From giulio.sandini at iit.it Sun Jan 3 12:05:27 2010 From: giulio.sandini at iit.it (Giulio Sandini) Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2010 18:05:27 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: "Vincenzo Tagliasco" - Post-doc Fellowship "Vision for the Blind" Message-ID: <004101ca8c96$f28165f0$d78431d0$@sandini@iit.it> "Vincenzo Tagliasco" POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP ON VISION RESEARCH FOR THE BLIND This is to announce the availability of a post-doctoral fellowship for research in the field of vision from a neuroscience, cognitive sciences and engineering perspective to improve the autonomy of blind and low-vision persons in private and professional life. The fellowship is sponsored by the David Chiossone Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Department of Communication Computer and System Sciences of the University of Genoa, the Italian Union of the Blind, and the Municipality of Genoa, Italy in memoriam of Prof. Vincenzo Tagliasco and in celebration of the 2nd centenary of Louis Braille?s birth. The fellowship of ? 20,000 will have a duration of 10-18 months and will support the salary of a researcher holding a Ph.D. or a graduate student attending the last year of a Ph.D. course. Candidates are eligible regardless of sex and nationality, if younger than 35 years yrs. at time of application. To stimulate cross-fertilization of Genoa's research activities, a special rule of the fellowship is that applicants should be either graduates from the University of Genoa who propose to carry out research elsewhere, or graduates from any other university who propose a program to be carried out at the University or in Research Institutes or Industries in Genoa. The research project, in the field of neuroscience and vision engineering, must be dedicated to developing prostheses, equipments or tools for the blind or the visually impaired to improve personal interaction, social integration, education, autonomy in private and professional life. Application must include: CV, PhD certification or certified attendance to the last PhD year, a detailed research project, a formal statement from the host Institute accepting the project and indicating a local tutor, scientific publications, a statement excluding conflicts of interest or parallel funding. Arrange for two letters of reference to be sent independently. Deadline is March 31st, 2010. Applications or questions should be sent to bandi at chiossone.it A specifically appointed selection committee will evaluate the applications on the basis of scientific relevance and feasibility and the applicant and hosting Institute qualifications. No grant will be awarded in case no application meets the requirements. The winner must accept formally within 2 weeks; the research project must be started and operative by September, 30th, 2010. See www.chiossone.it to download the full text of the call for applications. The David Chiossone Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Corso Armellini 11, 16122 Genova, Italy, tel. 0039-010-83421, fax ++8311414. www.chiossone.it --- Prof. Giulio Sandini Italian Institute of Technology Head: Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department Phone: +39 010 7178101 - Fax +39 010 720321 and LIRA-Lab, University of Genova Phone: +39 0103532779 - Fax: +39 010353.2948 http://www.liralab.it http://sandini.liralab.it -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100103/f32942da/attachment.html From erik at oist.jp Mon Jan 4 00:41:56 2010 From: erik at oist.jp (Erik De Schutter) Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 14:41:56 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: Okinawa Computational Neuroscience Course 2010: Application form available Message-ID: OKINAWA COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE COURSE 2010 Methods, Neurons, Networks and Behaviors June 13 - July 2, 2010. Okinawa, Japan http://www.irp.oist.jp/ocnc/2010 The aim of the Okinawa Computational Neuroscience Course is to provide opportunities for young researchers with theoretical backgrounds to learn the latest advances in neuroscience, and for those with experimental backgrounds to have hands-on experience in computational modeling. We invite graduate students and postgraduate researchers to participate in the course, held from June 13th through July 2nd, 2010 at an oceanfront seminar house of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Applications are through the course web page only; they will close February 15th, 2010. Applicants are required to propose a project at the time of application. Applicants will receive confirmation of acceptance in March. Like in preceding years, OCNC will be a comprehensive three-week course covering single neurons, networks, and behaviors with ample time for student projects. The first week will focus exclusively on methods with hands-on tutorials during the afternoons, while the second and third weeks will have lectures by international experts. We invite those who are interested in integrating experimental and computational approaches at each level, as well as in bridging different levels of complexity. The sponsor will provide lodging and meals during the course and support travel for those without funding. We hope that this course will be a good opportunity for theoretical and experimental neuroscientists to meet each other and to explore the attractive nature and culture of Okinawa, the southernmost island prefecture of Japan. Invited faculty: ? Amari, Shun-Ichi ? Arbuthnott, Gordon ? Brette, Romain ? Dayan, Peter ? De Schutter, Erik ? Doya, Kenji ? Gutkin, Boris ? Izhikevich, Eugene ? Kawato, Mitsuo ? Kn?pfel, Thomas ? Kotaleski, Jeanette ? Nicolelis, Miguel ? Obermayer, Klaus ? Sharpee, Tatyana ? Spruston, Nelson ? Stiefel, Klaus ? Thomson, Alex From kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Mon Jan 4 10:11:13 2010 From: kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 16:11:13 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: ADVANCED COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE Message-ID: <008a01ca8d50$28387850$78a968f0$@uni-freiburg.de> ADVANCED COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE, 15th Edition. (A FENS-IBRO/Bernstein Training Center) Applications open August 2-27, 2010 Freiburg, Germany SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS: * John Rinzel (New York University, New York, USA) * Peter Latham (Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL, UK) * Yifat Prut (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) * Carl van Vreeswijk (CNRS, Universit? Paris Descartes, France) ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTORS: * Florence Dancoisne & Gunnar Grah (Bernstein Center Freiburg, Germany) For its third and final year, the Advanced