Interdisciplinary
interdisciplinary
Kerstin Bunte
We offer a postdoctoral researcher position within the Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. The position is funded by an NWO Vidi project named “mechanistic machine learning: combining the explanatory power of dynamic models with the predictive power of machine learning“. Systems of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) gained a tremendous amount of interest in recent years, demonstrating great performance for a wide variety of tasks, but typically only if they are trained on huge amounts of data. Moreover, frequently no insight into the decision making is available or required. Experts desire to know how their data can inform them about the natural processes being measured. Therefore we develop transparent and interpretable model- and data-driven hybrid methods that are demonstrated for applications in medicine and engineering. As a postdoc, you will work together with Kerstin Bunte and her team within the Intelligent Systems group, as well as a network of interdisciplinary collaborators in the UK and Europe from various fields, such as Computer Science, Engineering and Applied Mathematics.
Constantine Dovrolis
The Cyprus Institute invites applications for a Post-Doctoral Fellow to pursue research in Machine Learning. The successful candidate will be actively engaged in cutting-edge research in terms of core problems in ML and AI such as developing efficient and interpretable deep nets, continual learning, neuro-inspired ML, self-supervised learning, and other cutting-edge topics. The candidate should have deep understanding of machine learning fundamentals (e.g., linear algebra, probability theory, optimization) as well as broad knowledge of the state-of-the-art in AI and machine and learning. Additionally, the candidate should have extensive experience with ML programming frameworks (e.g., PyTorch). The candidate will be working primarily with two PIs: Prof. Constantine Dovrolis and Prof. Mihalis Nicolaou. The appointment is for a period of 2 years, with the option of renewal subject to performance and the availability of funds.
Karl Øyvind Mikalsen
SPKI is expanding, and is in search of a highly motivated data scientist / ML engineer who wants to contribute to the development and implementation of new artificial intelligence (AI) tools for health. The work will be done in a highly interdisciplinary environment, and you will collaborate with a team consisting of clinicians, scientists from the university and technologists, legal experts, industry partners, as well as personnel responsible for ICT, data security, privacy concerns and more. This environment also includes researchers at The Machine Learning Group and Visual Intelligence.
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The Santa Fe Institute seeks applications for postdoctoral fellows for the 2024 cohort. The fellowships offer early-career scholars the opportunity to undertake their own independent research within a collaborative research community that nurtures creative, transdisciplinary thought in pursuit of key insights about the complex systems that matter most for science and society. Postdoctoral Fellows spend up to three years in residence at SFI, where they contribute to SFI’s research in the sciences of complexity and are trained to become leaders in interdisciplinary science. The fellowships offer a competitive salary, generous benefits, and discretionary research funding. The city of Santa Fe offers a remarkable quality of life and year-round opportunities for outdoor activities. Interdisciplinary scholars with broad interests with interests in any scientific discipline, including AI, machine learning, and cognitive science, are encouraged to apply.
Tejas Savalia
The Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst is inviting applications for a tenure track, academic year, faculty position at the Assistant Professor level in its Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Psychology program, starting in Fall 2024. We are seeking outstanding applicants with expertise in any area of cognitive psychology or cognitive neuroscience, including interdisciplinary fields connected to cognitive psychology, whose work complements and broadens existing strengths in our program. The program has current strengths in attention, decision-making, psycholinguistics, and mathematical modeling, with connections to our Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Developmental Science, and Social Psychology programs. Across the university, our faculty have strong connections to Linguistics, Information and Computer Sciences, and Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, as well as the Initiative in Cognitive Science, the Computational and Social Science Institute, the Institute for Diversity Sciences, and the Institute for Applied Life Sciences.
Steven M. Weisberg
The Department of PSYCHOLOGY at the UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, invites applications for a full-time, nine-month, tenure-accruing, OPEN-AREA Assistant Professor with special emphasis in QUANTITATIVE METHODS, beginning August 16, 2024. We encourage applications from any research orientation in psychology and the position is open to candidates who employ a wide variety of methodological tools or approaches (including, but not limited to, computational modeling, statistics, artificial intelligence, structural equation modeling, multilevel modeling, network analysis, and longitudinal data analysis). Applicants will be expected to maintain an outstanding program of research with high potential for external funding, teach psychology graduate and undergraduate courses, advise students, and provide service to the institution.
