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<blockquote class="pullquote"><img class="image-inline"
src="cid:part1.08070001.03000000@fu-berlin.de"></blockquote>
<b>4th Bernstein Sparks Workshop: Beyond Mean-Field Theory in the</b><b><br>
</b><b>Neurosciences</b><br>
<br>
June 3-5, 2015<br>
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization<br>
Göttingen, Germany<br>
</div>
<div align="center"><a
href="http://www.nncn.de/en/news/events/bernstein-sparks-workshop-mean-field-theory"
class="">Bernstein Workshop website link</a><br>
</div>
<br>
<p style="text-align: left; ">A theoretical understanding of neural
activity in the brain requires powerful mathematical techniques
capable of handling a nonlinear and noisy behavior. Throughout the
past decades, many approaches originally developed for theoretical
physics were adapted for problems in the neurosciences. Perhaps
one of the most successful techniques to be refitted is the
so-called mean-field theory for population dynamics pioneered by
Wilson and Cowan in 1972. The Wilson‐Cowan approach was
instrumental to many key findings and predictions in computational
neuroscience. Later on, the theory was extended with the inclusion
of second-order statistics by van Vreeswijik and Sompolinski
(1996) describing the observed irregular activity of excitatory
and inhibitory neurons in cortex, so-called the balanced state.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p style="text-align: left; ">Although adapted mean‐field approaches
are successful in providing a good base for many experimental and
theoretical observations, their limited “averaging” scope fails to
capture many important features of populations dynamics. For
instance, phenomena that include spike dependent learning rules or
network dynamics driven by external stimulations remain elusive.
Moreover, it is unclear what mathematical techniques are needed to
address these shortcomings.<br>
<br>
This workshop will focus on the inherent difficulties of neural
population dynamics problems and newly arising research topics.
The meeting aims to serve as a forum for key researchers working
with mean-field approaches and/or their emerging alternatives to
exchange their tools and views.</p>
<br>
The workshop will be limited to about 40 people, the hope being to
provide an ample possibility of interaction and discussions.<br>
<br>
<br>
Confirmed speakers:<br>
Yonatan Aljadeff (UCSD, USA)<br>
Carson C. Chow (NIH, USA)<br>
John Hertz (Niels Bohr Institute, Denmark)<br>
Brigit Kriener (U of Texas, USA)<br>
Benjamin Lindner (BCCN and HU Berlin, Germany)<br>
Duane Nykamp (U of Minnesota, USA)<br>
Kanaka Rajan (Princeton U, USA)<br>
Alfonso Renart (Champalimaud, Portugal)<br>
Yasser Roudi (Kavli Institute, Norway)<br>
Wilhelm Stannat (BCCN und TU Berlin, Germany)<br>
Merav Stern (Columbia U, USA)<br>
Mark Timme (BCCN and MPI-DS Göttingen, Germany)<br>
Jonathan Touboul (INRIA, France)<br>
Carl van Vreeswijk (CNRS, France)<br>
Fred Wolf (BCCN and MPI-DS Göttingen, Germany)<br>
<br>
<br>
Please find further information under the following link:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.nncn.de/en/news/events/bernstein-sparks-workshop-mean-field-theory">www.nncn.de/en/news/events/bernstein-sparks-workshop-mean-field-theory</a><br>
<br>
<br>
Bests regards,<br>
Farzad Farkhooi (Institut für Mathematik, Technische Universität<br>
Berlin and BCCN Berlin, Germany)<br>
Guillaume Lajoie (University of Washington Institute for<br>
Neuroengineering, Seattle, US and MPI-DS & BCCN Göttingen,
Göttingen,<br>
Germany)<br>
<br>
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