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Conference Models of Consciousness, Oxford
by Johannes Kleiner Feb. 22, 2019

Feb. 22, 2019

Dear all, I'd like to point your attention to the following conference on formal approaches to the mind-matter relation: Models of Consciousness Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford September 9 - 12, 2019 https://models-of-consciousness.org/ With best wishes, Johannes

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From Dagmar Sternad: Position for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Human Motor Control
by Marta Russo Feb. 21, 2019

Feb. 21, 2019

On behalf of Prof. Dagmar Sternad *Position for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Human Motor Control* Dagmar Sternad Professor of Biology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics Northeastern University d.sternad(a)northeastern.edu We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to work in the area of computational neuroscience and physical human-robot interaction. The research of Prof. Sternad’s Action Lab’s at Northeastern University in Boston is on human motor control and learning with extensions to clinical populations and rehabilitation http://www.northeastern.edu/actionlab/. Ongoing projects are on complex object manipulation and on human walking on unstable support. Our research addresses fundamental questions on human motor control, with a view to human-robot interactions and also clinical applications. Several ongoing collaborations are with Prof. Neville Hogan at MIT. The Action Lab’s interdisciplinary research program addresses questions in motor control from the perspective of dynamical system, bridging disciplinary approaches from nonlinear dynamics, biomechanics and engineering, neuroscience and psychology. The overall goal of our research is to understand the generation of perceptually controlled behavior in human systems. Our lab is equipped with state-of-the-art experimental equipment, including 3D motion capture, three virtual reality set-ups with a robot manipulandum, force plates and wireless EMG. We also use brain measurement and stimulation techniques, such as EEG and TMS. Our laboratory is currently supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. For more information about ongoing projects please visit our website: http://www.northeastern.edu/actionlab/ Candidates should have graduate training in one of the following disciplines: Computational Motor Neuroscience, Physics, Mechanical, Electrical or Computer Engineering, the latter with an emphasis on robotics and interest in human motor control. The applicant should demonstrate an academic record of scientific excellence, independent research, and a strong interest in an interdisciplinary approach to human and robotic motor control. Experience in programming is expected (Matlab, C++, Statistics packages, etc.). He/she will get involved in existing research projects, but is also encouraged to bring to bear his/her expertise into the research project. The Action Lab is located in the Departments of Biology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics at Northeastern University as well as the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Complex Systems. Northeastern University is located in the heart of Boston, which provides a stimulating environment for interdisciplinary research. Applicants should submit a curriculum vita, including a list of publications, and two letters of recommendation to d.sternad(a)northeastern.edu. Hiring will start as soon as possible. -- <http://www.hsantalucia.it/5x1000-sostieni-la-nostra-ricerca> *Rispetta l'ambiente: se non ti è necessario, non stampare questo messaggio - **Please consider the environment before printing this email.*

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Workshop: Spike Sorting and Reproducibility for Next Generation Electrophysiology
by Matthias Hennig Feb. 21, 2019

Feb. 21, 2019

Spike Sorting and Reproducibility for Next Generation Electrophysiology 24. and 25. June 2019 Informatics Forum, University of Edinburgh The analysis of extracellular recordings is a computationally and conceptually complex task with multiple sources of error and bias that can affect subsequent data interpretation. The advent of high-density extracellular micro-electrode arrays (MEAs) now allows recording from hundreds to thousands of channels that poses significant challenges. Additionally, current analysis workflows lack standardisation, and few attempts have been made to make perform systematic comparisons between different solutions and approaches. This workshop will bring together electrophysiologists and developers of tools for the analysis of extracellular recordings, with the following goals: - to showcase new approaches to analyse large scale recordings - to discuss approaches for validation and quality control - to discuss how elements of reproducibility and provenance can be added - to typical analysis workflows Invited Speakers: Alessio Buccino, Oslo Espen Hagen, Oslo Felix Franke, ETHZ Samuel Garcia, CNRS James Jun, Flatiron Institute Jeremy Magland, Flatiron Institute André Marques Smith, UCL Olivier Marre, Institut de la vision Hernan G Rey, Leicester (tbc) Evelyne Sernagor, Newcastle Olivier Winter, Champalimaud Pierre Yger, Institut de la vision (more speakers tba) Registration is free (workshop dinner £30), spaces are limited. More info: http://workshops.inf.ed.ac.uk/ssnge/ Organisers: Matthias Hennig, Edinburgh Cole Hurwitz, Edinburgh Jeremy Magland, Flatiron Alessio Buccino, Oslo -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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EuroCogSci 2019: Invitation
by Laurenz Wiskott Feb. 20, 2019

