- Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Reminder: Virtual neuroscience conference for trainees and early career researchers/professionals

by Pranjal Garg

*NeuroNovember Convention 2024* We invite you to join us for a virtual weekend-long neuroscience conference for trainees and early-career professionals on November 9-10, 2024. *About the Convention* NeuroNovember is a joint venture between Project Encephalon <https://www.projectencephalon.org/> and Simply Neuroscience <https://www.simplyneuroscience.org/>, designed to make quality, world-class science accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability to travel and attend in-person events. This collaboration represents a unique opportunity to amplify our collective impact on neuroscience education and awareness globally. NeuroNovember will feature scientific talks, workshops, abstract presentations, and various other opportunities to interact and network with prominent professionals, organizations, and ventures actively shaping the future of neuroscience. More details can be found at https://www.neuronovember.org/ *Abstract Submissions* Early-career researchers, trainees, scholars, and professionals are invited to submit abstracts for poster and oral presentations in neuroscience and related fields. More details can be found at https://www.neuronovember.org/abstracts Submission Deadline: September 15, 2024, 11:59 PM EST Please feel free to reach out to info(a)neuronovember.org with any queries or comments. We look forward to seeing you all there.

Sept. 5, 2024

Call for Papers NeurIPS Workshop on Symmetry, Geometry and Neural Representations (NeurReps)

by Simone Azeglio

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the NeurReps Workshop on Symmetry and Geometry in Neural Representations (www.neurreps.org) The workshop invites submissions contributing novel research incorporating symmetry, geometry, or topology into the design of artificial neural networks, the analysis of neural data, or theories of neural computation. Key Details: - Submission Deadline: September 13, 2024 11:59 PM AoE - Author Notification: October 9, 2024 11:59 PM AoE - Two submission tracks: 1. Proceedings Track (up to 9 pages, to be published in PMLR) 2. Extended Abstract Track (up to 4 pages) Themes of particular interest include: - Theory and methods for learning invariant and equivariant representations - Statistical learning theory in the context of topology, geometry, and symmetry - Representational geometry in neural data - Equivariant world models for robotics - Topological deep learning and topological data analysis - Geometric structure in language - Symmetries, dynamical systems, and learning We welcome both theoretical contributions and applied results in domains such as vision, motor control, navigation, and language. For full details on the call for papers, submission instructions, and LaTeX templates, please visit: https://www.neurreps.org/call-for-papers If you have any questions, please contact organizers(a)neurreps.org. We look forward to your submissions! Best regards, Simone Azeglio & NeurReps Workshop Organizers

Sept. 5, 2024

OPEN FACULTY POSITIONS, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Japan

by Taro Toyoizumi

OPEN FACULTY POSITIONS (Brain science in general) https://cbs.riken.jp/career-brain-science-2024/index.html The RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) was launched in April 2018 following the strong 20-year foundation of its predecessor, the Brain Science Institute (BSI). CBS aims to meet society’s ever-growing expectations for brain research. (For the four main goals of CBS, please visit, https://cbs.riken.jp/en/about/ ) We are currently seeking outstanding neuroscientists for Team Leader positions (junior principal investigators). However, applications from internationally established neuroscientists may be considered. To promote diversity, a strength of CBS, we proactively recruit women when the candidate's research skills are deemed equal. At RIKEN CBS, Team Leaders have full intellectual independence, generous internal funds including a highly competitive start-up package and access to ample communal facilities in a collaborative environment. Successful candidates for the Team Leader position must have demonstrated the ability to develop an original, independent and internationally competitive research program. We encourage applications from all disciplines of neuroscience, particularly in (1) research areas of neurological/psychiatric disorders and (2) theoretical and computational neuroscience. Successful candidates will hold a research management position, and as the head of a laboratory, they will provide leadership and guidance to laboratory members to conduct research. For details, please refer to the following website. https://cbs.riken.jp/en/careers/20240904_w24139_pi.html Application and letters of recommendation must arrive by 5 pm on November 15, 2024 (JST). Applicants should submit electronic files of a cover letter with a brief summary of their research program and future plans, curriculum vitae, list of research achievements and publications, list of acquired research funding, current research and achievements to date, future research plans, and reprints of five major publications maximum, through the application form. Three letters of recommendation must be directly submitted from the referees. Please see the website above for more details. --- Taro Toyoizumi, PhD Team Leader RIKEN Center for Brain Science https://toyoizumilab.riken.jp/taro/

