research data supporting "Brain connectivity during propofol sedation https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/252736

July 19, 2017

PhD positions on Translational Neurosciences and Neurotechnologies - IIT@UniFe

by Alessandro D'Ausilio

PHD PROGRAM in TRANSLATIONAL NEUROSCIENCES AND NEUROTECHNOLOGIES The Center for Translational Neurophysiology of Speech and Communication (CTNSC) at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) is looking for up to 4 highly motivated, full-time PhD students to work in the core research areas of the Center. At the CTNSC we focus our efforts in two integrated directions. On one side we are studying how the brain builds communicative and linguistic representations. On the other side we are designing new brain interfaces, specifically conceived for human use, to record and computationally decode neural signals. The CTNSC is hosted by the Section of Physiology of the University of Ferrara, one of the oldest in Italy (founded in 1391). In terms of its size, facilities, quality and quantity of education and research, the university is a point of excellence within Italy. The PhD student will work in Ferrara, in an international and multidisciplinary team including biomedical engineers, biologists, computer scientists, psychologists and medical doctors. The PhD positions will cover the following core areas of CTNSC: A01 Improving performance and biocompatibility of electrode arrays for brain-computer interfaces A02 Functional investigation of innovative neural interfaces A03 Investigation of sensorimotor functions in animal models (NH primates and rats) A04 Machine learning applications to multimodal brain and speech signals A05 Human neurophysiology of speech and sensorimotor communication A06 Cortical recordings in human patients during awake Neurosurgery A07 Hardware and software development for innovative exploration of brain signals DEADLINE: 1st AUGUST 2017 CTNSC Info: https://www.iit.it/centers/ctnsc-unife PhD page [ITA]: http://www.unife.it/studenti/dottorato/corsi/riforma/neuroscienze How to participate to the selection [ITA/ENG]: http://www.unife.it/studenti/dottorato/modulistica/Guidaconcorso.pdf

July 19, 2017

Postdoc + 2 PhD students in limbo, SISSA, Trieste

by Alessandro Treves

A postdoc is sought to join a HFSP-funded project to study analog cortical computations in linguistic processes. A collaboration with Naama Friedmann (TAU) and Remi Monasson (ENS). Ideal candidates have a flair for (some) language, come from a background we have not thought of and seek to get to places where they have not been, at the crossroads between neuroscience, complex systems, and poetry. Two PhD students from outside Italy are sought to later join as ESRs the EU Training Network M-GATE, on hippocampal memory functions. A network of 7 institutes + 4 companies, coordinated by Francesco Battaglia (Nijmegen). Ideal candidates, who can be of any nationality but must not have spent much time in Italy in the last 3 years, enjoy analytical, mathematical and computational excursions when in search of fundamental network understanding. Deadline August 31st, 2017. Formal applications eventually needed, but please see first obsolete limbo information http://people.sissa.it/~ale/limbo.html and contact ale(a)sissa.it well in advance. -- Alessandro Treves http://people.sissa.it/~ale/limbo.html SISSA - Cognitive Neuroscience, via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy +39-040-3787623 Ambassador (BlaBlaCar) +39-349-2504602

July 18, 2017

CNS 2017 workshop:

by s.a.vangils＠utwente.nl

Please post: Dear all, We cordially invite you to attend our workshop at CNS2017, Thursday July 20: “Recent Developments in Epilepsy Modelling” Epilepsy is a chronic disease of the CNS characterized by the occurrence of seizures. It affects ~1% of the people worldwide, and ⅓ of the affected population does not respond to anticonvulsant drugs. This limited success of anticonvulsant treatment is, in part, due to our limited understanding of the underlying mechanisms that are responsible for the pathological behavior. Translational research can play an important role in the unravelling of the mechanisms that may be responsible. As more and better experimental data become available, it is important to be able to integrate these data with modeling approaches in order to test hypotheses and to improve insight and produce more individualized models. In this workshop a number of active researchers in the field come together to discuss their latest results ranging from computational models on different scales to statistical methods to evaluate the use of biomarkers. Speakers: Victor Jirsa, Fabrice Wendling, Wytse Wadman, Geertjan Huiskamp, Jurgen Hebbink, Bill Lytton, Peter Taylor, Stiliyan Kalitzin, Marc Goodfellow and Stephan van Gils. For details visit: http://wwwhome.math.utwente.nl/%7Egilssa/cns2017/?<http://wwwhome.math.utwente.nl/~gilssa/cns2017/?> With kind regards, Wim van Drongelen en Stephan van Gils Prof. Dr. S.A. (Stephan) van Gils Department of Applied Mathematics University of Twente P.O. Box 217 7500 AE Enschede Chair: Applied Analysis +31-53-4894272 (tel Secretary) +31-53-4893410 (tel Office)