Feb. 20, 2019

Sent in behalf of Prof. Albert Newen, Ruhr-University Bochum. Laurenz Wiskott. ========================================================================================== EuroCogSci 2019 SITUATED MINDS AND FLEXIBLE COGNITION Call for Papers, Posters and Contributed Symposia The conference EuroCogSci 2019 aims at providing a platform for discussing the most recent developments in Cognitive Science. It will feature contributed papers, symposia, and posters covering all subfields of cognitive science, bringing together a large number of experts from Europe and overseas. Venue: Ruhr-Universität Bochum Start: Monday, September 2nd, 2019 End: Wednesday, September 4th, 2019 Keynote Speaker: Lawrence Barsalou (University of Glasgow) Julia Fischer (Universität Göttingen) Patrick Haggard (UCL, London) Asifa Majid (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) Brian McLaughlin (Rutgers University) Natalie Sebanz (CEU, Hungary) John Spencer (University of East Anglia) Invited Symposium I: Situated Robotics and its Applications Minoru Asada (Osaka University) and Etienne Burdet (Imperial College London) Invited Symposium II: Evolutionary Robotics Dario Floreano (EPFL) and Partica A. Vargas (Heriot-Watt University) Invited Symposium III: Theory of Mind and Its Developments Ágnes M. Kovács (CEU), Beate Priewasser (Salzburg), Albert Newen (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) Local organizing team: Albert Newen (main organizer), Sabrina Coninx, Onur Güntürkün, Dorothea Kolossa, Beate Krickel, Jonas Rose, Tobias Schlicht, Gregor Schöner, Alfredo Vernazzani, Markus Werning, Pascale Willemsen Call for Contributed Symposia We encourage the joint submission of thematically related papers of a key research topic as symposia. More information at: https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophy/EuroCogSci2019/call-for-contribut… The deadline for submission of symposia proposals: 28 February 2019 Call for Papers and Posters We invite contributions on recent research in any subfield of cognitive science. More information at: https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophy/EuroCogSci2019/call-for-papers-an… The deadline for submission of papers & posters: 31 March 2019 Call for Registration: a detailed call will be sent out later. Contact information: EuroCogSci2019(a)rub.de ________________________________ Dr.des. Alfredo Vernazzani Scientific Manager: EuroCogSci 2019 Ruhr-Universität Bochum Institut für Philosophie II GA 6/35, Universitätsstr. 150 44799 Bochum, Deutschland

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Internship on Multi-scale and multi-modal data analysis and modeling of neural signals in epileptic patients
by Maurizio De Pitta Feb. 19, 2019

Feb. 19, 2019

Dear colleagues, please share with your students and anyone who be interested. The Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM) and the BioCruces Hospital in Bilbao (Biscay, Spain) are offering a 6-month internship tailored to advanced bachelor students or Master students interested in the fascinating theory of complex networks in relation with multi-scale analysis of time series data from neural signals of epileptic patients. Candidates should apply here: http://www.bcamath.org/en/research/internships Interviews are currently open and will go on till fulfilment of the position. The internship can be used by Spanish and Basque students to fulfil their mandatory training credits. However, international candidates will also be very welcome. There is also the possibility to exploit the internship experience later into a full PhD project. Following are the details of the internship. Title. Multi-scale analysis of neuronal signals in epileptic patients Brief description of the research topic. About one epileptic patient out of four is diagnosed with intractable (drug-resistant) epilepsy, presenting severe, life-impairing seizures for which the only, currently available treatment option is surgical removal of epileptogenetic neuronal circuits. The success of this surgery however depends on our ability to exactly identify epileptogenic circuits. This task is challenged by the emerging hypothesis that epileptogenic circuits are distributed rather than localised in a single brain spot. In turn, this distributed scenario suggests that epileptic seizures present multi-scale spatial organisation in conjunction with hierarchical temporal activation of multiple neural circuits. In line with this hypothesis is the observation that the spectrum of oscillatory neural electrical activity during seizures recorded by electroencephalography (EEG) presents multiple frequency components, ranging from milli- to kilo hertz. It remains however unclear how to relate such temporal structure with the underlying spatially-organised activation of epileptogenic neural networks. The aim of this internship is to gain familiarity with development of mathematical and modelling techniques that could help the analysis of spatial and temporal correlations in epileptic neural activity. The intern will work in collaboration with Dr. Maurizio De Pittà (BCAM) to adapt current models of neuron-glial networks to reproduce epileptic seizures, and with Dr. Paolo Bonifazi (BioCruces) for the analysis of neural time series. Requirements. - Basic knowledge of graph theory and statistical data analysis, and numerical integration - Essential programming skills in MATLAB and/or Python - Basic knowledge in neuroscience is a plus - Ability to meet deadlines - Strong interest to pursue research in complex network theory Keywords: computational neuroscience, time-series analysis, network theory, epilepsy, neuron-glia interactions. Contact details: Maurizio De Pitta', mdepitta(a)bcamath.org Paolo Bonifazi, paolo.bonifazi(a)osakidetza.eus ----- Maurizio De Pitta' Research Fellow MCEN -- Group of Mathematical, Computational and Experimental Neuroscience BCAM -- Basque Center of Applied Mathematics https://sites.google.com/site/mauriziodepitta/home