Sept. 5, 2024

Postdoc in modeling cerebellar function

by Erik De Schutter

A postdoctoral position is available in the Computational Neuroscience Unit (https://groups.oist.jp/cnu) of Prof. Erik De Schutter at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology for a researcher interested in modeling to help better understanding of cerebellar properties and function. Candidates should have good knowledge of cerebellar anatomy and physiology related to previous modeling work, and be open to an explorative approach. Depending on prior experience and interest the focus can be on modeling the cerebellum and its neurons and/or on analyzing experimental data obtained through collaboration. The postdoc will interact with other researchers and students in the lab who are working on cerebellar modeling projects. We offer attractive working conditions in an English language graduate university, located on a beautiful subtropical island. Starting date any time before end 2024. Send curriculum vitae, summary of research interests and experience, and the names of two referees to Prof. Erik De Schutter at erik(a)oist.jp <mailto:erik@oist.jp>

Sept. 3, 2024

Release of laMEG: a toolbox for laminar MEG

by James Bonaiuto

Dear colleagues, Apologies for the cross-posting. I'm extremely pleased to announce the first release of laMEG: a toolbox for performing non-invasive inference of laminar-specific activity with MEG. My collaborators and I have been working on methods for laminar MEG for several years now, and we've finally put them all together in an easy-to-install toolbox. It includes test data, and tutorial jupyter notebooks to reproduce the simulations and analyses in all of our key papers: - Laminar inference using model comparison with either free energy or cross validation error, as well as power-based ROI analysis Bonaiuto, James J., Holly E. Rossiter, Sofie S. Meyer, Natalie Adams, Simon Little, Martina F. Callaghan, Fred Dick, Sven Bestmann, and Gareth R. Barnes. "Non-invasive laminar inference with MEG: Comparison of methods and source inversion algorithms." *Neuroimage* 167 (2018): 372-383. Bonaiuto, James J., Sofie S. Meyer, Simon Little, Holly Rossiter, Martina F. Callaghan, Frederic Dick, Gareth R. Barnes, and Sven Bestmann. "Lamina-specific cortical dynamics in human visual and sensorimotor cortices." *Elife* 7 (2018): e33977. - Free energy model comparison in a sliding time window with priors Bonaiuto, James J., Simon Little, Samuel A. Neymotin, Stephanie R. Jones, Gareth R. Barnes, and Sven Bestmann. "Laminar dynamics of high amplitude beta bursts in human motor cortex." *NeuroImage* 242 (2021): 118479. - Surface post-processing, following up from FreeSurfer recon-all, to downsample multiple surfaces and compute link vectors to constrain dipole orientations Bonaiuto, James J., Fardin Afdideh, Maxime Ferez, Konrad Wagstyl, Jérémie Mattout, Mathilde Bonnefond, Gareth R. Barnes, and Sven Bestmann. "Estimates of cortical column orientation improve MEG source inversion." *Neuroimage* 216 (2020): 116862. laMEG includes the ability to run any of these analyses on an arbitrary number of layer surfaces (not just pial versus white matter), interactive 3d surface visualization, an experimental "CSD" laminar analysis, and SPM compiled as a python library - no matlab license required. Github: https://github.com/danclab/laMEG Documentation: https://danclab.github.io/laMEG/ PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/lameg/ Best wishes, Jimmy Bonaiuto --------------------- James Bonaiuto Group leader | Institut des Sciences Cognitives | CNRS / Université Claude Bernard Lyon DANC lab <http://danclab.com> | @danc_labo <https://twitter.com/danc_labo>

Sept. 2, 2024

Travel Awards Announced - Reminder Call for Papers: The First Workshop on NeuroAI @ NeurIPS 2024

