- Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Comp Neuro List Submission for jobs

by Ben Hayden

The Hayden Lab at the University of Rochester is looking to hire two post-docs in systems and/or computational neuroscience. Our lab investigates the neuronal mechanisms of economic choice, reward cognition, and self-control. We are especially interested in the cingulate cortex, the orbital surface, and the striatum. We use simple gambling tasks, naturalistic foraging tasks and game theoretic decisions, including multi-monkey interaction. We are particularly interested in devising and testing computational models of economic choice, foraging decisions, and self-control, using attractor network, PDP network, and swarm cognition models. We focus on non-human primate recordings, although we are also looking for a purely theoretical post-doc as well. Prior experience in computer programming or statistics highly recommended. The successful candidate will build a portfolio either purely in theoretical/computational neuroscience or in single unit physiology. The University of Rochester is an equal opportunity employer. Standard NIH salary range applies. Lab website: http://haydenlab.com If interested, send an email to benhaydenlab(a)gmail.com.

May 13, 2015

Post-doc fellowship on computational neurosciences and stereoscopic vision

by cottereau＠cerco.ups-tlse.fr

Post-doc fellowship with Benoit Cottereau on computational neurosciences and stereoscopic vision Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Toulouse, France Starting date: September December 2015 A postdoctoral research position is available to work with Benoit Cottereau (CNRS Researcher) in the ECO-3D team of the CerCo laboratory (Toulouse, http://www.cerco.ups-tlse.fr/?lang=en) The aim of the project is to develop new models of stereoscopic vision in primate that automatically become selective to the most frequently occurring 3D properties of their visual environment (e.g. 3D motion direction). These models will possibly be validated through experimental data (psychophysics and brain imaging in both human and non-human primates). The applicant should hold a solid background in computational neurosciences, signal processing as well as skills in programming. Knowledge on vision in primate would be highly appreciated. The city of Toulouse is an attractive city with high quality of life located in the south west of France (close to the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean sea and the Spanish border). The position is for 18 months with standard French salaries. Applications should be sent to benoit.cottereau(a)cerco.ups-tlse.fr including a CV and 2 names of references.

May 12, 2015

5th Bernstein Sparks Workshop: Neural models of decision making in natural inference tasks - from theory to experiment

by Ralf M. Haefner

5th Bernstein Sparks Workshop: Neural models of decision making in natural inference tasks - from theory to experiment June 11-12, 2015 in Tübingen, Germany Abstract submission and registration deadline: May 20, 2015 (attendance limited: first come, first served) Detailed information at http://www.bccn-tuebingen.de/events/5th-bernstein-sparks-workshop-2015.html Confirmed Speakers: • Wieland Brendel (University of Tuebingen) • David Cox (Harvard University) • Jaime de la Rocha (IDIBAPS, Barcelona) • Nicolas Heess (Google DeepMind) • Mate Lengyel (University of Cambridge) • Wolfgang Maass (Technical University Graz) • Hendrikje Nienborg (University of Tuebingen) • Andreas Tolias (BCM Houston) • Dan Yamins (MIT) • Rich Zemel (University of Toronto) The brain needs to extract behaviorally relevant information from sensory signals which contain only indirect, incomplete and highly variable information about the world. Beginning with the study of the neural basis of random dot motion discrimination in the late eighties, neural decision making has been studied extensively in neuroscience. However, the models used to reason about decision making do not account for the computational complexity of natural inference tasks such as object recognition, speech recognition or alike. Based on recent advances in machine learning more and more complex artificial neural networks are developed that become increasingly proficient in mimicking perceptual inference abilities of humans and animals. As a side effect of their popularity in technology, the increasing availability and diversity of high-performing neural network models opens a new door for studying the neural mechanisms of robust decision making. Important differences between these networks are the presence or absence of feedback connections, the presence or absence of stochasticity, and the diversity of different nonlinear mechanisms. The existence of this diversity mirrors important discussions in neuroscience on the role and effect of feedback signals is in the brain [1], whether the brain represents and computes with probabilities [2], whether feedback signals are essential for performing probabilistic inference in hierarchical models [3], and whether neural stochasticity can be interpreted in terms of sampling [4] or regularization such as dropout [5]. As a joint effort between theoreticians and experimentalists, the goal of this Sparks workshop will be to survey and discuss the role of these mechanisms for robust decision making in artificial and real neural networks and to derive discriminative experimental tests and tools that seem most promising to analyze them. [1] Gilbert & Li, Nat Rev Neuro 2013 [2] Pouget et al, Nat Rev Neuro 2013 [3] Lee & Mumford, JOSA 2003 [4] Fiser et al., TICS 2010 [5] Srivastava et al, JMLR 2014 Organizers: • Matthias Bethge (BCCN Tübingen) • Ralf Haefner (University of Rochester) • Richard Hahnloser (University of Zürich) • Bernstein Coordination Site (BCOS)

