- Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Job Posting: Research Engineer/Scientist, Brain-Computer Interface, Machine Learning, Computational Neuroscience

by Behnood Gholami

*AreteX Systems, Inc. – New York, NY* AreteX Systems, a medical technology startup company accelerating the use of information technology in healthcare, has an immediate opening for a Research Engineer/Scientist in its office located in New York City. The position involves developing signal processing algorithms for innovative biomedical technologies involving physiological signals. We are looking for a self-motivated, highly talented individual with an excellent background in signal processing, machine learning, and brain-computer interface. The successful candidate will work closely with a team of physicians, nurses, engineers, and scientists in designing new clinical decision support systems. Candidates with experience in the analysis of experimental data derived from---but not limited to---auditory/visual/cross-sensory psychophysical, EEG, ECG, and galvanic-skin conductance, data would be given a higher priority. *Minimum Requirements:* - MS or PhD in electrical engineering, computer science, biomedical engineering, applied mathematics, or a similar discipline. - Knowledge of advanced concepts in signal processing. - Research experience in biosignal analysis or brain-computer interface applications. - Knowledge of methods, theory, and application of machine learning techniques. - Proficient at writing technical papers/reports/presentations. - Experience with Python. *Preferred Qualifications:* - Prior expertise and exposure using non-invasive human physiological measures such as EEG, ECG, galvanic-skin conductance (electrodermal activity), or other categorically similar methodologies. - Prior experience with mechanical ventilation and fluid management technologies in the intensive care units. - Knowledge of control systems design and dynamical systems modeling. - Prior experience in feature extraction from physiological signals. - Experience working with quantitative methods of neural data analysis. Send your cover letter and CV to info(a)aretexeng.com.

Jan. 14, 2016

postdoc and PhD positions Max Planck Research Group Neural Circuits

by Johannes Seelig

The Max Planck Research Group "Neural Circuits" at the center of advanced european studies and research (caesar) in Bonn, Germany, is looking for postdocs (Reference: Postdoc Neural Circuits 2016) and Ph.D. students (Reference: Ph.D. Neural Circuits 2016). The main focus of Johannes Seelig’s lab is to understand adaptive neural circuits underlying sensorimotor integration and the impact of neuromodulators on these circuits. We apply the latest tools and methods in two photon imaging, optogenetics, and electrophysiology to relate the activity of populations of neurons in behaving animals to computational models of neural circuits. We are looking for candidates with a strong quantitative background in neuroscience, biophysics or related fields (physics, chemistry, engineering, molecular biology). A strong expertise in optical imaging, data analysis, programming, instrumentation, and previous work in a genetic model organism (such as fruit fly or mouse) would be ideal. Caesar is part of a cluster for neuroscience in the Bonn-Cologne region, comprising the universities of Bonn and Cologne, the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and two Max Planck Institutes. The Institute hosts the International Max Planck Research School for Brain & Behavior and is involved in the Bonn International Graduate School of Neuroscience. More information on the group can be found at http://www.caesar.de/seelig.html. Please send an email to johannes.seelig(a)caesar.de<mailto:johannes.seelig@caesar.de> for informal enquiries and/or submit your application at our job portal: www.caesar.de<http://www.caesar.de> Johannes Seelig research center caesar - center of advanced european studies and research, an associate of the Max Planck Society Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2 53175 Bonn Germany email: johannes.seelig(at)caesar.de <file://localhost/javascript/linkTo_UnCryptMailto('nbjmup+kpibooft:tffmjhAdbftbs:ef')%3B>phone: +49 (0)228 9656-190 fax: +49 (0)228 9656-9190

Jan. 14, 2016

Meeting on Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity

by Mark van Rossum

Discussion meeting at the Royal Society, London, April 19 & 20, 2016 Integrating Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity You are kindly invited to this meeting organized by Kevin Fox and Michael Stryker which will bring together computational and experimental neuroscientists to discuss how interactions between Hebbian plasticity and homeostatic plasticity occur and how they can be detected and interrogated at the systems level. Talks by: John Lisman, Taro Toyozumi, Brent Doiron, Mark van Rossum, Wulfram Gerstner, Gina Turrigano, Philip Haydon, Lu Chen, Hey-Kyoung Lee, Michael Stryker, Kevin Fox, Daniel Feldman, Tara Keck, Frank Sengpiel and Mark Hübener. Register at https://royalsociety.org/events/2016/04/integrating-plasticity/ Poster deadline March 11th. -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