July 17, 2017

Review article: Towards building a more complex view of the lateral geniculate nucleus: Recent advances in understanding its role

by Masoud Ghodrati

Dear vision scientists, We would like to draw your attention to our recent review paper entitled "Towards building a more complex view of the lateral geniculate nucleus: Recent advances in understanding its role <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301008215300757>" published in Progress in Neurobiology, Jun 2017. We hope that this review can link different findings about the LGN function and opens new research avenues in the field. *Recent evidence shows that lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) has more sophisticated functions than a mere relaying hub. We provide a rather unfiltered and eclectic review of the LGN functions, with some focus on its computational role, as well as its role in higher level cognitive process (specifically higher level vision). **In particular, we argue that the LGN has a variety of complex nonlinear behaviors (perhaps the most interesting nonlinearity involves feedback from cortex). We suggest further development of feedback models of high-level vision considering the LGN function. Because of LGN’s contribution in temporal aspects of object processing, modeling LGN function particularly becomes more important when considering non-stationary stimuli (such as videos). Predictive coding and expectation coding models are in this direction.* Actual link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301008215300757 Here is authors’ free PDF version of the manuscript: https://goo.gl/KCmUR7 Best -- *_____________________________________________________________* Masoud Ghodrati, Department of Physiology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. E-mails: masoud.ghodrati(a)monash.edu Web pages (Personal) : https://sites.google.com/site/masoudghodrati1985/ *_____________________________________________________________*

July 17, 2017

Open postdoctoral position in human intracranial electrophysiology: Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute, West Virginia University

by Shuo Wang

*** Sorry for multiple postings*** We invite applicants with strong motivation in investigating the neural mechanisms of face processing and visual attention/saliency to apply for a postdoctoral position at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI), West Virginia University. The applicant will work on intracranial single-unit recordings from human subjects, investigating questions related to face processing and/or visual attention and visual saliency. This will include experimental work with patients (electrophysiology and behavior), data processing and analysis, spike-train analysis, and experimental design. The applicant will have access to state-of-the art equipment, facilities and analytical methods and this research will be in a highly collaborative environment. The applicant will not only collaborate with investigators at the BRNI, but also be part of an established team of investigators at both Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Dr. Ueli Rutishauser) and the California Institute of Technology (Dr. Ralph Adolphs), with ample opportunity to learn new techniques and methods. Candidates should have a recent PhD in systems, cognitive, or computational neuroscience with a track-record of first-author publications. Strong programming (Matlab or similar), data analysis, statistics and electrophysiology skills are essential. Excellent written and oral English communication skills are required, including the ability to communicate with patients and their families. Individuals with previous human intracranial EEG experience and/or macaque single neuron recordings that wish to expand into human single-unit recordings are encouraged to apply. Interested applicants should send a CV, including a list of publications, a brief description of research interests and analysis skills, and contact information for 2-3 reference letters to Shuo Wang (shuo.wang(a)mail.wvu.edu) Informal inquiries are welcome. Further information about the lab can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/shuowangsocialneuroscience/.

July 17, 2017

Methods of Information Theory workshop at CNS*2017

by Joseph Lizier

Dear all, Please note that the final schedule and speaker abstracts are available for the following workshop at CNS*2017 in Antwerp this week: Workshop on Methods of Information Theory in Computational Neuroscience 19 and 20 July 2017 Methods originally developed in Information Theory have found wide applicability in computational neuroscience. Beyond these original methods there is a need to develop novel tools and approaches that are driven by problems arising in neuroscience. A number of researchers in computational/systems neuroscience and in information/communication theory are investigating problems of information representation and processing. While the goals are often the same, these researchers bring different perspectives and points of view to a common set of neuroscience problems. Often they participate in different fora and their interaction is limited. The goal of the workshop is to bring some of these researchers together to discuss challenges posed by neuroscience and to exchange ideas and present their latest work. The workshop is targeted towards computational and systems neuroscientists with interest in methods of information theory as well as information/communication theorists with interest in neuroscience. Program: Wed 19 July (Room C.101): * 09:00 Raul Vicente, University of Tartu -- "Estimating and applying partial information decomposition to complex systems" * 09:45 Jil Meier, Delft University of Technology -- "The epidemic spreading model and the direction of information flow in brain networks" * 11:00 Karl Friston, University College London -- "Active inference and artificial curiosity" * 11:45 Taro Toyoizumi, RIKEN Brain Science Institute -- "A Local Learning Rule for Independent Component Analysis" * 14:00 Fleur Zeldenrust, Radboud Universiteit -- "Estimating the information extracted by a single spiking neuron from a continuous input time series" * 14:30 Pedro Martinez Mediano, Imperial College London -- "Integrated Information Theory Without the Hot Air" * 15:00 Mehrdad Salmasi, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich "Information rate of a synapse during short-term depression" * 16:00 Tatjana Tchumatchenko, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt -- "Information coding of mean and variance modulating signals in cortical neurons" * 16:45 Renaud Jolivet, University of Geneva -- "Energy-efficient information transfer at synapses" * 17:30 Rodrigo Cofre, University of Geneva and Universidad de Valparaíso -- "Information Entropy Production and Large deviations of Maximum Entropy Processes from Spike Trains" Thu 20 July (Room C.101): * 09:00 Lionel Barnett, University of Sussex -- "Information Transfer in Continuous and Discrete Time" * 09:45 Joseph T. Lizier, The University of Sydney "An estimator for transfer entropy between spike trains" * 11:00 Viola Priesemann, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organization, Goettingen -- "Quantifying Information Storage and Modification in Neural Recordings" * 11:45 Demain Battaglia, Aix-Marseille University -- "Discrete information processing states in anesthetized rat recordings" * 14:00 Selin Aviyente, Michigan State University "Directed Information: Application to EEG during cognitive control" * 14:45 Adrià Tauste, Universitat Pompeu Fabra -- "Directed information flow within the thalamo-cortical network" * 16:00 Daniele Marinazzo, University of Ghent -- "Synergy and redundancy in dynamical systems: towards a practical and operative definition" * 16:45 Lubomir Kostal, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic -- "Reference frame independence as a constraint on the mutual information decomposition" * 17:30 Robin Ince, University of Glasgow -- "Quantifying representational interactions in neuroimaging and electrophysiological data using information theory" Organisers: Joseph T. Lizier -- chair, The University of Sydney Viola Priesemann, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organisation Justin Dauwels, Nanyang Technological University Taro Toyoizumi, RIKEN Brain Science Institute Alexander G. Dimitrov, Washington State University Lubomir Kostal, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Michael Wibral, Goethe University, Frankfurt