May 12, 2015

ECMLPKDD 2015: Summer School on Data Sciences for Big Data - Resource Aware Data Mining

by ECMLPKDD 2015

>From 2nd to 5th of September 2015, the TU Dortmund University and LIAAD-INESC TEC will organize a Summer School on Data Sciences for Big Data - Resource Aware Data Mining. The School will be hosted at Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto and is collocated with <http://ecmlpkdd2015.org/> ECMLPKDD 2015 - European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/) For the summer school, world leading researchers in machine learning and data mining will give lectures on recent techniques dealing with huge amounts of data, spatio-temporal streaming data, distributed and graph data, sensors and embedded systems. The summer school is designed for Master and PhD students, and professionals who wanted to learn cutting edge techniques for data mining with constrained computational resources. For further details go to: <http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/summer-school/about> http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/summer-school/about

May 11, 2015

ICSLANE: CALL FOR ABSTRACTS AND CONTRIBUTED TALKS

by Alessandro Barardi

----------------------------------------- SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT --------------------------------------- International Conference on System Level Approaches to Neural Engineering (ICSLANE) Dates September 21st – 23rd 2015 Deadline registration 30th May Venue Barcelona Biomedical Research Park <http://www.prbb.org/>, Barcelona, Spain Website http://www.neural-engineering.eu/BarcelonaConference2015/index.html We invite you to submit poster abstracts and apply for contributed talks We introduced a one-day participation option: now you can attend one day of the conference for 80 Euros. The program per day with its outstanding list of confirmed speakers is already available here: http://www.neural-engineering.eu/BarcelonaConference2015/index.html The aim of this interdisciplinary conference is to bring together theoretical and experimental neuroscientists, roboticists and microfluidics experts to present and discuss the state of the art in the field of neural engineering. It is designed to provide fertile grounds for establishing collaborations between classical neuroscientists and leaders in the up-and-coming robotics and microfluidics fields to develop novel neural engineering techniques and promote the understanding of the brain. It will also give the researchers an opportunity to present their work by contributed talks or during poster sessions. ----------------------------------------------------- PROGRAM --------------------------------------------------- Keynote speakers Eugene Izhikevich - Brain Corporation, San Diego, CA, USA. Opening talk, Day 1 Nikos Logothetis - Director Max Planck Institute for Biol Cybernetics, Germany. Closing talk, Day 3 Day 1 Brain-on-chip - engineering of neuronal circuits in-vitro with emphasis on microfluidics Albert Folch - Department Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Thibault Honegger - Laboratoire des Technologies de la Microelectronique, CNRS-CEA, France Yoonkey Nam - Department for Bio and Brain Engineering, KAIST, South Korea Optical neurotechnology Methodology - imaging and engineering techniques that allow recording of neuronal activity Amanda Foust - Neural Coding Laboratory, Imperial College London, London, UK Fritjof Helmchen - Brain Research Institute, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland Adam Packer - Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology, UCL, UK Eftychios Pnevmatikakis - Department of Statistics & Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA Day 2 Neural Dynamics - mathematical description of neuronal activity Viktor Jirsa - Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes, Marseille, France David Liley - Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia Benjamin Lindner - Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience,Germany John Terry - College of Engineering, Mathematics & Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, UK Neural learning and control - motion planning, controlling and learning neuro-inspired techniques for robotics Dario Farina - Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Germany Sami Haddadin - Institute of Automatic Control, Hannover, Germany Alexandre Pouget - CMU, Geneva, Switzerland Gregor Schöner - Institut für Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany Reza Shadmehr - John Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA Patrick van der Smagt - BRML labs, TUM, Germany Day 3 Neural Coding - investigation of neuronal strategies for encoding information Andre Bastos - The Picower Institute for Learning & Memory at MIT, Boston, USA Romain Brette - Institut de la Vision, Paris, France Sophie Deneve - Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, LNC, Paris, France Kenneth Harris - Institute of Neurology & Department of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, UCL, UK Stefano Panzeri - Neural Computation Lab, IIT, Rovereto, Italy Jan Schnupp - Auditory Neuroscience Group, Oxford, UK --------------------------------------------------- REGISTRATION --------------------------------------------------- Deadline Registration 30th May Conference fee 200 Euros (plus 50 Euros for optional conference dinner) One-day Conference fee 80 Euros The single-day participation option still allows to apply for a contributed talk or a poster. Registration can be done on our registration form <https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/international-conference-on-system-level-app…>. Details about the payment will be posted on the conference website. -------------------------------------- CALL FOR POSTERS AND TALKS ------------------------------------- Posters will be selected from half-page abstracts, which should be submitted by email to nett.barcelona.2015(a)gmail.com. Please specify in the object to which theme panel you are submitting your abstract. We invite you to apply for contributed talks. Please send a half-page abstract to nett.barcelona.2015(a)gmail.com. Selected talks will be scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Each talk should be about 15 minutes long. Abstract Submission closes: 30th May Abstract Acceptance Notification: 30th June This International Conference on System Level Approaches to Neural Engineering conference is organised by the Fellows of the NETT consortium (Neural Engineering Transformative Technologies <http://www.neural-engineering.eu/>). We cordially invite you to participate in this meeting that will take place in Barcelona, Spain, on September 21st – 23rd, 2015. The NETT consortium is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network involving neuroscience research laboratories from the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, and industrial partners. The network is coordinated by Professor Stephen Coombes from the University of Nottingham, UK, and this three-days long event is part of a series of training events organised by the NETT consortium. Best regards, On behalf of the NETT Fellows, Alessandro Barardi, PhD student. Neural Engineering Transformative Technologies <http://www.neural-engineering.eu/> Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Barcelona, Spain.