Jan. 14, 2016

study abroad programs in Budapest

by Érdi Péter

Dear All: BSCS-US announces its two programs in Budapest for 2016. 1. Our regular program: BSCS - BUDAPEST SEMESTER IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE PHILOSOPHY TO NEUROSCIENCE will be held in the Fall of 2016, see http://www.bscs-us.org/ . 2. We opened also a new program now in its second year: ***************************************** Systems Neuroscience: a study abroad summer program Program start/end dates June 12th- Aug 5th, 2016 The BSCS Systems Neuroscience Program takes place at and academically supervised by the Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University Medical School, Budapest **************************************** For details, see: http://sysneuro-semester.org/ Inquiry: Péter Érdi (SysNeuro Director; BSCS Co-Director) perdi(a)kzoo.edu bscs(a)bscs-us.org, jhegedus(a)kzoo.edu

Jan. 14, 2016

Call for Workshops and Tutorials at Alife

by Izquierdo, Eduardo J.

CALL FOR WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS The ALife XV Organizing Committee invites proposals for Tutorials and Workshops to be held in conjunction with the Fifteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALife XV), which will be held in Cancun, Mexico on July 4th-8th, 2016. http://xva.life<http://xva.life/> If accepted, ALife will provide the onsite logistics (seminar rooms, projectors, coffee breaks, and lunches) and links from the main conference website. All other organizational issues – including separate review process and proceedings publication, if any – are taken care of by the workshop chairs. Therefore, any workshop-specific requests from participants should be exclusively addressed to them, not to the ALife committee. The internal organization of the satellite workshops and tutorials (website, paper submission, invited talks, proceedings, all deadlines except registration) is entirely left up to their respective organizers. Participation in workshops and tutorials requires conference registration. IMPORTANT DATES Submission of Workshop/Tutorial Proposals is open now. We will receive applications until January 15th, 2016. The notification of acceptance will be given within two weeks of receiving the proposal. Workshop/Tutorial Information and/or submission proposal: workshops(a)xva.life<mailto:workshops@xva.life> WORKSHOP PROPOSALS The ALife XV workshops are intended to be forums to present and discuss new approaches, visions, or critical reflections within a research area. They provide an excellent opportunity to meet people with similar interests, to be exposed to cutting-edge research and to exchange ideas in an informal setting. The organizers of an accepted workshop are responsible for its coordination and its publicity (e.g., for sending out call for papers/abstracts), for collecting and reviewing the papers/abstracts, and for maintaining a webpage providing a list of accepted talks. The workshops are typically half day long. The format can be decided by the organizers who are encouraged to plan interactive sessions. TUTORIAL PROCESS ALife XV tutorials will be presented by domain experts to cover current topics relevant to artificial life researchers and practitioners. Each tutorial will be 3 hours long, then we encourage to include into the tutorial also demos and interactive activities. Accepted tutorial’s slide sets will be published on ALife XV website. SUBMISSION PROCESS Each tutorial/workshop proposal should include: 1) title of the workshop/tutorial 2) name(s) and affiliation(s) of the organizer(s)/inspector(s), with relative contact details 3) a short CV of the organizer(s)/instructor(s) 4) a brief description (half-page) of the workshop/tutorial topics Only for workshops: 5) potential target participants and audience 6) roughly approximated number of participants 7) rough estimate of the number of talks All proposals must be sent to: workshops(a)xva.life<mailto:workshops@xva.life> Looking forward to your submissions. Best wishes, Eduardo J. Izquierdo, ALife XV Workshop Chair Assistant Professor, Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University