Kenji Doya
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) has up to 10 open faculty positions in fields including life sciences and computational sciences. Each faculty member runs an independent research unit with internal funding including PhD students and postdoc/technical staff positions. A tenure-track faculty will have a tenure review within 6 years and a tenured faculty can renew research funding with reviews every 5 years till retirement at 70. OIST is an international, interdisciplinary graduate university without department boundaries. Education, research, and administration are run in English and no Japanese skills are required. A variety of supports for foreign researchers and family members are provided.
Zoran Tiganj
The College of Arts and Sciences and the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington invite applications for three tenured Associate Professor positions in one or more of the following areas: human intelligence, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to begin in Fall 2024 or after. Appointments will be in one or more departments, including Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Informatics, and Psychological and Brain Sciences. The positions are part of a new initiative that aims to transform our understanding of human and artificial intelligence, centered around the new Mind Brain Machine Quadrangle and the Luddy Artificial Intelligence Center. IU has long been an international leader in research on cognition across humans, animals, and artificial systems, and how intelligence manifests in embodied cognition. These hires build on existing strengths to position IU at the forefront of new research innovations in our understanding of human and animal cognition, the development of intelligent computing technologies, and the use of machine learning applied to a wide range of phenomena.
Thomas Nowotny
Fully-funded PhD studentships within Sussex AI, focusing on doctoral research in an interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence at the University of Sussex. The research will be the focal point for research in AI methods and applications.
Orly Segev
The International M.Sc. Program at The Sagol School of Neuroscience, 2024-25, at Tel Aviv University is a two-year program designed to provide interdisciplinary thinking and knowledge to join the next generation of world-leading neuroscientists. The program is held at the renowned Sagol School of Neuroscience and will train students in the latest cutting-edge neuroscience fields related to biology, psychology, engineering, and other related fields.
Carsten Mehring
The interdisciplinary MSc program in Neuroscience at the University of Freiburg, Germany, provides theoretical and practical training in neuroscience, covering both the foundations and latest research in the field. It is taught by lecturers from an international scientific community from multiple faculties and neuroscience research centres. The modular course structure caters to the specific backgrounds and research interests of each individual student with specialisations in neural circuits and behavior, computational neuroscience and neurotechnology. All courses are taught in English.
Roman Bauer
A fully funded PhD position in Computational Neuroscience is available at the University of Cyprus in collaboration with the University of Surrey (UK), titled “Brain Neuronal Networks Development via Multiscale Agent-based Modelling”. The project aims to demonstrate an innovative computational approach to model and emulate biological neural networks (NNs) by modelling NN development from a single precursor cell. The approach is inspired by the biological brain, using developmental rules encoded in a gene-type manner to reproduce challenging neural complexities. The project will use data from experimental studies and synthetic, simulated data to inform the computational modelling, aiming to create realistic NNs structurally and functionally. Innovative machine learning techniques will be employed to match the in-silico NNs with specific organisms, starting with synthetically generated NNs and increasing biological correspondence. The project will utilize the agent-based modelling software BioDynaMo, an open-source software actively developed for almost a decade.
Chloé Bourgeois-Antonini
The M.Sc. Mod4NeuCog is a two-year interdisciplinary master's program at Université Côte d’Azur (Nice, France), which aims to train active researchers at the crossroads of computer science, applied mathematics and cognitive neuroscience. Students will learn to model cognitive functions using mathematical and computational tools and will be specialized in computational neuro/cognitive science, able to work in fully interdisciplinary settings, with a strong foundation in mathematics.
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New York University is home to a thriving interdisciplinary community of researchers using computational and theoretical approaches in neuroscience. We are interested in exceptional PhD candidates with strong quantitative training (e.g., physics, mathematics, engineering) coupled with a clear interest in scientific study of the brain. A listing of faculty, sorted by their primary departmental affiliation, is given below. Doctoral programs are flexible, allowing students to pursue research across departmental boundaries. Nevertheless, admissions are handled separately by each department, and students interested in pursuing graduate studies should submit an application to the program that best fits their goals and interests.
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The Pennsylvania State University is seeking an outstanding postdoctoral researcher to join the Intelligent Information Systems Laboratory at the College of Information Sciences and Technology. The position is available immediately or starting in Spring 2025. The researcher will be mentored for a successful transition to a faculty or scientist position in academia or a leading research laboratory as many of our previous postdoctoral fellows. You will be involved in leading and assisting in proposal preparation, research execution, and mentoring students on a project involving the use of AI in wildlife conservation. In addition to the wildlife conservation project, the postdoctoral fellow and the faculty mentors may identify and scope other areas of research to pursue. The position fully focuses on research with no expectation of teaching. However, should the scholar want to teach, arrangements can be made to build teaching experience. The objective of this position is to enhance the researcher’s skills and record for a placement in a leading university or research laboratory at the end of the post-doctoral position.