by Forough Habibollahi

*Call** for Papers: The First Workshop on NeuroAI @ NeurIPS 2024: Fusing Neuroscience and AI for Intelligent Solutions* We are excited to announce that we are organizing the First Workshop on NeuroAI @ NeurIPS 2024, which will showcase research at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence. This workshop aims to bring together leading researchers to present their latest findings in NeuroAI. *Topics of Interest:* - Explainable and interpretable AI in neuroscience - Self-supervised systems in NeuroAI - Neuro-inspired architectures, and computations - Neuronally-plausible learning regimes - Neuro-inspired reasoning and decision-making - Cognitive functions in AI The topics above are NOT exhaustive, and we encourage the submission of research related to how principles and insights from neuroscience can lead to better artificial intelligence and vice versa. Our aim is to foster groundbreaking interdisciplinary research that advances both fields. *Submission Details:* We invite researchers in the field of NeuroAI to submit their papers to this workshop. Submissions should adhere to a page limit of *5 pages *(excluding references and supplementary materials) and must use the NeurIPS 2024 LaTeX template <https://media.neurips.cc/Conferences/NeurIPS2024/Styles.zip>. Authors are encouraged to submit their NeurIPS main conference submissions concurrently to this workshop (excluding any completed and already published work). *Travel Awards:* The NeurIPS workshop registration fee will be covered for one student author from each of the three spotlight papers chosen by our reviewers. Additionally, one student author from the top paper will have their airfare covered. Early-career researchers are encouraged to submit their work and take advantage of this opportunity. *Important Dates:* · Submission Deadline: September 7, 2024 · Submission Portal: NeuroAI Workshop Submission Portal <https://openreview.net/group?id=NeurIPS.cc/2024/Workshop/NeuroAI> *The top 3 highly scored submissions will be chosen for spotlight talks.* *Event Details:* · Date: During NeurIPS 2024, 14 or 15 December 2024 (to be confirmed) · Location: In-person in Vancouver, Canada *Keynote Speakers:* · *Karl Friston (UCL)* · *Eva Dyer (Georgia Institute of Technology)* · *Rafal Bogacz (University of Oxford)* · *Max Welling (University of Amsterdam)* · *Ila Fiete (MIT)* *Highlight:* Our workshop will feature an in-person panel discussion between the two pioneers in AI and Neuroscience: Yoshua Bengio and Karl Friston *Enquiries:* For further information, please contact: neuroai.neurips2024(a)gmail.com For more information about the details of the workshop schedule, lineup of speakers, etc. and to stay updated, please check the workshop website: NeuroAI Workshop Website <https://neuroai-workshop.github.io/> We look forward to your submissions and to seeing you at NeurIPS 2024! On behalf of the organizing committee, *Forough Habibollahi, Moein Khajehnejad, Adeel Razi, Jason Eshraghian, Noor Sajid, Anthony Zador, Yoshua Bengio*

Aug. 30, 2024

ReservoirChat Beta: a Large Language Model for Reservoir Computing

by Xavier Hinaut

Hello, We are pleased to announce the launch of ReservoirChat, our new tool designed to enhance your experience with Reservoir Computing and ReservoirPy. - Expert Knowledge: Access detailed information on Reservoir Computing. - Coding Support: Suggestions to code reservoirs using ReservoirPy. - Exclusive Access: This beta version will be available for a few weeks only! ReservoirChat beta version: https://chat.reservoirpy.inria.fr/ * Use-cases examples: - Beginner: You don't know what is Reservoir Computing and why to try it? —> ReservoirChat can explain it to you! - Expert but don't know ReservoirPy —> don't need to read all the documentation, ReservoirChat will help you! We look forward to your participation in this beta phase and to your valuable feedback. Follow us on X/Twitter: https://x.com/reservoirpy Best regards, Xavier Hinaut Inria Research Scientist — www.xavierhinaut.com -- +33 5 33 51 48 01 -- https://x.com/neuronalX Mnemosyne team, Inria, Bordeaux, France -- https://team.inria.fr/mnemosyne & LaBRI, Bordeaux University -- https://www4.labri.fr/en/formal-methods-and-models & IMN (Neurodegeneratives Diseases Institute) -- http://www.imn-bordeaux.org/en — Our Reservoir Computing library: https://github.com/reservoirpy/reservoirpy