Jan. 13, 2016

Postdoc positions in Systems Neuroscience at McGill University (Adrien Peyrache)

by Adrien Peyrache

Dear colleagues, We are looking for talented and enthusiastic postdoc candidates to join our team at McGill University (Montreal Neurological Institute). The lab focuses on the neuronal dynamics underlying spatial navigation, sleep and learning and uses cutting-edge techniques combining high density electrophysiological recordings and optogenetics in behaving animals. Starting date: summer 2016. The successful candidate should have either a strong background in neurophysiology or computational neuroscience. Candidates should send a resume, a brief statement of research interests and the names of two references to Dr. Adrien Peyrache ( adrien.peyrache(a)gmail.com) The candidates must hold a PhD for less than 3 years. Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. McGill University is committed to equity in employment and diversity. It welcomes applications from Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, persons of minority sexual orientation or gender identity, visible minorities, women, and others who may contribute to diversification.

Jan. 13, 2016

2016 QBio, abstract submission Jan 22

by Jesus Cortes

Dear all We are organizing the 2016 Quantitative Biomedicine Workshop One-page abstract (free-format) submission finalizes on Jan 22. Confirmed speakers are: Rafael MOLINA SORIANO (University of Granada) Cesar CABALLERO (BCBL) Iñigo GABILONDO (BioCruces) Banafshe LARIJANI (CSIC-UPV/EHU) Markus DAHLEM (Institut für Theoretische Physik-Technische Universität Berlin) Paolo BONIFAZI (BioCruces) Eugenio IGLESIAS (BCBL) Mauro D’AMATO (BioCruces) Dante CHIALVO (CONICET) Denis DOORLY (Imperial College London) Alessandro VENEZIANI (Emory) Daniela CALVETTI (Case Western University) For further information visit http://www.bcamath.org/en/workshops/qbio2016 Best Greetings Luca Gerardo-Giorda (BCAM), Sebastiano Stramaglia (University of Bari) and Jesus M Cortes (Biocruces Health Research Institute)

Jan. 13, 2016

ICMNS 2016: Deadline Extended to Feb. 7, 2016

by Zachary Kilpatrick

*Abstract deadline extended to February 7, 2016* https://icmns2016.inria.fr/call-for-contributions/ <https://icmns2016.inria.fr/call-for-contributions/> There will also be a prize for best papers. International Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience (ICMNS 2016) at the Congress Center in Juan-les-Pins on the French Riviera May 29 to June 1, 2016 Tutorials: May 29 Main Conference: May 30 - June 1 https://icmns2016.inria.fr/ <https://icmns2016.inria.fr/> CONFIRMED SPEAKERS Wulfram Gerstner (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) John Rinzel (New York University) Antoine Triller (École Normale Supérieure de Paris) Rachel Kuske (U British Columbia) Jonathan Rubin (U Pittsburgh) Hinke Osinga (U Aukland) Carina Curto (Penn State University) Ruben Moreno-Bote (Foundation Sant Joan de Deu) Hiroya Nakao (Tokyo Institute of Technology) Eric Shea-Brown (U Washington) Si Wu (Beijing Normal University) Alex Roxin (Centre de Recerca Matematica) PROGRAM COMMITTEE Toni Guillamon (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) Roland Potthast (U Reading) Gregory Faye (Université Paul Sabatier ) Wilhelm Stannat (TU Berlin) Jonathan Touboul (College de France) Gilles Wainrib (Ecole Normale Supérieure) Suzanne Ditlevsen (University of Copenhagen) Boris Gutkin (Ecole Normale Supérieure) Martin Wechselberger (U Sydney) Jonathan Rubin (U Pittsburgh) Martin Krupa (INRIA Sophia Antipoilis) Carlo Laing (Massey University) Andre Longtin (U Ottawa) Daniele Avitabile (U Nottingham) Jose Carrillo (Imperial College) Pascal Chossat (Université Nice Sophia Antipolis) Carson Chow (National Institutes of Health) Steve Zucker (Yale University) Eric Shea-Brown (U Washington) Rachel Kuske (U British Columbia) Laura Sacerdote (Universita di Torino) Reinhard Hopfner (Johannes-Gutenberg Universitat) Olivier Faugeras (INRIA - Sophia Antipolis) Paul Bressloff (U Utah) Steve Coombes (U Nottingham) CONFERENCE CHAIRS Romain Veltz (INRIA - Sophia Anitpolis) Zachary Kilpatrick (U Houston) Evelyn Buckwar (Johannes Kepler Universitat Linz)