Course in Computational Neuroscience (ACCN) will be held this summer in Freiburg in the Southwest of Germany. The ACCN is for advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are interested in learning the essentials of the field of computational neuroscience. The course has two complementary parts. Mornings are devoted to lectures given by distinguished international faculty on topics across the breadth of experimental and computational neuroscience. During the rest of the day, students pursue a project of their choosing under the close supervision of expert tutors. This gives them practical training in the art and practice of neural modeling. The first week of the course introduces students to essential neurobiological concepts and to the most important techniques in modeling single cells, synapses and circuits. Students learn how to solve their research problems using software such as MATLAB, NEST, NEURON, Python, XPP, etc. During the following three weeks the lectures cover networks and specific neural systems and functions. Topics range from modeling single cells and subcellular processes through the simulation of simple circuits, large neuronal networks and system level models of the brain. The course ends with project presentations by the students. In addition, we will offer three internships to ACCN students. These fully funded internships will allow students to work, post-ACCN, on a research project in a faculty member?s lab for up to three months. Applications for internships will be considered after the ACCN. The course is designed for students from a variety of disciplines, including neuroscience, physics, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics and psychology. Students are expected to have a keen interest and basic background in neurobiology as well as some computer experience. Students of any nationality can apply. A maximum of 30 students will be accepted. The current fee for the course will be EUR 500; this will cover tuition, lodging, breakfast and dinner. There will be a limited number of course fee scholarships and travel stipends available for students who need financial help for attending the course. We specifically encourage applications from researchers who work in the developing world. Applications for the ACCN, including a description of the target project, must be submitted electronically (see below) and will need to be accompanied by the names and email details of two referees who have agreed to furnish references. Applicants will need to ensure that their referees have submitted their references. Applications will be assessed by a committee, with selection being based on the following criteria: the scientific quality of the candidate (CV) and of the project, the recommendation letters, and evidence that the course will afford substantial benefit to the candidate. Please apply electronically using a web browser. For more information and access to the application database go to: http://www.neuroinf.org/courses/accn.html Contact address: * Fiona Siegfried Bernstein Center Freiburg Albert-Ludwigs-Universit?t Freiburg Hansastrasse 9A 79104 Freiburg Germany * email: accn at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Application deadline: April 2, 2010 Deadline for letters of recommendation: April 2, 2010 Notification of results: April 30, 2010 INVITED FACULTY (* = confirmed) Ad Aertsen, Freiburg (*) Hagai Bergman, Jerusalem Nathaniel Daw, New York (*) Erik De Schutter, Okinawa (*) Alain Destexhe, Gif sur Yvette (*) Zhaoping Li, London (*) Gianluigi Mongillo, Paris (*) Yael Niv, Princeton (*) Jonathan Pillow, London (*) Idan Segev, Jerusalem (*) Alex Thomson, London Matt Tresch, Evanston (*) Mark Van Rossum, Edinburgh Fred Wolf, G?ttingen (*) INVITED TUTORS Farzad Farkhooi, FU Berlin, Germany Pablo Jercog, Columbia U, USA Shaul Druckmann, Hebrew U, Israel Sukbin Lim, NYU, USA SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR Bernd Wiebelt, U. Freiburg, Germany From tt at cs.dal.ca Mon Jan 4 09:39:46 2010 From: tt at cs.dal.ca (Thomas Trappenberg) Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 10:39:46 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Ph.D. studentship in Computational Neuroscience in Canada Message-ID: <4cd6fb751001040639w2a70d6f5w2943c730d4a6cc49@mail.gmail.com> Ph.D. position in Canada I have a Ph.D. position available in my group at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. The main research focus of my group is computational neuroscience with an emphasis on deep believe networks, plasticity, and brain structures involved in the generation of eye movements including the basal ganglia. We are actively collaborating with physiologists and psychologists at Dalhousie University and Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Halifax is on the east coast of Canada and the capital of the province Nova Scotia. It is a great place to live and to study. Please don't hesitate to contact me (tt at cs.dal.ca) if you have further questions. For details on the application process please see http://www.cs.dal.ca/graduate. Dr. Thomas Trappenberg Professor Faculty of Computer Science 6050 University Avenue Dalhousie University -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100104/1ab93ad3/attachment-0001.html From smarco at el.ub.es Mon Jan 4 12:11:13 2010 From: smarco at el.ub.es (santiago marco) Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 18:11:13 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: call for papers: Computational Intelligence for Artificial Sensing: Olfaction and Touch Message-ID: World Conference on Computational Intelligence, July 18-23, Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain Related Conference: International Joint Conference on Neural Networks 2010 Call for papers for Special Session: Computational Intelligence for Artificial Sensing: Olfaction and Touch * * *Scope:** * Recently there has been an renewed research activity in the field of biologically inspired computation for artificial sensing. While vision and hearing have received a great deal of attention in past decades, in new wave of research is being devoted to olfaction and hearing. Both olfaction and touch rely on large sensor arrays and both have an important component on signal and data processing, first in peripheral neural circuits and further on in higher cortical areas. On the other hand, while in vision and audition stimuli can be systematically varied by frequency; there is not an equivalent metric for olfaction. The relationship between odour and structure is hardly understood. Artificial Olfaction Systems combine an array of chemical sensors with partial specificity with pattern recognition systems for complex odour detection and identification. While the concept is more than 30 years old, most of the attention has been devoted