Georg Langs
We are recruiting for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the area „Machine Learning in the Life Sciences“ at Medical University of Vienna. The position will be a group leader at the new Comprehensive Center of AI in Medicine (CAIM) that will start in January 2025 at MedUni Vienna. It will be a dual appointment at CAIM and another Department at MedUni Wien that the candidate can choose. CAIM will bring together ML researchers and labs from across the university at one physical place. Currently, about 15 labs are involved that will build the starting point of the center. MedUni will nominate the successful candidate in a Viennese Research Group Call for a EUR 1.8 Mio startup research budget.
Mathew Diamond
Up to 6 PhD positions in Cognitive Neuroscience are available at SISSA, Trieste, starting October 2025. SISSA is an elite postgraduate research institution for Maths, Physics and Neuroscience, located in Trieste, Italy. SISSA operates in English, and its faculty and student community is diverse and strongly international. The Cognitive Neuroscience group (https://phdcns.sissa.it/) hosts 6 research labs that study the neuronal bases of time and magnitude processing, neuronal foundations of perceptual experience and learning in various sensory modalities, motivation and intelligence, language, and neural computation. Our research is highly interdisciplinary; our approaches include behavioral, psychophysics, and neurophysiological experiments with humans and animals, as well as computational, statistical and mathematical models. Students from a broad range of backgrounds (physics, maths, medicine, psychology, biology) are encouraged to apply.
Applied cognitive neuroscience to improve learning and therapeutics
Advancements in cognitive neuroscience have provided profound insights into the workings of the human brain and the methods used offer opportunities to enhance performance, cognition, and mental health. Drawing upon interdisciplinary collaborations in the University of California San Diego, Human Performance Optimization Lab, this talk explores the application of cognitive neuroscience principles in three domains to improve human performance and alleviate mental health challenges. The first section will discuss studies addressing the role of vision and oculomotor function in athletic performance and the potential to train these foundational abilities to improve performance and sports outcomes. The second domain considers the use of electrophysiological measurements of the brain and heart to detect, and possibly predict, errors in manual performance, as shown in a series of studies with surgeons as they perform robot-assisted surgery. Lastly, findings from clinical trials testing personalized interventional treatments for mood disorders will be discussed in which the temporal and spatial parameters of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are individualized to test if personalization improves treatment response and can be used as predictive biomarkers to guide treatment selection. Together, these translational studies use the measurement tools and constructs of cognitive neuroscience to improve human performance and well-being.
Conversations with Caves? Understanding the role of visual psychological phenomena in Upper Palaeolithic cave art making
How central were psychological features deriving from our visual systems to the early evolution of human visual culture? Art making emerged deep in our evolutionary history, with the earliest art appearing over 100,000 years ago as geometric patterns etched on fragments of ochre and shell, and figurative representations of prey animals flourishing in the Upper Palaeolithic (c. 40,000 – 15,000 years ago). The latter reflects a complex visual process; the ability to represent something that exists in the real world as a flat, two-dimensional image. In this presentation, I argue that pareidolia – the psychological phenomenon of seeing meaningful forms in random patterns, such as perceiving faces in clouds – was a fundamental process that facilitated the emergence of figurative representation. The influence of pareidolia has often been anecdotally observed in Upper Palaeolithic art examples, particularly cave art where the topographic features of cave wall were incorporated into animal depictions. Using novel virtual reality (VR) light simulations, I tested three hypotheses relating to pareidolia in the caves of Upper Palaeolithic cave art in the caves of Las Monedas and La Pasiega (Cantabria, Spain). To evaluate this further, I also developed an interdisciplinary VR eye-tracking experiment, where participants were immersed in virtual caves based on the cave of El Castillo (Cantabria, Spain). Together, these case studies suggest that pareidolia was an intrinsic part of artist-cave interactions (‘conversations’) that influenced the form and placement of figurative depictions in the cave. This has broader implications for conceiving of the role of visual psychological phenomena in the emergence and development of figurative art in the Palaeolithic.