Jan. 13, 2016

CFP: Special Issue "Wireless Sensor Networks for Measuring the Impact of Human Activities over Different Environments" in (IJDSN)

by Sandra Sendra

=================================================== International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks (IJDSN) Special Issue "Wireless Sensor Networks for Measuring the Impact of Human Activities over Different Environments" http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijdsn/si/567042/cfp/ Deadline for manuscript submissions: January 29, 2016 ---------------------------------------------------- === SPECIAL ISSUE - CALL FOR PAPERS === Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are nowadays used in a wide variety of applications, such as military surveillance, scientific exploration, structural monitoring, and environmental monitoring applications, among others. These sorts of networks are complex systems whose correct operation mainly depends on the integration of physical sensors, computation processes, and communication between devices. Advances in smart device and sensor networks will drive innovation in important sectors such as energy efficiency, city/building design, healthcare, agriculture, transportation, and manufacturing. Moreover, human actions motivated by achieving various purposes cause side effects on our environment. While the intended effects are usually positive, at least for those who promote action, side effects can be positive but very often are negative. Some most basic actions of how we do our day-to-day routines are the following: the way people move around the city, how people get rid of your waste, excessive cultivation or exploitation of natural resources, misuse of electrical appliances, or celebrating holidays with music and pyrotechnics, among others, which can have a significant impact on our environment, whether natural, social environments, or on our heritage. For these reasons and taking into account the advantages that WSNs offer, this special issue aims to focus on new proposals and developments of WSNs for monitoring and evaluating the impact of human activity on the environments that surround us. Authors are invited to submit their original and unpublished research contributions to this special issue in relevant areas of WSNs, proposing new design concepts, architectures, and applications versus resource constraints and energy conservation. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: - WSN issues and technologies for monitoring the effects of human behaviors on the environment - Design of energy-efficient WSNs, hardware, software, and systems for monitoring sensitive environments - Real-world case studies of WSNs where the effects of human behaviors are analyzed - WSNs data management - Prototyping of experimental WSNs and its test bench - Evaluation of WSNs in sensitive scenarios - WSNs for emergency response in natural/man-made disasters - New proposals of WSNs architectures - Efficient communication for WSNs architectures - WSN for sustainable human behaviors - Sustainable WSN for environmental sustainability Authors can submit their manuscripts via the Manuscript Tracking System at: http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ijdsn/miha/ === IMPORTANT DATES === Manuscript Due: Friday, 29 January 2016 First Round of Reviews: Friday, 22 April 2016 Publication Date: Friday, 17 June 2016 === SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS === Lead Guest Editor Prof. Dr. Jaime Lloret Mauri (jlloret(a)dcom.upv.es) Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain Guest Editors Dr. Sandra Sendra (sansenco(a)posgrado.upv.es) Integrated Management Coastal Research Institute, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain Dr. Danda B. Rawat (db.rawat(a)ieee.org) Georgia Southern University, Georgia, USA Dr. Kayhan Z. Ghafoor (kayhan(a)ieee.org) Salahaddin University, College of Engineering, Kirkuk Road Erbil, Kurdistan Region-Iraq ===================================================

Jan. 13, 2016

call for participation Frontiers Research Topic "Burst coding: from cell to cognition”