to chemical sensor technology. Since the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for Linda Buck and Richard Axel in 2004 for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system, the research link to biology and to the psychophysics of olfaction has been strengthened. In this sense, the field of computational intelligence for artificial sensing is growing fast. The new trend is not just to build computational neuroscience models of olfaction and touch, but to construct engineered artefacts where the operation of those models can be tested and validated. However, this path is just starting. The aim of the special session is to present latest?s advances in computational intelligence for Artificial Olfaction and Touch. The session will mainly focus on biologically inspired algorithms, although statistical learning techniques are also considered. *Topics:* We encourage submissions addressing the following issues: - Large sensor arrays: chemical and mechanical - Sensor diversity and redundancy - Noise reduction techniques - Computational models of olfaction and touch - Computational Intelligence Techniques applied to Olfaction and Tactile Data - Analysis of biological data with computational intelligence tools. - Psychophysics of Touch and Olfaction: Scenarios for algorithm testing. - Benchmarking of Artificial Sensing Systems - Robots with Olfactory/Tactile capabilities. - Active Chemical/Mechanical Sensing - Embedded algorithmic implementation for real-time operation. *Paper submission* All instructions and templates for submission can be found in the WCCI'10 web site (http://www.wcci2010.org/submission). Please, contact to the special session organizers if you are planning to submit any paper. *Important Dates* Deadline for paper submission January 31, 2010 Notification of acceptance March 15, 2010 Final Paper Submission May 2, 2010 *Organizers* - Santiago Marco, Institut for BioEngineering of Catalonia & Universitat de Barcelona, Spain, smarco at el.ub.es - Agust?n Gutierrez, Institut for BioEngineering of Catalonia & Universitat de Barcelona, Spain, agutierrez at el.ub.es - Tony J Prescott, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, t.j.prescott at sheffield.ac.uk Dr. Santiago Marco Intelligent Signal Processing Department of Electronics University of Barcelona Mart? i Franqu?s 1 08028-Barcelona http://isp.el.ub.es http://www.el.ub.es Artificial Olfaction Lab Institute for BioEngineering of Catalonia http://www.ibecbarcelona.eu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100104/a9887e49/attachment.html From Igor.Aizenberg at tamut.edu Mon Jan 4 15:11:32 2010 From: Igor.Aizenberg at tamut.edu (Igor Aizenberg) Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 14:11:32 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Final Call for Papers - Special Session on Complex-Valued Neural Networks at 2010 WCCI/IJCNN Message-ID: <4F8B1B563B7C0946AE0EFCE1CBCCC539F33E20@bullwinkle.tamut.local> Dear colleagues, we are pleased to announce that a Special Session on Complex-Valued Neural Networks will be organized at the 2010 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN-2010), which this time will be a part of 2010 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence. The conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain on July 18-23, 2010. The deadline for paper submission is January 31, 2010. To submit a paper to the special session, please go to the IJCNN-2010 Paper Submission page http://ieee-cis.org/conferences/ijcnn2010/upload.php ?. Please, choose a Special Session S039 "Complex-Valued Neural Networks" from the "Main Research Topic" drop-down menu. To ensure that your paper will be submitted to our special session, please double check that you definitely choose this topic from the menu. All instructions, which you need to follow to prepare your manuscript, are given here http://www.wcci2010.org/submission Special sessions organizers: Igor Aizenberg (Texas A&M University-Texarkana, USA) Akira Hirose (University of Tokyo, Japan) Jacek M. Zurada (University of Louisville, USA) Session web page http://www.eagle.tamut.edu/faculty/igor/IJCNN_CVNN_Special_Session_Title.htm The Complex-Valued Neural Networks (CVNNs) is a quickly growing area that attracts more and more researchers. There is a line of the CVNN Special Sessions organized during last years, for example, at ICONIP 2002, Singapore, ICANN/ICONIP 2003, Istanbul, ICONIP 2004, Calcutta, WCCI-IJCNN 2006, Vancouver, "Fuzzy Days 2006", Dortmund, ICANN 2007, Porto, WCCI-IJCNN 2008, Hong Kong, IJCNN 2009, Atlanta. Everywhere these sessions had large audience, which is growing continuously. There were many interesting presentations and very productive discussions. There are several new directions in CVNNs development: from formal generalization of the commonly used algorithms to the complex-valued case that are mathematically beautiful to the use of original complex-valued activation functions that can increase significantly the neuron and network functionality. There are also many interesting applications of CVNNs in pattern recognition and classification, image processing, time series prediction, bioinformatics, robotics, etc. One of the most important characteristics of the CVNNs is the proper treatment of amplitude and phase information, e.g., the treatment of wave-related rotation-related phenomena such as electromagnetism, light waves, quantum waves and oscillatory phenomena. Very interesting among other CVNNs are those networks that are based on neurons with the phase-dependent activation functions. This specific phenomenon makes it possible to increase the single neuron's functionality and to design more flexible and more efficient networks. It is also very interesting to study how the CVNNs can be used in modeling of the biological neural networks. WCCI-IJCNN 2010 in Barcelona will be a very attractive forum, where it will be possible to organize a systematic and comprehensive exchange of ideas in the area, to present the recent research results and to discuss the future trends. We hope that the proposed session will attract not only the potential speakers, but many researches who can join the CVNNs community. We expect also that this session would be very beneficial for all computational intelligence researchers and other specialties that are in need of the sophisticated neural networks tools. Papers that are, or might be, related to all aspects of the CVNNs are invited. We welcome contributions, where a fundamental theory is developed, as well as contributions, where different applied problems are considered. We also welcome potential contributions form other areas that are on the boarders of the proposed scope. Topics include, but are not limited to: ? Theoretical Aspects of CVNNs and Complex-Valued Activation Functions ? Complex-Valued Associative Memories ? Dynamics of Complex-Valued Neurons ? Learning Algorithms for CVNNs ? Chaos in Complex Domain ? Feedforward CVNNs ? Pattern Recognition, Classification and Time Series Prediction using CVNNs ? Spatiotemporal CVNNs Processing ? Frequency Domain CVNNs Processing ? Phase-Sensitive Signal Processing ? Applications of CVNNs in Image Processing, Speech Processing and Bioinformatics ? Quantum Computation and Quantum Neural Networks ? CVNNs in Robotics ? Quaternion and Clifford Networks For more information you may contact session organizers Igor Aizenberg igor.aizenberg at tamut.edu Akira Hirose ahirose at ee.