Workshop: "Modulation and Modification of Sensor-Motor Coupling" in Stirling, Scotland, Feb. 22-24, 2002 (fwd)

[Bernd Porr]

sorry for duplicate postings

Modulation and Modification of Sensor-Motor Coupling

Workshop at Stirling University, Feb. 22-24, 2002.

This workshop will bring together scientists from different fields, from
experimental and theoretical neuroscientists to robotics researchers, who
are interested issues of sensor-motor coupling, (temporal sequence)
learning and modulation of sensory-motor pathways.

The traditional view of sensor-motor systems, which describes them by
means of a non-linear transfer function used to transform the sensor
input(s) into a motor action, has been replaced during the last years by a
more sophisticated view. For some time it has been acknowledged that such
systems can be modified by learning and substantial research has been
undertaken to understand the underlying neuronal mechanisms. More
recently, aspects of motivation and/or attention driven modulation of the
efficiency of sensor-motor coupling have also been investigated.
Especially, it has been realized that all sensor-motor systems (all
animals) interact with their immediate surroundings forming a closed loop
with the environment, which adds to the complexity of the problem.

All this shows that a multi-disciplinary approach is necessary in trying
to solve the "sensor-motor coupling problem" and therefore, the main
objective of the forthcoming workshop at Stirling is to facilitate the
discussion between researchers from different fields in sensor-motor
coupling. To that end the workshop will consist of a number of invited
talks, with plenty of time allowed for discussion. So far the following
researchers have agreed to speak:

Holk Cruse
Ansgar Büschges
Peter Dayan
Benard Hommel
Orjan Ekeberg
David Wolpert
Jeff Krichmar
Paul Verschure

Attendance at the workshop is open to all interested participants. We
would, however, appreciate using our web-form

http://www.cn.stir.ac.uk/SensMot/

to give us some personal details to facilitate organization.

Organizers:

Barbara Webb (b.h.webb at stir.ac.uk) &
Florentin Wörgötter (worgott at cn.stir.ac.uk)

Dept. of Psychology and INCITE
University of Stirling
Scotland, UK

Webmaster:
Bernd Porr (bp1 at cn.stir.ac.uk)