Where Cognitive Neuroscience Meets Industry: Navigating the Intersections of Academia and Industry
In this talk, Mirta will share her journey from her education a mathematically-focused high school to her currently unconventional career in London, emphasizing the evolution from a local education in Croatia to international experiences in the US and UK. We will explore the concept of interdisciplinary careers in the modern world, viewing them through the framework of increasing demand, flexibility, and dynamism in the current workplace. We will underscore the significance of interdisciplinary research for launching careers outside of academia, and bolstering those within. I will challenge the conventional norm of working either in academia or industry, and encourage discussion about the opportunities for combining the two in a myriad of career opportunities. I’ll use examples from my own and others’ research to highlight opportunities for early career researchers to extend their work into practical applications. Such an approach leverages the strengths of both sectors, fostering innovation and practical applications of research findings. I hope these insights can offer valuable perspectives for those looking to navigate the evolving demands of the global job market, illustrating the advantages of a versatile skill set that spans multiple disciplines and allows extensions into exciting career options.
Mathematical and computational modelling of ocular hemodynamics: from theory to applications
Changes in ocular hemodynamics may be indicative of pathological conditions in the eye (e.g. glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration), but also elsewhere in the body (e.g. systemic hypertension, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders). Thanks to its transparent fluids and structures that allow the light to go through, the eye offers a unique window on the circulation from large to small vessels, and from arteries to veins. Deciphering the causes that lead to changes in ocular hemodynamics in a specific individual could help prevent vision loss as well as aid in the diagnosis and management of diseases beyond the eye. In this talk, we will discuss how mathematical and computational modelling can help in this regard. We will focus on two main factors, namely blood pressure (BP), which drives the blood flow through the vessels, and intraocular pressure (IOP), which compresses the vessels and may impede the flow. Mechanism-driven models translates fundamental principles of physics and physiology into computable equations that allow for identification of cause-to-effect relationships among interplaying factors (e.g. BP, IOP, blood flow). While invaluable for causality, mechanism-driven models are often based on simplifying assumptions to make them tractable for analysis and simulation; however, this often brings into question their relevance beyond theoretical explorations. Data-driven models offer a natural remedy to address these short-comings. Data-driven methods may be supervised (based on labelled training data) or unsupervised (clustering and other data analytics) and they include models based on statistics, machine learning, deep learning and neural networks. Data-driven models naturally thrive on large datasets, making them scalable to a plethora of applications. While invaluable for scalability, data-driven models are often perceived as black- boxes, as their outcomes are difficult to explain in terms of fundamental principles of physics and physiology and this limits the delivery of actionable insights. The combination of mechanism-driven and data-driven models allows us to harness the advantages of both, as mechanism-driven models excel at interpretability but suffer from a lack of scalability, while data-driven models are excellent at scale but suffer in terms of generalizability and insights for hypothesis generation. This combined, integrative approach represents the pillar of the interdisciplinary approach to data science that will be discussed in this talk, with application to ocular hemodynamics and specific examples in glaucoma research.
Glial and Neuronal Biology of the Aging Brain Symposium, Alana Down Syndrome Center and Aging Brain Initiative at Picower, MIT
The Aging Brain Initiative (ABI) is an interdisciplinary effort by MIT focusing on understanding neurodegeneration and discovery efforts to find hallmarks of aging, both in health and disease." "The Alana Down Syndrome Center (ADSC) aims to deepen knowledge about Down syndrome and to improve health, autonomy and inclusion of people with this genetic condition." "The ABI and the ADSC have joined forces for this year's symposium to highlight how aging-related changes to the brain overlap with neurological aspects of Down syndrome. Our hope is to encourage greater collaboration between the brain aging and Down syndrome research communities.
Glial and Neuronal Biology of the Aging Brain Symposium, Alana Down Syndrome Center and Aging Brain Initiative at Picower, MIT
The Aging Brain Initiative (ABI) is an interdisciplinary effort by MIT focusing on understanding neurodegeneration and discovery efforts to find hallmarks of aging, both in health and disease." "The Alana Down Syndrome Center (ADSC) aims to deepen knowledge about Down syndrome and to improve health, autonomy and inclusion of people with this genetic condition." "The ABI and the ADSC have joined forces for this year's symposium to highlight how aging-related changes to the brain overlap with neurological aspects of Down syndrome. Our hope is to encourage greater collaboration between the brain aging and Down syndrome research communities.
Neuroscience of socioeconomic status and poverty: Is it actionable?