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Postdoc in Human Laminar Electrophysiology at NYU (BRAIN Initiative)
by Lucia Melloni Feb. 19, 2019

Feb. 19, 2019

Postdoc in Human Laminar Electrophysiology at NYU (BRAIN Initiative) A full-time Postdoc position will be available in the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, to study the electrophysiological basis of laminar functional MRI (fMRI). The position is part of a National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative-funded project in collaboration with the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) at the University of Minnesota and Department of Cognitive Neuroscience at Maastricht University. The postdoc will conduct intracranial and laminar electrophysiological recordings, as well as 7T laminar fMRI studies in people with epilepsy, and collaborate closely with a team of leading neuroscientists, physicians, and biomedical engineers. The aim of the project is to understand the neural underpinning of the laminar functional MRI signals by combining in-vivo electrophysiology in humans (NYU), high field MRI (NYU/CMRR/Maastricht) and computational modeling (Maastricht/CMRR). The candidate will benefit from the rich resources of our neuroscience community, which includes researchers at NYU School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health’s Neuroscience Institute <https://med.nyu.edu/departments-institutes/neuroscience/>, and the Center for Neural Science at NYU. The candidate will work closely with collaborators at the CMRR (Dr. Yacoub), Maastricht (Drs. Formisano, De Martino, Havlicek) and CMRR/Toronto/Suwon (Dr.Uludag). The ideal candidate has a PhD in neuroscience, biomedical engineering, psychology, or a related field. She/he should have a solid background in (human) electrophysiology and signal processing (EEG, MEG and/or ECoG), programming (Matlab or Python), statistics, and scientific writing. The candidate is expected to be able to work independently, to enjoy interacting within an interdisciplinary research environment as well as with a clinical team, and to have a track-record of peer-reviewed publications. Some supervision and mentoring of research assistants and students is expected. Previous experience with human electrophysiology will be an asset. Preferred starting date: August 2019 or as soon as possible. Initial appointment will be for 2 years with the option to renew up to 4 years. Interested individuals should send an email to lucia.melloni(a)nyulangone.org <mailto:lucia.melloni@nyulangone.org> and sasha.devorea(a)nyulangone.org <mailto:sasha.devorea@nyulangone.org> including a cover letter describing research experience and qualifications, an academic CV, and contact information of 2-3 referees who have agreed to be contacted, by March 30th, 2019.

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Post doctoral position in neuroMRI to study BOLD-based spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity
by Verhoye Marleen Feb. 19, 2019