May 10, 2015

CNS*2015 Meeting in Prague, Early registration ends on May 14

by Tam, Nicoladie

CNS*2015 Meeting in Prague, Czech Republic. Early registration for members ends on May 14, 2015, 11 pm, Pacific Time, USA, after which the registration price will increase. Meeting Info: Tutorial: July 18, 2015 Main Meeting: July 19-21, 2015 Workshop: July 22-23, 2015 http://www.cnsorg.org/cns-2015-prague See you all in Prague.

May 10, 2015

new Purkinje neuron paper; alcohol action

by MICHAEL FORREST

Group members may be interested in this new paper. Forrest MD (2015) Simulation of alcohol action upon a detailed Purkinje neuron model and a simpler surrogate model that runs >400 times faster. BMC Neuroscience 16(1):27.http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/16/27 Contributions of the paper: (1) New detailed computational model of the cerebellar Purkinje neuron (coded in NEURON and available in modelDB)(2) New reduced (2 compartment) model of the Purkinje neuron that runs >400 times faster than the detailed model. This reduced model replicates the behavior of the full model and can be used (a) in network simulations, to investigate how distinctive single neuron Purkinje behaviors are important to network and system function (b) as a proxy to find parameter values that will permit the full model to replicate new behavior (this is a massive help as parameter searches with the full model - that often have to be conducted manually - are typically very slow, given its large computational cost).(3) It shows a new reduction method - for producing a faithful 2-compartment surrogate model of a detailed multi-compartment model. We apply it to the Purkinje neuron but we envisage that it will be equally applicable to other neuron types - so please try it with your own neuron model investigations. The collapse NEURON code is included in the modelDB entry. (4) It further confirms our prior work which shows that the the sodium-potassium pump controls the intrinsic firing mode of Purkinje neurons; and that the sodium-potassium pump is a computational element in the cerebellum and the brain. This is a significant re-appraisal of the role of these pumps, which previously were thought to have no direct role in brain computations.(5) Why do people fall over when drunk? This paper suggests that alcohol corrupts body movements by inhibiting sodium-potassium pumps in the cerebellum. Kindest regards,Michael