SES neuroscience, using imaging and other methods, has revealed generalizations of interest for population neuroscience and the study of individual differences. But beyond its scientific interest, SES is a topic of societal importance. Does neuroscience offer any useful insights for promoting socioeconomic justice and reducing the harms of poverty? In this talk I will use research from my own lab and others’ to argue that SES neuroscience has the potential to contribute to policy in this area, although its application is premature at present. I will also attempt to forecast the ways in which practical solutions to the problems of poverty may emerge from SES neuroscience. Bio: Martha Farah has conducted groundbreaking research on face and object recognition, visual attention, mental imagery, and semantic memory and - in more recent times - has been at the forefront of interdisciplinary research into neuroscience and society. This deals with topics such as using fMRI for lie detection, ethics of cognitive enhancement, and effects of social deprivation on brain development.
Brain and behavioural impacts of early life adversity
Abuse, neglect, and other forms of uncontrollable stress during childhood and early adolescence can lead to adverse outcomes later in life, including especially perturbations in the regulation of mood and emotional states, and specifically anxiety disorders and depression. However, stress experiences vary from one individual to the next, meaning that causal relationships and mechanistic accounts are often difficult to establish in humans. This interdisciplinary talk considers the value of research in experimental animals where stressor experiences can be tightly controlled and detailed investigations of molecular, cellular, and circuit-level mechanisms can be carried out. The talk will focus on the widely used repeated maternal separation procedure in rats where rat offspring are repeatedly separated from maternal care during early postnatal life. This early life stress has remarkably persistent effects on behaviour with a general recognition that maternally-deprived animals are susceptible to depressive-like phenotypes. The validity of this conclusion will be critically appraised with convergent insights from a recent longitudinal study in maternally separated rats involving translational brain imaging, transcriptomics, and behavioural assessment.
Interdisciplinary College
The Interdisciplinary College is an annual spring school which offers a dense state-of-the-art course program in neurobiology, neural computation, cognitive science/psychology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics and philosophy. It is aimed at students, postgraduates and researchers from academia and industry. This year's focus theme "Flexibility" covers (but not be limited to) the nervous system, the mind, communication, and AI & robotics. All this will be packed into a rich, interdisciplinary program of single- and multi-lecture courses, and less traditional formats.
NMC4 Short Talk: Neural Representation: Bridging Neuroscience and Philosophy
We understand the brain in representational terms. E.g., we understand spatial navigation by appealing to the spatial properties that hippocampal cells represent, and the operations hippocampal circuits perform on those representations (Moser et al., 2008). Philosophers have been concerned with the nature of representation, and recently neuroscientists entered the debate, focusing specifically on neural representations. (Baker & Lansdell, n.d.; Egan, 2019; Piccinini & Shagrir, 2014; Poldrack, 2020; Shagrir, 2001). We want to know what representations are, how to discover them in the brain, and why they matter so much for our understanding of the brain. Those questions are framed in a traditional philosophical way: we start with explanations that use representational notions, and to more deeply understand those explanations we ask, what are representations — what is the definition of representation? What is it for some bit of neural activity to be a representation? I argue that there is an alternative, and much more fruitful, approach. Rather than asking what representations are, we should ask what the use of representational *notions* allows us to do in neuroscience — what thinking in representational terms helps scientists do or explain. I argue that this framing offers more fruitful ground for interdisciplinary collaboration by distinguishing the philosophical concerns that have a place in neuroscience from those that don’t (namely the definitional or metaphysical questions about representation). And I argue for a particular view of representational notions: they allow us to impose the structure of one domain onto another as a model of its causal structue. So, e.g., thinking about the hippocampus as representing spatial properties is a way of taking structures in those spatial properties, and projecting those structures (and algorithms that would implement them) them onto the brain as models of its causal structure.