Feb. 19, 2019

Dear The Bio-Imaging Lab at the University of Antwerp (Department of Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences) is seeking to fill the following full time vacancy: Post doctoral (m/f) position in neuroMRI to study BOLD-based spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity for a period of one year, with the possibility of renewal for 1 year after positive evaluation. Starting date: ASAP. The position is available for a multidisciplinary project that aims to study changes in functional connectivity (FC) in animal models for Alzheimer. The Bio-Imaging lab has already great expertise in acquiring and analyzing BOLD-based FC. In this project, the post-doctoral fellow will create and implement algorithms to extract quasi-periodic patterns (QPPs), known as large-scale recurring spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity, which have been suggested to be likely contributors to 'altered' network connectivity. The project is multidisciplinary (acquiring MRI data of dedicated animal models by PhD students), where the focus of the Post Doc job lies in the advanced image analysis. Interested candidates should - hold a doctoral degree in (bio)-informatics, biomedical imaging, biomedical engineering, statistics, mathematics, physics, computational neuroscience or a closely related field. - have comprehensive knowledge and experience in one or more topics within the signal and image sciences: data analysis, signal processing techniques, statistical decision theory, and algorithm development. - be familiar with machine learning and pattern discovery techniques is a plus. - have experience with coding algorithms in C, C++, Matlab, Python, or similar language used in the signal and image sciences. - have preferably experience with in-vivo Neuro MRI analysis, neurosciences The full job announcement can be found here: https://www.uantwerpen.be/images/uantwerpen/container2675/files/Post%20doct… Candidates can learn more about the Bio-Imaging Lab at https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/rg/bio-imaging-lab/ The Lab is a member of the EGAMI (Expert Group Antwerp Molecular Imaging https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/rg/bio-imaging-lab/collaborations/egami-imagin… ), which represent a service platform that integrates all molecular imaging techniques and expertise present at the University of Antwerp. To apply please send your application, CV and two names of referees to An.Ost(a)uantwerpen.be<mailto:An.Ost@uantwerpen.be> and marleen.verhoye(a)uantwerpen.be<mailto:marleen.verhoye@uantwerpen.be>. Further information can be obtained from: Marleen Verhoye, PI at the Bio-Imaging lab (Tel: + 32 (0)3 265.27.86, Secretary: +32 (0) 3 265.27.80), Deadline of application: March 21th, 2019. Please forward this message to people who might be interested Regards, Marleen Verhoye Faculty of FBD/Department of Biomedical Sciences Campus Drie Eiken - Building UC 1.12 Universiteitsplein 1 - B-2610 Antwerp Belgium marleen.verhoye(a)uantwerpen.be http://bioimaginglab.ua.ac.be/ T +32 3 265 27 86

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Please post: Programmer/Analyst Opening in the Center for Visual Science in Rochester, NY
by Pasternak, Tatiana Feb. 18, 2019

Feb. 18, 2019

Programmer/Analyst Opening in the Center for Visual Science in Rochester, NY The Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester (http://www.cvs.rochester.edu) is seeking a computer programmer to develop software for studying visual information processing in the eye and brain. The position involves working with multiple faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students on a wide range of research projects and requires familiarity with at least some of the systems, programming languages/libraries, and other software tools listed below. Preference will be given to candidates with prior experience in 3D graphics, image processing, computer vision, interfacing of hardware and software, and/or vision research in general. A successful candidate should have a bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, mathematics, or a related field, and be comfortable working on multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced academic research environment. Systems: DOS, Windows, Macintosh, Linux Languages/Libraries: C, C++, C#, Java, Python, MFC, OpenGL, OpenCL Development tools: Visual Studio, .NET Framework, ASP.NET<http://ASP.NET>, MVC Software: Matlab, LabVIEW Applications should be sent to dshannon(a)ur.rochester.edu<mailto:dshannon@ur.rochester.edu>. **************************************** Tatiana Pasternak, Ph.D. Professor Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience Departments of Neuroscience, Brain & Cognitive Science, Biomedical Engineering, and Center for Visual Science University of Rochester

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[job] Call for postdoc application on curiosity-driven deep reinforcement learning
by Pierre-Yves Oudeyer Feb. 18, 2019

