CAJAL COURSE ON QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES TO BEHAVIOR AND VIRTUAL REALITY 2 - 21 June 2024, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal https://cajal-training.org/on-site/quantitative-approaches-to-behaviour-and-... Applications deadline: 4 March 2024 DIRECTORS • Benjamin de Bivort (Harvard University, USA) • Ann Kennedy (Northwestern University, USA) * Giorgio Gilestro (Imperial College London, UK) • Daniel McNamee (Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Portugal) Quantitative studies of behaviour are fundamental in our effort to understand brain function and malfunction. Recently, the techniques for studying behaviour, along with those for monitoring and manipulating neural activity, have progressed rapidly. Therefore, we are organizing a summer course to provide promising young scientists with a comprehensive introduction to state-of-the-art techniques in quantitative behavioural methods. This course’s content is complementary to other summer courses that focus on measuring and manipulation neurophysiological processes. Our focus is on methodologies to acquire rich data representations of behavior, dissect them statistically, model their dynamics, and integrate behavioral measurements with other kinds of neurobiological data. To this end, students will 1) fabricate devices for recording the behavior of experimental organisms (including flies, fish, and humans), 2) learn, under the guidance of the scientists developing these methods, the modern tools to analyze behavioral data from these organisms, and 3) in a week-long independent project develop and conduct a behavioral study of their own design, with the support and guidance of the course instructors and teaching assistants. The course is designed for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from a variety of disciplines, including neuroscience, biology, ethology, computer science, and psychology. Students are expected to have a keen interest and basic background in neurobiology and behavior, as well as some programming experience. A maximum of 20 students will be accepted. Students of any nationality can apply. We specifically encourage applications from researchers who work in the developing world. Stipends are available. Confirmed faculty: Ahmed Al-Hady (Max Planck Institute, Konstanz, Germany) Kristin Branson (Janelia, USA) Andre Brown (Imperial College, UK) Bing Brunton (U Washington, USA) James Cotton (Northwestern, USA) Iain Couzin (Max Planck Institute, Konstanz, Germany) Serena Ding (Max Planck Institute, Konstanz, Germany) Gonzalo de Polavieja (Champalimaud, Portugal) Kim Hoke (Colorado State University, USA) Karla Kaun (Brown University, USA) Kate Laskowski (UC Davis, USA) Zach Mainen (Champalimaud, Portugal) Talmo Pereira (Salk Institute, USA) Nachum Ulanovsky (Weizmann Institute, Israel) (more to be confirmed) Daniel McNamee (co-director, Champalimaud Research)