Connectionists: Call for abstracts: COSYNE Workshop “Spiking Networks and Reinforcement Learning”

[Eugene M. Izhikevich]

COSYNE 2008 2-day Workshop Announcement/Call for Abstract
Spiking Networks and Reinforcement Learning

ORGANIZERS:
Botond.Szatmary at nsi.edu
Eugene.Izhikevich at nsi.edu

SPEAKERS:
Michael Hasselmo
Moshe Abeles
Peter Latham
Wulfram Gerstner
Walter Senn
Gloster Aaron
Ken Harris
Guoqiang Bi
Sebastian Seung
Florentin Worgotter
Maxim Bazhenov
Eugene Izhikevich

DESCRIPTION
This two-day workshop will bring together eminent experimental 
biologists and theoretical scientists to discuss learning in spiking 
networks. There have been abundant experimental and theoretical results 
on the dynamics of spiking neurons and networks, emphasizing the 
importance of precise firing patterns. Likewise, reinforcement learning 
has a long history as a research topic in machine learning. However, 
there have only been a few attempts to connect this theory to 
neuroscience and express reinforcement learning in a framework of 
spiking neurons. The goal of this workshop is to enable the participants 
to catch up on the most recent experimental data, to introduce new 
theories, and to see if we can bring the theory and experimental data 
more closely into agreement with each other.

There is a possibility to include a few more speakers. Please, submit 
your abstract to Botond.Szatmary at nsi.edu. Deadline for submission: 
Thursday, January 31, 2008.

The talks will be 30 minutes long with 10-15 minutes additional 
discussion time.
For further details and updated information please visit the 
http://cosyne.org/ and 
http://cosyne.org/wiki/Cosyne08_Spiking_Networks_and_Reinforcement_Learning 
web sites.

-- 
Eugene M. Izhikevich, Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology
PhD, Mathematics,           http://www.nsi.edu/users/izhikevich
The Neurosciences Institute,   Editor-in-Chief at scholarpedia.org
10640 John J. Hopkins Drive                  tel:(858) 626-2063
San Diego, CA, 92121,   USA                  fax:(858) 626-2099