NMC4 Short Talk: Resilience through diversity: Loss of neuronal heterogeneity in epileptogenic human tissue impairs network resilience to sudden changes in synchrony
A myriad of pathological changes associated with epilepsy, including the loss of specific cell types, improper expression of individual ion channels, and synaptic sprouting, can be recast as decreases in cell and circuit heterogeneity. In recent experimental work, we demonstrated that biophysical diversity is a key characteristic of human cortical pyramidal cells, and past theoretical work has shown that neuronal heterogeneity improves a neural circuit’s ability to encode information. Viewed alongside the fact that seizure is an information-poor brain state, these findings motivate the hypothesis that epileptogenesis can be recontextualized as a process where reduction in cellular heterogeneity renders neural circuits less resilient to seizure onset. By comparing whole-cell patch clamp recordings from layer 5 (L5) human cortical pyramidal neurons from epileptogenic and non-epileptogenic tissue, we present the first direct experimental evidence that a significant reduction in neural heterogeneity accompanies epilepsy. We directly implement experimentally-obtained heterogeneity levels in cortical excitatory-inhibitory (E-I) stochastic spiking network models. Low heterogeneity networks display unique dynamics typified by a sudden transition into a hyper-active and synchronous state paralleling ictogenesis. Mean-field analysis reveals a distinct mathematical structure in these networks distinguished by multi-stability. Furthermore, the mathematically characterized linearizing effect of heterogeneity on input-output response functions explains the counter-intuitive experimentally observed reduction in single-cell excitability in epileptogenic neurons. This joint experimental, computational, and mathematical study showcases that decreased neuronal heterogeneity exists in epileptogenic human cortical tissue, that this difference yields dynamical changes in neural networks paralleling ictogenesis, and that there is a fundamental explanation for these dynamics based in mathematically characterized effects of heterogeneity. These interdisciplinary results provide convincing evidence that biophysical diversity imbues neural circuits with resilience to seizure and a new lens through which to view epilepsy, the most common serious neurological disorder in the world, that could reveal new targets for clinical treatment.
Visualizing the multi-scale complexity of the brain
The brain is complex over multiple length-scales, from many protein molecules forming intricate nano-machines in a synapse to many neurons forming interconnected networks across the brain. Unraveling this multi-scale complexity is fundamental to our understanding of brain function and disease. In this lecture, I will introduce advances in visualizing the complex, multi-scale structures in the brain. Emphasis will be on new imaging techniques, including cryo electron tomography and correlative light-electron microscopy that enabled revealing in situ organization of synaptic molecules, and ultra-high speed volumetric imaging method VISoR developed to map brain-wide circuits at subcellular resolution. I will also discuss challenges and opportunities for interdisciplinary research collaboration to analyze and understand the enormous data generated by these cutting-edge technologies.
Irruption theory of consciousness
Tom Froese is Assistant Professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), where he heads the Embodied Cognitive Science Unit. He is a cognitive scientist with a background in phenomenological philosophy, human-computer interaction, and complex systems theory. His interdisciplinary research centers on the role of agent-environment interaction in shaping cognition and consciousness, specifically when the interaction process involves sociality and technology. In this talk he will present current work in progress on “irruption theory”, a new theory of consciousness that integrates an embodied-enactive account of basic mind with radical formulations of the freedom and efficacy of intentional agency.
The quest for the cortical algorithm
The cortical algorithm hypothesis states that there is one common computational framework to solve diverse cognitive problems such as vision, voice recognition and motion control. In my talk, I propose a strategy to guide the search for this algorithm and I present a few ideas on how some of its components might look like. I'll explain why a highly interdisciplinary approach is needed from neuroscience, computer science, mathematics and physics to make further progress in this important question.
Virtual launch and webinar: Magnetic Particle Imaging at Monash University
Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) is a new non-invasive imaging technique with significantly increased sensitivity over MRI and faster acquisition times than PET and MRI. The MPI capability at the Alfred Research Alliance - Monash Biomedical Imaging site in Melbourne, Australia, is the world’s first MPI system with Computed Tomography (CT) and Hyperthermia capabilities. It provides unique capabilities that open the door to cutting-edge opportunities for interdisciplinary projects in medical research, chemistry and biotechnology. The webinar will involve: * official launch of Magnetic Particle Imaging at Monash University * the MPI system supplier, Magnetic Insight, discussing the world first technology and its potential * presentations from key researchers outlining MPI applications and the benefits of utilising the technology.
A developmental-cognitive perspective on the impact of adolescent social media use
Concerns about the impact of social media use on adolescent well-being and mental health are common. While the amount of research in this area has increased rapidly over the last 5 years, most outputs are still marred by a multitude of limitations. These shortcomings have left our understanding of social media effects severely limited, holding back both scientific discovery and policy interventions. This talk discusses how developmental, cognitive and neuroscientific approaches might provide a new and improved way of studying social media effects. It will detail new studies in support of this idea, and raise potential avenues for collaborative work across the Cambridge Neuroscience community. As the digital world now (re)shapes what it means for us to live, communicate and develop, only an interdisciplinary approach will allow us to truly understand its impacts.