Aug. 29, 2024

2ND CALL FOR ILLUSION SUBMISSIONS: THE WORLD'S 19TH ANNUAL BEST ILLUSION OF THE YEAR CONTEST

by smart＠neuralcorrelate.com

**** 2ND CALL FOR ILLUSION SUBMISSIONS: THE WORLD'S 19TH ANNUAL BEST ILLUSION OF THE YEAR CONTEST**** http://illusionoftheyear.com We are happy to announce the 19th edition of world's Best Illusion of the YearSM Contest, hosted by the Neural Correlate Society and supported again by the Museum of Illusions <https://www.museumofillusions.com/> as Platinum Sponsor!! Submissions are now welcome! In 2015, the Best Illusion of the YearSM Contest became an annual online event, with the goal of bringing the creativity of the illusion creator community all around the world. Anybody with an internet connection can participate! No matter where you live, you can be a contestant, and/or vote for the Top 3 winners! Contestants are invited to submit 1-minute YouTube or mp4 videos featuring novel illusions (unpublished or published no earlier than 2023) of all sensory modalities (visual, auditory, etc.) and/or cognitive nature. Novel variants of known illusions are welcome. The content of the 1-minute video presenting your illusion is solely up to you, and the only requirement is that it wows all viewers! Some examples include, but are not limited to: * A slide presentation, or succession of images, with a voice over (and/or written text, if you prefer) * A video of yourself describing your illusion * A video animation/theatrical performance of your illusion An international panel of impartial judges will rate all the videos and narrow them down to the Top 10. Then, online voters around the world will choose their favorite illusions from the Top 10 finalists. The Top 3 winners will receive cash prizes: $3,000 USD for first place; $2,000 USD for second place, and $1,000 USD for third place. The Judge Panel will rate illusions according to: * Significance to our understanding of the human mind and brain * Simplicity of the description * Sheer beauty * Counterintuitive quality * Spectacularity Submissions will be held in strict confidence by the Judge Panel. Only the Top 10 illusions will be posted online, to allow worldwide voting. Participation in the Best Illusion of the YearSM Contest does not preclude you from also presenting or submitting your work for publication elsewhere. By participating in the Best Illusion of the YearSM Contest you agree to have your illusion posted on the Contest website, if selected among the Top 10, and included in press releases and other promotional materials/fundraising initiatives for the Contest. You (and your co-authors, if appropriate) will retain the full copyright of your illusion and receive full credit as illusion creator(s). Illusions submitted to previous editions of the contest can be re-submitted to the 2024 Contest, as long as they meet the above requirements and were not among the Top 10 finalists in previous years. You can send your 1-minute video to Susana Martinez-Conde via email (illusion.contest.entries(a)outlook.com <mailto:illusion.contest.entries@outlook.com> ) until September 15th, 2024. On behalf of the Executive Board of the Neural Correlate Society: Jose-Manuel Alonso, Stephen Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, Luis Martinez, Xoana Troncoso, Peter Tse ---------------------------------------------------------- Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD Author, Champions of Illusion <x-msg://2/championsofillusionbook.com> and Sleights of Mind Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Physiology & Pharmacology Director, Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience Empire Innovator Scholar State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Health Sciences University 450 Clarkson Ave, Brooklyn NY 11203, USA Email: smart(a)neuralcorrelate.com <mailto:smart@neuralcorrelate.com> Phone: +1 718-270-4520 <tel:%2B1%20718-270-4520> http://smc.neuralcorrelate.com

Aug. 29, 2024

PhD/postdoc positions in ML for neuroscience in Göttingen, Germany

by Ecker, Alexander

We have several open positions for postdocs or PhD students in the Neural Data Science Lab (https://eckerlab.org) at the Campus Institute Data Science (University of Göttingen) and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany. Our lab is part of a large collaborative network with partners in the US and Germany. The projects are funded by the European Research Council through an ERC Starting Grant and in tight collaboration with Andreas Tolias' lab at Stanford. Regular visits at Stanford are possible and encouraged. If you want to work with us on exciting projects developing machine learning methods for neuroscience, please check out the short project descriptions below and apply now. Details can also be found on our website: https://eckerlab.org/applications/ Application documents including a short motivation letter, CV, transcript of records (PhD students) and the contact details of two references should be sent to Alexander Ecker: ecker(a)cs.uni-goettingen.de We value diversity and equality. We therefore particularly encourage international and female applicants as well as applications from underrepresented groups or candidates with disabilities. ============ *A foundation model of the brain* The Enigma Project @stanford is a large-scale, interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to building a foundation model of the brain at single-neuron resolution. Combining large-scale electrophysiology and naturalistic experiments with modern, multi-modal deep learning, Enigma aims to uncover core principles of neural representation and intelligence – starting with our richest sense: the visual system. Our lab in Göttingen has pioneered large-scale predictive models of the visual system and will continue to develop the next generation of predictive models with a focus on using them to gain insights into brain function. Role: Postdoc (preferred) or PhD student Your profile: Background in systems / computational neuroscience or machine learning (deep learning in particular). Experience with both is a strong plus, but not a requirement. ============ *Data-driven multi-modal discovery of cell types in the neocortex* Understanding the relationship between structure and function of cortical neurons and circuits is one of the key challenges in neuroscience. In this project, we develop deep learning methods for data-driven identification of excitatory cell types in the visual cortex and to understand how a neuron’s morphology relates to its function. We will harness a unique large-scale functional anatomy dataset: a combination of electron-microscopy reconstructions at sub-micrometer resolution with two-photon functional imaging of nearly all excitatory neurons in one cubic millimeter of the mouse visual cortex. Role: Postdoc (preferred) or PhD student Your profile: Background in systems / computational neuroscience or machine learning (deep learning in particular). Experience with both is a strong plus, but not a requirement. -- Alexander Ecker Professor of Data Science Department of Computer Science • Campus Institute Data Science University of Göttingen • Max Planck Inst. for Dynamics and Self-Organization Goldschmidtstr. 1 • room 2.137 • 37077 Göttingen https://eckerlab.org • @alxecker • +49 551 39-21272