May 8, 2015

Summer school "Non-linear methods", University of Cologne, Germany, 28.9.-2.10.15

by Michael von Papen

Dear all, I would like to draw your attention to the upcoming Cologne Summer School on non-linear analysis methods. Feel free to forward this message to interested colleagues. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Cologne Summer School 2015: *Non-Linear Methods for Complex Systems Analysis* Date: Mon-Fri 28.09-02.10.2015 Location: *University of Cologne*, Germany ------------------------------------------------------------------- This one-week summer school brings together *master's degree and PhD students from international universities* for an interdisciplinary hands-on learning experience. The workshop will introduce non-linear analysis methods using the Python toolbox pyunicorn. With the techniques presented in the summer school, such as complex networks and phase space concepts, the students will be able to characterize highly complex systems. Such systems are frequently encountered, e.g., in *biology, chemistry, economics, geoscience, neuroscience, and physics*. Lectures and computer labs will be led by Dr. Reik Donner and Marc Wiedermann from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. For the complete program visit *complexsystems.uni-koeln.de/summerschool.html*. The application deadline is 10.07.2015. The summer school is organized by the Competence Area 3: Quantitative Modeling of Complex Systems of the University of Cologne. Contact: Dr. Michael von Papen (/vonpapen(a)geo.uni-koeln.de/) -- ------------------------------------------ UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE Institute of Geophysics & Meteorology Coordinator of Competence Area III: Quantitative Modeling of Complex Systems Dr. Michael von Papen Pohligstr. 3 (R 3.224) 50969 Cologne Tel.: +49 (0)221 470-2841 Email: vonpapen(a)geo.uni-koeln.de http://complexsystems.uni-koeln.de

May 8, 2015

neuroscience summer school in Kyiv, Ukraine

by Sergiy Yakovenko

Dear colleagues, I would like to promote the Xth Summer School "Achievements and Applications of Contemporary Informatics, Mathematics and Physics” in beautiful Kyiv, Ukraine this August 4-18. One of the streams is the Computational Neuroscience focused on models for cellular and system (neuromechanical) applications. The details about Xth Summer School program can be found at summerschool.ssa.org.ua/program. Registration is open until June 1, 2015. Students can also apply for registration discounts (see the “Discounts and scholarships” web page). Cheers, Sergiy -- Sergiy Yakovenko, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Neural Engineering Laboratory Exercise Physiology - Center for Neuroscience West Virginia University School of Medicine Adjunct Assistant Professor Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering PO Box 9227, Morgantown, WV, 26506-9227 t: +1 (304) 293-7316 (Office), +1 (412) 407-7792 (Mobile) https://sites.google.com/site/neuralengineeringlab/

May 7, 2015

POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR: Matlab Analysis to Decode Brain Neuron Learning

by GJBrewer

Salary: $42,840-$44,556 in beautiful Irvine, California The Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, invites applications for a Postdoctoral Scholar in the area of network analysis of brain regions involved in learning and memory. You will perform experiments to decode information processing in live rat neuronal networks in culture under the direction of Dr. Gregory J. Brewer. His NIH funded project examines hippocampal subnetwork function reconstructed in MEM devices over electrode arrays. You will discover the statistical basis for spontaneous and evoked differences in subregion spike dynamics to reveal coding mechanisms in the brain. The initial appointment will be full-time for a 12 month period. Renewal of the contract will be contingent on the availability of adequate funding and performance. Salary will be commensurate with experience. Requirements: Ph.D. in neuroscience, information/signal processing, network systems analysis, statistical math or physics or related field. Matlab coding expertise is required. Experience in neurophysiology desirable. Application Procedure: Applicants will need to upload their curriculum vitae, a cover letter and names, affiliation and email for 3 references to Professor Gregory J. Brewer via our online RECRUIT system at https://recruit.ap.uci.edu/apply/JPF02808 Screening will begin June 15 and will continue until position is filled. The University of California, Irvine is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer advancing inclusive excellence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC nondiscrimination policy. -- Grace to you, Gregory J. Brewer, Ph.D., Professor University of California Irvine, Dept Biomedical Engineering Institute for Memory Impairment and Neurological Disorders (MIND) Nat. Sci, 2, Rm 3101 GJBrewer(a)uci.edu, 217-502-4511 http://brewer.eng.uci.edu/

May 7, 2015