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp Jacek M. Zurada jacek.zurada at louisville.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100104/27b675d4/attachment-0001.html From mail at mkaiser.de Mon Jan 4 19:49:35 2010 From: mail at mkaiser.de (mail@mkaiser.de) Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 01:49:35 +0100 (MET) Subject: Connectionists: Final call: 4-year PhD programme in Systems Neuroscience (Newcastle University) Message-ID: <201001050049.o050nZpP003114@post.webmailer.de> Dear all, As the 17 January deadline is approaching, this is the final call for our Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD programme in systems neuroscience, aimed at applicants from the physical sciences (physics, engineering, mathematics, or computer science) starting their PhD studies in September 2010 (see below). Research areas include Neuroinformatics, Computational Neuroscience, Neuroimaging (fMRI, DTI, EEG, ECoG), Electrophysiology, Brain Connectivity, Clinical Research, Neural Development, and Brain Dynamics (simulations and time series analysis). Best, Marcus Systems Neuroscience: From Networks to Behaviour - sponsored by the Wellcome Trust Programme Directors: Prof Miles Whittington, Prof Tim Griffiths and Dr Marcus Kaiser The Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University integrates more than 100 principal investigators across medicine, psychology, computer science, and engineering. Research in systems, cellular, computational, and behavioural neuroscience. Laboratory facilities include auditory and visual psychophysics; rodent, monkey, and human neuroimaging (EEG, fMRI, PET); TMS; optical recording, multi-electrode neurophysiology, confocal and fluorescence imaging, high-throughput computing and e-science, artificial sensory-motor devices, clinical testing, and the only brain bank for molecular changes in human brain development The Wellcome Trust's Four-year PhD Programmes are a flagship scheme aimed at supporting the most promising students to undertake in-depth postgraduate research training. The first year combines taught courses with three laboratory rotations to broaden students' knowledge of the subject area. At the end of the first year, students will make an informed choice of their three-year PhD research project. This programme is based at Newcastle University and is aimed to provide specialised training for physical and computational scientists (e.g. physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and computer science) wishing to apply their skills to a research neuroscience career. Eligibility/Person Specification: Applicants should have, or expect to obtain, a 1st or 2:1 degree, or equivalent, in a physical sciences, engineering, mathematics or computing degree. Value of the award: Support includes a stipend for 4 years, PhD registration fees at UK/EU student rate, research expenses, general training funds and some travel costs. How to apply: You must apply through the University's online postgraduate application form (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/applications/index.htm) inserting the reference number ION64 and selecting PhD Faculty of Medical Sciences - Neuroscience (full time) as the programme of study. Only mandatory fields need to be completed (no personal statement required) and a covering letter, CV and (if English is not your first language) a copy of your English language qualifications must be attached. The covering letter must state the title of the studentship, quote the reference number ION64 and state how your interests and experience relate to the project. The deadline for receiving applications is 17 January 2010. You should also send your covering letter and CV to Scott MacMillan, Postgraduate Secretary, Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, or by email to scott.macmillan at ncl.ac.uk. For more information, see http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/postgrad/research/wellcome/ -- Marcus Kaiser, Ph.D. School of Computing Science Newcastle University Claremont Tower Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, U.K. Phone: +44 191 222 8161 Fax: +44 191 222 8232 http://www.biological-networks.org/ From steve at cns.bu.edu Thu Jan 7 17:44:16 2010 From: steve at cns.bu.edu (Stephen Grossberg) Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 17:44:16 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: How spiking dynamics form object groupings in the laminar circuits of visual cortex Message-ID: The following article is now available at http://cns.bu.edu/~steve Leveille, J., Versace, M., and Grossberg, S. Running as fast as it can: How spiking dynamics form object groupings in the laminar circuits of visual cortex. ABSTRACT: How spiking neurons cooperate to control behavioral processes is a fundamental problem in computational neuroscience. Such cooperative dynamics are required during visual perception when spatially distributed image fragments are grouped into emergent boundary contours. Perceptual grouping is a challenge for spiking cells because its properties of collinear facilitation and analog sensitivity occur in response to binary spikes with irregular timing across many interacting cells. Some models have demonstrated spiking dynamics in recurrent laminar neocortical circuits, but not how perceptual grouping occurs. Other models have analyzed the fast speed of certain percepts in terms of a single feedforward sweep of activity, but cannot explain other percepts, such as illusory contours, wherein perceptual ambiguity can take hundreds of milliseconds to resolve by integrating multiple spikes over time. The current model reconciles fast feedforward with slower feedback processing, and binary spikes with analog network-level properties, in a laminar cortical network of spiking cells whose emergent properties quantitatively simulate parametric data from neurophysiological experiments, including the formation of illusory contours; the structure of non-classical visual receptive fields; and self-synchronizing gamma oscillations. These laminar dynamics shed new light on how the brain resolves local informational ambiguities through the use of