Aug. 26, 2024

Postdoctoral position for the development of large-scale electrophysiological data management infrastructure

by Paul Cisek

Postdoctoral position for the development of large-scale electrophysiological data management infrastructure 2-year position: $62,500/year plus benefits (~ total $75,000/year) This salary is guaranteed by a partnership between the Department of Neurosciences (https://neurosciences.umontreal.ca<https://neurosciences.umontreal.ca/>), the Faculty of Medicine of the Université de Montréal (https://medecine.umontreal.ca<https://medecine.umontreal.ca/>) and IVADO (https://ivado.ca<https://ivado.ca/>), an interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral research, training and knowledge mobilization consortium whose mission is to develop and promote a robust, reasoning and responsible AI. Requirements: The applicant should hold a PhD (e.g. electrical or biomedical engineering, neurosciences, or complementary field) and have research expertise in system neuroscience, programming, and data processing and analyses. Major advances in electrophysiological recording technologies have led to an explosion in the size of datasets, as well as new challenges in processing and managing them. In particular, the advent of wireless large-scale neurophysiology and deep-learning-based pose estimation enables us to study new scientific questions on complex, unconstrained behaviors. As the pace at which we acquire data has accelerated exponentially in recent years, there is an urgent need for efficient automated pipelines to process raw data from labs into analysis-ready datasets. To address these challenges, several research groups at the department of neuroscience (P. Cisek, N. Dancause, B. Ebitz, A. Green, M. Perich) aim to develop and deploy automated approaches to process signals recorded in our labs into analysis-ready datasets; 2) create a unified data storage and management framework to facilitate data sharing and collaborative, neuro-AI, analyses. These goals are closely aligned with those of the Union Neuroscience et Intelligence artificielle Quebec (UNIQUE; https://www.unique.quebec<https://www.unique.quebec/>) center, the strategic research cluster of the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec - Nature et Technologie (FRQ-NT), IVADO and the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute (Mila; https://mila.quebec<https://mila.quebec/>). The main objective of the present position is to develop and deploy automated approaches to process signals from the labs into analysis-ready datasets. The postdoctoral trainee will design and develop automated processing pipelines, from raw data collected in the labs to analysis-ready state, for each type of data collected. The pipeline must adapt and enhance our current tools implemented in Matlab, R or Python. This includes incorporating automated spike sorting tools such as MountainSort, KiloSort, and Full Binary Pursuit, handling local field potential signals with software like Chronux and FieldTrip, as well as creating user interfaces. The postdoctoral trainee will be responsible for creating Standard Operating Procedures and lead user training. This position is a great opportunity for a postdoctoral trainee seeking training at the intersection of academia and industry. The candidate should have adequate training in disciplines such as engineering, data sciences, machine-learning or neurosciences. The postdoctoral trainee will advance cutting-edge platforms for large-scale behavioral and neurophysiology experiments shared by several research groups on campus at the Université de Montréal. They will participate in the advancement of open source in neuroscience. The position will include working with unique electrophysiological datasets that from ongoing scientific projects of one or more of the participating research labs. These data will provide opportunities to develop novel or high-dimensional analytical tools that could lead to authorship on additional publications. For application: Please send a short cover letter, resume and the names of 3 references to: Numa Dancause, BSc(PT), PhD Professor, Associate Director Département de Neurosciences Université de Montréal Email: marlene.boutet(a)umontreal.ca<mailto:marlene.boutet@umontreal.ca> Paul Cisek, PhD Département de neurosciences Université de Montréal Physical: 2960 chemin de la tour, local 4117 Montréal, QC H3T 1J4 CANADA Mailing: CP 6128 Succursale centre-ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7 CANADA e-mail: paul.cisek(a)umontreal.ca<mailto:paul.cisek@umontreal.ca> Web: www.cisek.org/pavel<http://www.cisek.org/pavel>

Aug. 25, 2024