Feb. 18, 2019

Call for postdoc application Topic: Intrinsically motivated multi-goal deep reinforcement learning in open virtual worlds Host and location: Inria Flowers Lab, Bordeaux, France Collaboration with Ubisoft (Bordeaux) Supervision: Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (Flowers team, Inria and Ensta ParisTech) Duration: between 18 months and 2 years Deadline for application: the position will be assigned and start as soon as possible (from april or may 2019). This postdoc project aims to develop autonomous lifelong machine learning techniques that enable virtual intelligent agents to make discoveries and acquire large repertoires of skills in open uncertain environments. This is key for developing agents that need to continuously explore and adapt interaction skills to new or changing tasks, environments, people to interact with, and preferences of others. The approach will leverage recent advances in curiosity-driven developmental learning (also called intrinsically motivated learning) to drive exploration in a multi-goal deep reinforcement learning framework. In particular, it will consist in studying several extensions of recent results of the Flowers lab in this area, including unsupervised learning of goal spaces using deep learning approaches (Laversanne-Finot et al., 2018) and the CURIOUS algorithm for intrinsically motivated multi-task multi-goal deep RL (Colas et al., 2019). These algorithms will be evaluated on benchmarks involving novel virtual environments dedicated to study exploration and curiosity (e.g. based on Unity3D MLagents), as well as modern open world video games in the context of a collaboration with Ubisoft (Bordeaux). Keywords : Deep RL, neural networks, multi-task learning, transfer learning, curiosity, intrinsic motivation, curriculum learning, Unity3D. Required knowledge and background: Candidates should already have shown very strong experience and achievements, shown by publications in top-tier AI/machine learning conferences and journals (e.g. NIPS, ICML, ICLR) in either: - Deep Learning algorithms (theory and practical implementations) - Reinforcement learning Other requirements: - strong skills in mathematics, statistical inference, machine learning - Advanced programming skills - Motivation to work in an interdisciplinary project Contact and application: Send CV and letter of motivation to pierre-yves.oudeyer(a)inria.fr Web: Inria Flowers: http://flowers.inria.fr and http://www.pyoudeyer.com The Flowers Lab: developmental robotics and lifelong multitask machine learning ================================================================== The Flowers Lab, headed by Pierre-Yves Oudeyer, gathers a team of ~20 members and has been one of the pioneers of developmental robotics and lifelong machine learning and artificial intelligence in the last decade, in particular through developping models of intrinsically motivated learning of repertoires of skills that have both contributed to advance understanding of human curiosity and development, and to advance incremental online multitask machine learning techniques in difficult high-dimensional robotic spaces. This work in the Flowers lab is conducted in the context of large international projects (e.g. ERC grant, European projects 3rdHand and DREAM, HFSP project Neurocuriosity), with interdisicplinary collaborations with other labs in neuroscience, psychology, machine learning and robotics. The successful candidates would be directly involved in these international collaborations. The Flowers lab has recently spin-off the Pollen Robotics startup company, and is involved in multiple collaborations with industrials through Inria's strong support towards impacting both science and industry. Inria and EnstaParistech =================== The lab is within Inria Bordeaux, which is a prestigious, and also the largest, public European research insitution focused on computer science, mathematics and their applications. Inria's teams and researchers (> 2800 employees) have received prestigious awards, coordinate many international projects, and have created strong innovations now used in many parts of industry. Inria research center in Bordeaux gathers around 300 researchers. The Flowers Lab is also associated to EnstaParisTech, which is a prestigious French engineering school (university). Bordeaux ======== The Flowers lab in Bordeaux is located in a great building on the border of one of the world most famous vineyard, and 10mn by tram from Bordeaux town center (and 2 hours from Paris through high-speed trains): https://www.inria.fr/en/centre/bordeaux Bordeaux has been recently rated by Lonely Planet as the world's best city to visit: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/best-cities-in-the-worl… References: Baranes, A., & Oudeyer, P. Y. (2013) Active learning of inverse models with intrinsically motivated goal exploration in robots. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 61(1), 49-73. https://hal.inria.fr/hal-00788440/document COLAS, Cédric, SIGAUD, Olivier, et OUDEYER, Pierre-Yves (2019) CURIOUS: Intrinsically Motivated Multi-Task, Multi-Goal Reinforcement Learning. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.05054.pdf Colas, C., Sigaud, O., and P-Y. Oudeyer (2018) Gep-pg: Decoupling exploration and exploitation in deep reinforcement learning algorithms. arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.05054, 2018. https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.05054 Laversanne-Finot, A., Péré, A., Oudeyer, P-Y. (2018) Curiosity Driven Exploration of Learned Disentangled Goal Spaces, In Proceedings of Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL 2018). Blog post : https://openlab-flowers.inria.fr/t/discovery-of-independently-controllable-… Péré, A., Forestier, S., Sigaud, O, and P.-Y. Oudeyer (2018) Unsupervised learning of goal spaces for intrinsically motivated goal exploration. In International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), 2018. https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.00781

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Abstract submissions open for UK Neural Computation 2019
by Mark Humphries Feb. 18, 2019

Feb. 18, 2019

The UK Neural Computation 2019 meeting is now accepting abstract submissions. The main meeting will be 2nd-3rd July 2019, at the University of Nottingham. Abstracts can be in any field of neural computation and computational neuroscience. 300 words maximum. All submissions will be considered for the poster sessions. Please indicate if you are interested in giving a talk (4 abstracts will be selected for talks) Abstract submission closes: May 10th Decisions: May 24th Please visit the Abstracts page for full details on how and where to submit: https://drmdhumphries.wixsite.com/ukneuralcomp2019/abstracts Full details of the conference are here: https://drmdhumphries.wixsite.com/ukneuralcomp2019 Invited speakers: Athena Akrami / Andy Barron / Tim Behrens / Claudia Clopath / Matthias Hennig / Simon Laughlin / Rosalyn Moran / Cian O'Donnell / Chris Summerfield / Tim Vogels / Barbara Webb Chair: Mark Humphries Committee: Hannes Saal, Robert Schmidt and Stuart Wilson. This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored where permitted by law.

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