July 16, 2017

CNS2017 workshop on "Neuronal Oscillations: mechanisms and functionality"

by Frances Skinner

Please post: Dear all, We invite you to attend our workshop an CNS2017 tthis year. "Neurona*l Oscillations: mechanisms and functionality"* Oscillations at various frequency ranges have been observed in several brain structures (hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, olfactory bulb and others). They are believed to be important for cognitive functions such as learning, memory, navigation and attention. These rhythms have been studied at the single cell level, as the result of the interaction of a neuron’s intrinsic properties, at the network level, as the result of the interaction between the participating neurons and neuronal populations in a given brain region, and at higher levels of organization involving several of these regions. Recent advances in this field have benefited from the interaction between experiment and theory, and models with varying levels of detail. The purpose of this workshop is to bring together modelers, experimentalists and theorists with the goal of sharing and discussing their current results and ideas on the underlying mechanisms that govern the generation of these rhythms at various levels of organization, and their functional implications. An additional goal is to discuss what we mean by an explanation in the context of this workshop. To this end, speakers will be encouraged to address this issue from the perspective of Aristotle's four causes (efficient, material, formal and final causes) <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/aristotle-causality/>. Please see 'What is computational neuroscience? (XVI) What is an explanation?' <http://romainbrette.fr/2013/06/>. Speakers: Day 1: F Skinner, J White, M Bezaire, V Cutsuridis, J Guzman, L Rubchinsky, D Levenstein, F Battaglia, M Bartos, J Mejias Day 2: C. Borgers, C Canavier, M Cunningham, J Lefebvre, A Peyrache, H Rotstein, B Pesaran, A Saudargiene For more details, please visit http://vassiliscutsuridis.com/workshop/CNS2017web.htm Thank you, Frances (on behalf of the organizers) -- Frances Skinner, PhD Krembil Research Institute/UHN and Univ Toronto www.skinnerlab.org

July 14, 2017

postdoc in Barcelona to do single cell recordings in humans

by Quian Quiroga, Rodrigo (Prof.)

*** Apologies for multiple postings*** Dear all, Please see below details of a postdoc position at the Barcelona ßeta Brain Research Center to study memory mechanisms by performing single cell recordings in humans in collaboration with Hospital del Mar. Cheers, Rodrigo Postdoc Position Barcelona ßeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) The Barcelona ßeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) offers a fully funded postdoc position at the research group headed by Professor Rodrigo Quian Quiroga. The group is part of a new Research Program on Memory, complementary to ongoing research at BBRC dealing with the Prevention of Alzheimer Disease. The group is associated to the epilepsy group headed by Dr. Gerardo Conesa at Hospital del Mar, a health center close to BBRC. Research will involve the study single cell recordings in humans. These recordings are performed in epileptic patients for curative surgery. In particular, the project will investigate concept cells (a.k.a. Jennifer Aniston neurons) – that means, neurons in the hippocampus and surrounding areas that selectively fire to specific concepts, like different pictures and the written or spoken name of a particular person (e.g. Quian Quiroga et al, Nature 2005; Quian Quiroga Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2012), which are involved in declarative memory functions. The successful candidate will contribute to performing recordings with patients at the Hospital del Mar and the analysis of the data to investigate the role of these neurons in memory formation, consolidation, long-term coding and recall. Candidates should have excellent quantitative skills (data processing, and programming, preferably in Matlab) and ideally, a strong background in neuroscience and experience with neurophysiology recordings. They should be able to work both independently and as part of a research team within the BBRC. The position is initially offered for 2 years, with the possibility to extend it for another 2 years. Salary will be competitive, depending on experience. The closing date for the applications is Monday 25th August 2017. Start date will be in October 2017. For application details and further particulars see: https://fpmaragall.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2014/07/Postdoc_Neural… Informal inquiries are welcome and should be submitted electronically to: rh(a)fpmaragall.org Rodrigo Quian Quiroga Centre for Systems Neuroscience University of Leicester www.le.ac.uk/csn

July 14, 2017