properly designed nonlinear feedback spiking networks which run as fast as they can, given the amount of uncertainty in the data that they process. KEYWORDS: perceptual grouping, laminar cortical circuit, spiking neuron, visual cortex, gamma oscillations, illusory contour, bipole cell -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100107/af053e0e/attachment.html From wsenn at cns.unibe.ch Fri Jan 8 10:23:50 2010 From: wsenn at cns.unibe.ch (Walter Senn) Date: Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:23:50 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Biological Cybernetics: vol 102, issue 1 Message-ID: <4B474E06.7030706@cns.unibe.ch> Biological Cybernetics: vol 102, issue 1 --- Table of Content Original papers: "Unfolding an electronic integrate-and-fire circuit" Humberto Carrillo & Frank Hoppensteadt http://www.springerlink.com/content/t602v33644104l51/ "Phase-linking and the perceived motion during off-vertical axis rotation" Jan E. Holly, Scott J. Wood & Gin McCollum http://www.springerlink.com/content/2858360vq6420716/ "Concurrent adaptation of force and impedance in the redundant muscle system" Keng Peng Tee, David W. Franklin, Mitsuo Kawato, Theodore E. Milner & Etienne Burdet http://www.springerlink.com/content/523307705623q652/ "A neural mechanism of synergy formation for whole body reaching" Pietro Morasso, Maura Casadio, Vishwanathan Mohan & Jacopo Zenzeri http://www.springerlink.com/content/a4x62613220w6765/ "Evaluating the effective connectivity of resting state networks using conditional Granger causality" Wei Liao, Dante Mantini, Zhiqiang Zhang, Zhengyong Pan, Jurong Ding, Qiyong Gong, Yihong Yang & Huafu Chen http://www.springerlink.com/content/v09lx5324v688388/ "Density-dependence of functional development in spiking cortical networks grown in vitro" Michael I. Ham, Vadas Gintautas, Marko A. Rodriguez, Ryan A. Bennett, Cara L. Santa Maria & Lu?s M. A. Bettencourt http://www.springerlink.com/content/r4w751w07523nnr6/ "Parameters for a model of an oscillating neuronal network in the cochlear nucleus defined by genetic algorithms" Andreas Bahmer & Gerald Langner http://www.springerlink.com/content/e8270k5432712334/ ---- Biological Cybernetics, all issues: http://www.springerlink.com/content/100465/ From thermann at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de Fri Jan 8 12:24:04 2010 From: thermann at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de (Thomas Hermann) Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 18:24:04 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Open Research Position - Bielefeld University - EEG data analysis for predicting bipolar disorder episodes Message-ID: <7AC270B3-40FC-4DA2-B7C8-B7F8C5ED1B9F@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de> == Open Research Position == EEG data analysis for predicting bipolar disorder episodes The research groups Neuroinformatics (Prof. Dr. Helge Ritter) and Ambient Intelligence (Dr. Thomas Hermann) at Bielefeld University invite applications for one **Postdoctoral Position** for the development of innovative methods for EEG signal analysis and classification to be carried out in the context of the European cooperation project MONARCA. This highly interdisciplinary project aims to develop advanced technology and data analysis methods for the realization of an innovative multi-parametric, long-term monitoring system relevant to the disease of bipolar disorder. Planned duration of the position will be 32 months. The position is available immediately. Payment will be according to TVL-13. The hosting groups have extensive expertise in adaptive methods for EEG signal analysis and datamining. Being part of the Excellence Cluster "Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC)" we can offer an exciting and highly interdisciplinary research environment. We are looking for applicants at the post-doctoral level with a degree from informatics, electrical engineering, applied mathematics or physics and a strong interest in brain signal analysis method development within a medical diagnosis application context. The ideal applicant should have a significant research background in at least one of the fields of pattern recognition, time series analysis, machine learning and datamining and thorough experience in the implementation of algorithms in C, C++ and/or Matlab. We will also consider exceptionally qualified applicants at the university masters or diploma levels. Bielefeld University is committed to equal opportunity. We strongly encourage applications from qualified women and persons with disabilities. To apply, please send a letter stating your motivation and your research interests, a complete CV (preferably in pdf format) and the names and email addresses of three referees to the attention of Mrs. Susanne Strunk sstrunk at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de Faculty of Technology and Excellence Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) Bielefeld University -------------------------------------------------------------- Helge Ritter Neuroinformatics Group, CITEC Bielefeld University, Germany http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/ags/ni Thomas Hermann Ambient Intelligence Group, CITEC Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/ags/ami -------------------------------------------------------------- From arthur.gretton at googlemail.com Fri Jan 8 20:50:02 2010 From: arthur.gretton at googlemail.com (arthur gretton) Date: Sat, 9 Jan 2010 02:50:02 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Research associate position at Gatsby Message-ID: <6ab54c961001081750k12a7ad9bl403c81298b3f8c6b@mail.gmail.com> Research Associate (Training Fellowship - Machine Learning) Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL, UK http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/ The Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit invites applications for a training fellowship in machine learning and related areas. The Unit is especially keen to recruit researchers with expertise in nonparametric inference and kernel methods. Additional areas of interest include statistical learning theory, nonparametric statistics and hypothesis testing, large-scale optimization, randomized approximation algorithms, and causal inference. The Unit is a world-class centre for theoretical neuroscience and machine learning. The Unit has significant interests across a range of areas in machine learning, including unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, Bayesian statistical theory, nonparametric methods, kernel methods, optimization, and applications to neuroscience, linguistics, vision and bioinformatics. Machine learning research at the Gatsby Unit is led by Arthur Gretton and Yee Whye Teh. For further details of our research, please see: http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/research.html For further details on the position, please see: http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/vacancies/ The Unit provides a unique environment in which a critical mass of researchers interact closely with each other and with other world-class research groups in related departments at UCL. A cross-faculty Centre for Computational Statistics and Machine Learning opened at UCL in 2006, directed by John Shawe-Taylor, and spanning the departments of Computer Science, Statistical Science and the Gatsby Unit. The Unit's visitor and seminar programmes enable staff and students to engage with leading researchers from across the world. Candidates must have a strong analytical background and demonstrable interest and expertise in machine learning. Salary is competitive, based on experience and achievement. Training fellowships are funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and are part of a continuing program of training postdoctoral researchers in the discipline. The position is available for an initial period of between one and two years. Funding is specifically for the purpose of training a succession of researchers. To ensure the intellectual renewal of the unit, training fellows are not funded beyond a maximum two year period. Applications must be made online via the UCL job vacancies website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/jobs/. Please be sure to attach to your online application a copy of your CV, statement of research interests, and full contact details (including e-mail addresses) for three academic referees. CVs should include: education history, details of current or most recent position and details of previous employment or fellowships. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed by the selection committee. Interviews will take place in mid-April. The position will be available from 1 August 2010, with negotiable start date. The appointment will be at a level appropriate to experience and achievement. For more information, and to discuss possible projects/ research areas, please contact: arthur.gretton at gmail.com. The closing date for applications is 17 February, 2010. From xubosong at bme.ogi.edu Thu Jan 7 17:56:18 2010 From: xubosong at bme.ogi.edu (Xubo Song) Date: Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:56:18 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: PhD student and PostDoc positions available at OHSU Message-ID: <4B466692.8020307@bme.ogi.edu> PhD student and PostDoc positions available at OHSU The Biomedical and Computer Science Division (BMCS) at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) is seeking immediately one PhD student and one postdoctoral researcher in the field of computer vision and machine learning. The candidates will work on a project funded by the National Science Foundation, on studying the cross-modal affect of children. Specifically, he/she will develop algorithms for (1) face image frontalization, i.e., reconstructs the 3D face through depth recovery from a synchronized array of cameras; (2) rendering a 2D frontal view from the 3D face; and (3) feature extraction for the 2D rendered face for affect classification and analysis. The successful candidates will have a PhD degree (for the postdoc position) or a Master degree (for the phd student position) and experience in one of the following fields: - computer vision or image processing - machine learning, pattern recognition or statistical techniques - stereo vision/depth recovery/structure from motion In addition, the candidate should have a strong background in C/C++ and Matlab programming, and be interested in working towards a live demonstrator of the investigated techniques and models. Experience in face modeling would be an asset. The applicant should have good demonstrated skills in written and spoken English. Both position are open immediately. The PhD student position is open-ended (with a minimum of three years) and the Postdoctoral position is for two years with competitive salary and compensation. Interested candidates should send a letter of motivation, along with their detailed CV, electronic transcripts of B.S. and M.S. degrees to xubosong at csee.ogi.edu. From bressler at fau.edu Sun Jan 10 02:25:18 2010 From: bressler at fau.edu (Steven Bressler) Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:25:18 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: PHD POSITION IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS & BRAIN SCIENCES Message-ID: PHD POSITION IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS & BRAIN SCIENCES CENTER FOR COMPLEX SYSTEMS & BRAIN SCIENCES FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY Applications are currently being accepted for interdisciplinary training in the PhD Program in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at FAU under Dr. Steven Bressler (http://www.ccs.fau.edu/~bressler ). The program of training will take a quantitative approach to the study of neural and cognitive function, with emphasis on top-down control in visual spatial attention, and will involve collaborative research with Gordon Shulman ( http://neuro.wustl.edu/aboutus/facultybiographies/shulman.htm) and Maurizio Corbetta (http://neuro.wustl.edu/aboutus/facultybiographies/corbetta.htm) at Washington University Medical School. The position will emphasize: * Investigation of the functional connectivity of large-scale brain networks in visual spatial attention. * Application of causality analysis to fMRI BOLD time-series data from both control subjects and patients with attentional impairment. The program offers competitive, multi-year stipends and tuition remission. The ideal candidate should have the following qualifications: * Prior training in neuroscience and experimental psychology * Programming experience (Matlab, C/C++, Python) * English speaking and writing skills Interested students are encouraged to submit a CV, contact details of two referees, and a short statement of research interests to Dr. Bressler (bressler at fau.edu). Please visit the Center for Complex Systems & Brain Sciences web site at http://www.ccs.fau.edu for more information. The Center for Complex Systems & Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University is in Boca Raton, situated between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, with easy access to the beautiful beaches and rich cultural life of the Miami-Dade metropolitan area. Committed to Equal Opportunities. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100110/07811f50/attachment.html From manuelcabidolopes at gmail.com Mon Jan 11 03:20:44 2010 From: manuelcabidolopes at gmail.com (Manuel Lopes) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:20:44 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: [CFP IEEE TAMD] Special issue on Active Learning and Intrinsically Motivated Exploration in Robots Message-ID: <3f89c77a1001110020h2e4295canad7ab214c47abaf9@mail.gmail.com> ======================================================= CALL FOR PAPER IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, Special Issue on Active Learning and Intrinsically Motivated Exploration in Robots ======================================================= http://www.ieee-cis.org/pubs/tamd/ http://flowers.inria.fr/tamd-activeLearningIntrinsicMotivation.htm This special issue is jointly supported by the IEEE CIS Technical committee on Autonomous Mental Development, http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/zhang/amdtc/ and the IEEE RAS Technical committee on Robot Learning, http://www.learning-robots.de/ === Topic Learning techniques are increasingly being used in todays? complex robotic system. Robots are expected to deal with a large variety of tasks, using their high-dimensional and complex bodies, to interact with objects and humans in an intuitive and friendly way. In this new setting, not all relevant information is available at design time, thus self-experimentation and learning by interacting with the physical and social world is very important to acquire knowledge. A major obstacle, in high and complex sensorimotor space, is that learning can become extremely slow or even impossible without adequate exploration strategies. To solve this problem, two main approaches are now converging. Active learning, from statistical learning theory, where the learner actively chooses experiments in order to collect highly informative examples, and where expected information gain can be evaluated with either theoretically optimal criteria or various computationally efficient heuristics. The second approach, intrinsically motivated exploration, from developmental psychology and recently operationalized in the developmental robotics community, aims at building robots capable of open-ended cumulative learning through task-independent efficient exploration of their sensorimotor space and to refine our understanding of how children learn and develop. Although similar in some aspects, these two approaches differ in some of the underlying assumptions. Active learning implicitly assumes that samples with high uncertainty are the most informative and focuses on single tasks. On the contrary, Intrinsic motivation has been identified by psychologists as an innate incentive that pushes organisms to spontaneously explore activities or situations for the sole reason that they have a certain degree of novelty, challenge or surprise, hence the term curiosity-driven learning sometimes used. Several open problems exist still and the goal of this special issue is to show state-of-the-art approaches to these problems and open new directions. Papers should address the following, non-exhaustive, topics applied to robotics or animal cognitive model: ? How can traditional active learning heuristics be applied to robotics problems such as motor learning, affordance learning or interaction learning? ? How to select an active strategy ? Are there general purpose methods or are they task dependent? ? How can active and intrinsic motivated exploration enable long-life, task-independent learning and development? ? Is there a unified formalism to both approaches? ? How precisely do they model human active learning and exploration and its role in development? ? Can these approaches be used for social tasks, e.g. joint-work and human-robot interaction ? === Editors: Manuel Lopes, University of Plymouth, http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/mlopes Pierre-Yves Oudeyer, INRIA, http://www.pyoudeyer.com === Two kinds of submissions are possible: ? Regular papers, up to 15 double column pages ; ? Correspondence papers either presenting a "perspective" that includes insights into issues of wider scope than a regular paper but without being highly computational in style or presenting concise description of recent technical results, up to 8 double column pages ; === Instructions for authors : http://ieee-cis.org/pubs/tamd/authors/ We are accepting submissions through Manuscript Central at : http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tamd-ieee (please select "Active Learning and Intrinsic Motivation" as the submission type) When submitting your manuscript, please also send an email to manuelcabidolopes at gmail.com and pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr with the title and name of the authors of the manuscript. === Timeline : 31 Jan 2010 ? Deadline for paper submission 15 March ? Notification 15 April ? Final version 20 April ? Electronic publication 15 June ? Printed publication Manuel Lopes http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/mlopes School of Computing, Communications and Electronics University of Plymouth Portland Square A318 PL4 8AA Plymouth United Kingdom From yann.renard at irisa.fr Mon Jan 11 09:19:39 2010 From: yann.renard at irisa.fr (Yann Renard) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:19:39 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Post-doctoral position at INRIA, France Message-ID: <4B4B337B.2060602@irisa.fr> *Post-doctoral position on* *The use of Brain-Computer Interfaces for 3D Interaction* *with Videogames and Virtual Environments* 2-year post-doctoral position is available at INRIA (National Institute of Research in Computer Science and Control), Rennes, France. The project is in the area of virtual reality (VR) and Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). It concerns the use of BCI for the purpose of 3D interaction with virtual worlds and videogames. The postdoc is strongly related to OpenViBE software for BCI and VR (http://openvibe.inria.fr) and to OpenViBE2 research project, which targets ?future BCI usages for videogames?. The postdoctoral fellow will work within a research team devoted to BCI and VR and under the supervision of Dr. Anatole L?cuyer (http://www.irisa.fr/bunraku/anatole.lecuyer). The post-doctoral stay is funded for 2 years. The post-doctoral program aims at designing and testing novel 3D interaction techniques with virtual worlds based on Brain-Computer Interfaces. Brain-computer Interfaces (BCI) enable a user to send commands to a computer using only variations of his brain activity. Traditionally, BCI aim at providing communication to those who have lost their voluntary muscle control. They can also be used for multimedia applications, such as for the purpose of interacting with videogames and 3D virtual worlds. Main objective of the post-doctoral work is to investigate and design novel interaction techniques specifically adapted to the use of a brain-computer interfaces for 3D virtual environments. These BCI-based techniques are