European University for Brain and Technology Virtual Opening
The European University for Brain and Technology, NeurotechEU, is opening its doors on the 16th of December. From health & healthcare to learning & education, Neuroscience has a key role in addressing some of the most pressing challenges that we face in Europe today. Whether the challenge is the translation of fundamental research to advance the state of the art in prevention, diagnosis or treatment of brain disorders or explaining the complex interactions between the brain, individuals and their environments to design novel practices in cities, schools, hospitals, or companies, brain research is already providing solutions for society at large. There has never been a branch of study that is as inter- and multi-disciplinary as Neuroscience. From the humanities, social sciences and law to natural sciences, engineering and mathematics all traditional disciplines in modern universities have an interest in brain and behaviour as a subject matter. Neuroscience has a great promise to become an applied science, to provide brain-centred or brain-inspired solutions that could benefit the society and kindle a new economy in Europe. The European University of Brain and Technology (NeurotechEU) aims to be the backbone of this new vision by bringing together eight leading universities, 250+ partner research institutions, companies, societal stakeholders, cities, and non-governmental organizations to shape education and training for all segments of society and in all regions of Europe. We will educate students across all levels (bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral as well as life-long learners) and train the next generation multidisciplinary scientists, scholars and graduates, provide them direct access to cutting-edge infrastructure for fundamental, translational and applied research to help Europe address this unmet challenge.
Low dimensional models and electrophysiological experiments to study neural dynamics in songbirds
Birdsong emerges when a set of highly interconnected brain areas manage to generate a complex output. The similarities between birdsong production and human speech have positioned songbirds as unique animal models for studying learning and production of this complex motor skill. In this work, we developed a low dimensional model for a neural network in which the variables were the average activities of different neural populations within the nuclei of the song system. This neural network is active during production, perception and learning of birdsong. We performed electrophysiological experiments to record neural activity from one of these nuclei and found that the low dimensional model could reproduce the neural dynamics observed during the experiments. Also, this model could reproduce the respiratory motor patterns used to generate song. We showed that sparse activity in one of the neural nuclei could drive a more complex activity downstream in the neural network. This interdisciplinary work shows how low dimensional neural models can be a valuable tool for studying the emergence of complex motor tasks
3rd Annual Conference on Quantitative Approaches in Biology
This conference is a free event that includes a range of activities to stimulate the cross-fertilization of ideas, including invited speaker talks, workshops, micro talks, an undergraduate research competition, a contest to discover mathematical questions in biology, and plenty of networking opportunities. Today's speakers: Cassandra Extavour, William Bialek, Amy Shyer, Ankur Saxena, Jie Liang
3rd Annual Conference on Quantitative Approaches in Biology
This conference is a free event that includes a range of activities to stimulate the cross-fertilization of ideas, including invited speaker talks, workshops, micro talks, an undergraduate research competition, a contest to discover mathematical questions in biology, and plenty of networking opportunities. Today's speakers: Nathalie Dostatni, Christopher Obara, Hernan Garcia, Aaron Dinner, David Lubensky, Jianping Fu
An interdisciplinary perspective on motor augmentation from neuroscience and design
By studying the neural correlates of hand augmentation, we are exploring the boundaries of neuroplasticity seeing how it can be harnessed to improve the usability and control of prosthetic devices. Tamar Makin and Dani Clode each discuss their research and perspectives within the field of prosthetics that has led to this unique collaboration and exploration of motor augmentation and the brain.
Aging Brain Initiative Symposium: Cellular & Molecular Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration
The Aging Brain Initiative is an ambitious interdisciplinary effort by MIT focusing on understanding neurodegeneration and efforts to find hallmarks of aging, both in health and disease. The Initiative is broad, made up of scientists in several areas, including systems neuroscience, cell biology, engineering and computational biology, with core investigators from the Departments of Biology, Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Biological Engineering, and Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Labs. "The theme of this symposium is Cellular & Molecular Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration.
MidsummerBrains - computational neuroscience from my point of view
Computational neuroscience is a highly interdisciplinary field ranging from mathematics, physics and engineering to biology, medicine and psychology. Interdisciplinary collaborations have resulted in many groundbreaking innovations both in the research and application. The basis for successful collaborations is the ability to communicate across disciplines: What projects are the others working on? Which techniques and methods are they using? How is data collected, used and stored? In this webinar series, several experts describe their view on computational neuroscience in theory and application, and share experiences they had with interdisciplinary projects. This webinar is open for all interested students and researchers. If you are interested to participate live, please send a short message to smartstart@fz-juelich.de Please note, these lectures will be recorded for subsequent publishing as online lecture material.