by Zeldenrust, Fleur

Dear colleagues, This is a call for participation in a Frontiers Research Topic titled "Burst coding: from cell to cognition” (for a description, see below). We, the editors, would highly value your participation. If you would like to contribute, please follow the following link: http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/4374/burst-coding-from-cell-to… Abstract deadline: 1 February 2016 Manuscript deadline: 30 June 2016 Please note that reviews at Frontiers allow and encourage a discussion between the authors and the reviewers. As editors we would like to further encourage you to use this opportunity, while guaranteeing from our side that a constructive discussion with the reviewers will have a positive influence on the evaluation of your work. Let us know if you have any questions about the Research Topic. We look forward to hearing from you soon. With kind regards, Fleur Zeldenrust Bernhard Englitz Wytse J. Wadman Guest Associate Editors, Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience BURST CODING: FROM CELL TO COGNITION Bursting is a firing mode of neurons in which they respond to and input with a group of high frequency action potentials, followed by a period of relative silence. These bursts can be generated intrinsically in neurons themselves, or they can be the result of network activity. Many different systems show a burst-firing mode next to a tonic-firing mode. Despite the ubiquity of bursting, the question of the functional properties of bursts remains unknown: why do some systems rely on bursts for their information transmission and what do bursts code for? We encourage authors to contribute their expertise, both from experimental and from computational backgrounds, on this question on the fundamental properties of burst coding. Papers should address one or more of the following issues: 1. Burst generation. How can different systems generate bursts? This includes both the single neuron level (active dendritic calcium, sodium dynamics, ‘ping-pong’ mechanisms) and the network level (synchronization, inhibition). 2. Differences between systems. In what brain areas of what animals do bursts occur (region CA3 of the rodent hippocampus, mammalian thalamus, weakly electric fish, insect auditory receptors), and what are the similarities/differences in the properties of these systems? 3. Detection and analysis of bursts. The detection of bursts is mostly done using inter-spike interval distributions or return maps; these give a typical inter-spike interval. Often, inter-spike intervals and spike amplitudes change over the course of a burst, making the last spikes in a burst hard to detect. This makes the analysis of burst challenging. Moreover, many traditional tools for the analysis of spike trains cannot be used to analyse spike trains that include bursts without some form of correction for it (reverse correlation techniques, Spike Coincidence Factor). 4. Information processing (burst coding). What are the functional information processing effects of bursts? These include decoding (resonance coding or inter-spike interval coding, burst duration coding), encoding (what stimulus features trigger bursts?), and other coding properties (reliability at unreliable synapses, feature detection for bursts versus stimulus estimation for single spikes, ‘wake-up call’ function of bursts). 5. Relation between bursts and pathology. The burst-firing mode of the thalamus has been associated with sleep and anaesthesia, and therefore with pathological conditions, before evidence showed that bursts also occur in awake states. Bursting in the subthalamic nucleus and globus pallidus is associated with Parkinson’s disease; high-frequency cortical oscillations are thought to be a hallmark of epilepsy, but their origins have been disputed. Are there more relations between the burst-firing mode and pathological conditions? 6. Relation between bursts and behaviour. Bursts of complex spike cells play an important functional role in hippocampal place cells. In the oculomotor system bursts play an important role in generating saccades. In weakly electric fish, bursts are a response to ‘communication-like’ stimuli, but not to ‘prey-like’ stimuli. Thalamic bursts have a much stronger effect on their cortical targets than single spikes. These results suggest that bursts can have a different signalling function then single spikes, often associated with different behaviour. ABOUT FRONTIERS RESEARCH TOPICS Founded by scientists in 2007, Frontiers is a community-rooted open-access publisher, driving innovations in peer review, article-level metrics and research networking. The "Frontiers in" journal series hosts 54 journals covering more than 350 academic specialties, with a network of over 200,000 leading researchers worldwide. Frontiers is a registered member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (http://www.oaspa.org/member/Frontiers) and was recognized by the ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing in 2014. The idea behind a Frontiers Research Topic is to create a comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed articles that address a specific theme of research, as well as a forum for discussion and debate. Contributions can be articles describing original research, methods, hypothesis & theory, opinions, and more. Please see the relevant journal for a full list of accepted article types. Frontiers will also compile an e-book, as soon as all contributing articles are published, that can be used as educational material, be sent to foundations that fund your research, to journalists and press agencies, or to your professional network. E-books are free to read and download. Once published, your articles will be free to access for all readers, indexed in relevant repositories, and as an author in Frontiers, you retain the copyright to your own papers and figures. FRONTIERS PUBLISHING FEES Manuscripts accepted for publication are subject to publishing fees, which vary depending on the article type. All Research Topic manuscripts receive a discount on publishing fees; please see here for a full fee table, and further relevant FAQs: http://www.frontiersin.org/about/PublishingFees. http://www.frontiersin.org/Mail/IbarMail.aspx?op=4&msgid=10350094&msg=In

Jan. 12, 2016