Computational models of neural development
Unlike even the most sophisticated current forms of artificial intelligence, developing biological organisms must build their neural hardware from scratch. Furthermore they must start to evade predators and find food before this construction process is complete. I will discuss an interdisciplinary program of mathematical and experimental work which addresses some of the computational principles underlying neural development. This includes (i) how growing axons navigate to their targets by detecting and responding to molecular cues in their environment, (ii) the formation of maps in the visual cortex and how these are influenced by visual experience, and (iii) how patterns of neural activity in the zebrafish brain develop to facilitate precisely targeted hunting behaviour. Together this work contributes to our understanding of both normal neural development and the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders.
MidsummerBrains - computational neuroscience from my point of view
Computational neuroscience is a highly interdisciplinary field ranging from mathematics, physics and engineering to biology, medicine and psychology. Interdisciplinary collaborations have resulted in many groundbreaking innovations both in the research and application. The basis for successful collaborations is the ability to communicate across disciplines: What projects are the others working on? Which techniques and methods are they using? How is data collected, used and stored? In this webinar series, several experts describe their view on computational neuroscience in theory and application, and share experiences they had with interdisciplinary projects. This webinar is open for all interested students and researchers. If you are interested to participate live, please send a short message to smartstart@fz-juelich.de Please note, these lectures will be recorded for subsequent publishing as online lecture material.
MidsummerBrains - computational neuroscience from my point of view
Computational neuroscience is a highly interdisciplinary field ranging from mathematics, physics and engineering to biology, medicine and psychology. Interdisciplinary collaborations have resulted in many groundbreaking innovations both in the research and application. The basis for successful collaborations is the ability to communicate across disciplines: What projects are the others working on? Which techniques and methods are they using? How is data collected, used and stored? In this webinar series, several experts describe their view on computational neuroscience in theory and application, and share experiences they had with interdisciplinary projects. This webinar is open for all interested students and researchers. If you are interested to participate live, please send a short message to smartstart@fz-juelich.de Please note, these lectures will be recorded for subsequent publishing as online lecture material.
MidsummerBrains - computational neuroscience from my point of view
Computational neuroscience is a highly interdisciplinary field ranging from mathematics, physics and engineering to biology, medicine and psychology. Interdisciplinary collaborations have resulted in many groundbreaking innovations both in the research and application. The basis for successful collaborations is the ability to communicate across disciplines: What projects are the others working on? Which techniques and methods are they using? How is data collected, used and stored? In this webinar series, several experts describe their view on computational neuroscience in theory and application, and share experiences they had with interdisciplinary projects. This webinar is open for all interested students and researchers. If you are interested to participate live, please send a short message to smartstart@fz-juelich.de Please note, these lectures will be recorded for subsequent publishing as online lecture material.
MidsummerBrains - computational neuroscience from my point of view
Computational neuroscience is a highly interdisciplinary field ranging from mathematics, physics and engineering to biology, medicine and psychology. Interdisciplinary collaborations have resulted in many groundbreaking innovations both in the research and application. The basis for successful collaborations is the ability to communicate across disciplines: What projects are the others working on? Which techniques and methods are they using? How is data collected, used and stored? In this webinar series, several experts describe their view on computational neuroscience in theory and application, and share experiences they had with interdisciplinary projects. This webinar is open for all interested students and researchers. If you are interested to participate live, please send a short message to smartstart@fz-juelich.de Please note, these lectures will be recorded for subsequent publishing as online lecture material.
MidsummerBrains - computational neuroscience from my point of view
Computational neuroscience is a highly interdisciplinary field ranging from mathematics, physics and engineering to biology, medicine and psychology. Interdisciplinary collaborations have resulted in many groundbreaking innovations both in the research and application. The basis for successful collaborations is the ability to communicate across disciplines: What projects are the others working on? Which techniques and methods are they using? How is data collected, used and stored? In this webinar series, several experts describe their view on computational neuroscience in theory and application, and share experiences they had with interdisciplinary projects. This webinar is open for all interested students and researchers. If you are interested to participate live, please send a short message to smartstart@fz-juelich.de Please note, these lectures will be recorded for subsequent publishing as online lecture material.
Novel interdisciplinary intervention approach: Nurturing neuroplasticity through spontaneous unfolding movements
FENS Forum 2024