expected to improve 3D tasks such as navigation in the virtual world or selection and manipulation of virtual objects ?by thought?. A series of experiments with participants will be conducted to evaluate the various proposed techniques. The candidate must have a PhD and an excellent background in either: virtual reality, 3D user interfaces, brain-computer interaction, human-computer interfaces, or other relevant topics. >> Interested candidates should send CV, selected publications and names and addresses of three references to : /Dr. Anatole L?cuyer/ /INRIA Rennes/ /EMail:/ anatole.lecuyer at irisa.fr *REFERENCES* * F. Lotte, A. Van Langhenhove, F. Lamarche, T. Ernest, Y. Renard, B. Arnaldi, A. L?cuyer, "Exploring Large Virtual Environments by Thoughts using a Brain-Computer Interface based on Motor Imagery and High-Level Commands", Presence : teleoperators and virtual environments, vol. 19, no 1, 2010 (in press) * Y. Renard, F. Lotte, G. Gibert, M. Congedo, E. Maby, V. Delannoy, O. Bertrand, A. L?cuyer, ?OpenViBE: An Open-Source Software Platform to Design, Test and Use Brain-Computer Interfaces in Real and Virtual Environments?, Presence : teleoperators and virtual environments, vol. 19, no 1, 2010 (in press) * J.B. Sauvan, A. L?cuyer, F. Lotte, G. Casiez, ?A Performance Model of Selection Techniques for P300-Based Brain-Computer Interfaces?, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM CHI), 2009 * F. Lotte, J. Fujisawa, H. Touyama, R. Ito, M. Hirose, A. L?cuyer, "Towards Ambulatory Brain-Computer Interfaces: A Pilot Study with P300 Signals", Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology Conference (ACE), 2009 * A. L?cuyer, F. Lotte, R. Reilly, R. Leeb, M. Hirose, M. Slater, ?Brain-Computer Interfaces, Virtual Reality, and Videogames?, IEEE Computer, vol. 41, num 10, pp. 66-72, 2008 From jlw at cs.bham.ac.uk Mon Jan 11 11:57:08 2010 From: jlw at cs.bham.ac.uk (Jeremy Wyatt) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:57:08 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Jobs: Two professors for new Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics: Birmingham UK Message-ID: <1A601351-1C38-4E04-9220-1F847E936C5B@cs.bham.ac.uk> Two Professorial Chairs required to lead new Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics: Birmingham UK University of Birmingham College of Life and Environmental Sciences College of Engineering and Physical Sciences School of Psychology School of Computer Science Chair in Computational Neuroscience (Ref: 38192) Chair in Cognitive Robotics (Ref: 38193) Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics Linking neuroscience with robotics. The University of Birmingham is making a multimillion pound investment to create the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics (CNCR). The Centre will foster an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach to advance understanding of brain function and learning, and develop better robotic systems. The research will be translated into innovative treatment for patients with developmental, degenerative or acquired neurological disorders. To establish the centre, we are seeking two Chairs, one in computational neuroscience and one in cognitive robotics. These appointments will be the first of a series culminating in ten academic and technical positions. In the intermediate term we will be appointing three lecturers and two technical positions to directly support the incoming teams. This will be followed by the appointment of a further three posts (one chair level) in the next year. We expect the new chair-level appointees to play a major role in the next round of recruitment. The initial two chairs should have an international research record that makes cutting-edge contributions to their field. Salary will be commensurate with experience. For information and enquiries please contact either Professor Glyn Humphreys, g.w.humphreys at bham.ac.uk, Professor Chris Miall, Head of Psychology, r.c.miall at bham.ac.uk or Dr Jeremy Wyatt, School of Computer Science, j.l.wyatt at bham.ac.uk To download the details and submit an electronic application online visit: www.hr.bham.ac.uk/jobs . Alternatively information can be obtained from Sally Johnson on +44 (0)121 415 8116. Details for the Chair in Cognitive Robotics http://www.download.bham.ac.uk/vacancies/jd/38193.pdf Details for the Chair in Computational Neuroscience http://www.download.bham.ac.uk/vacancies/jd/38192.pdf Closing date for both posts: 30 March 2010 A University of Fairness and Diversity -- Dr Jeremy L Wyatt Intelligent Robotics Lab School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~jlw || +44 121 414 4788 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100111/4bb92799/attachment-0001.html From rsun at rpi.edu Mon Jan 11 21:41:32 2010 From: rsun at rpi.edu (Professor Ron Sun) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:41:32 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Second Call for Papers: Cognitive Social Sciences---Grounding the Social Sciences in the Cognitive Sciences? Message-ID: <54A2C4FD-3C56-442C-A9AE-4CC6F9F00D97@rpi.edu> The workshop on Cognitive Social Sciences---Grounding the Social Sciences in the Cognitive Sciences? http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010 (to be held at CogSci 2010 in Portland, Oregon, on August 11, 2010) This workshop is aimed at exploring the cognitive (psychological) basis of the social sciences and the possibilities of grounding the social sciences in cognition (psychology). Cognitive sciences have made tremendous strides in recent decades. In particular, computational cognitive modeling (i.e., computational psychology; Sun, 2008; Thagard, 1996) has changed the ways in which cognition/psychology is explored and understood in many profound respects. There have been many models of cognition/psychology proposed in the cognitive sciences (broadly defined), leading to detailed understanding of many cognitive/psychological domains and functionalities. Empirical psychological research has also progressed to provide us with much better understanding of many psychological phenomena. Given the advances in the cognitive sciences, can we leverage the successes for the sake of better understanding social processes and phenomena? More fundamentally, can the cognitive sciences (including experimental cognitive psychology, computational psychology, social- personality psychology, developmental psychology, cultural psychology, psycholinguistics, philosophy of mind, cognitive neuroscience, and so on) provide a better foundation for important disciplines of the social sciences (sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, ethics, as well as some "humanity" fields: religious studies, history, legal studies, literary studies, communication, and so on)? Thus far, although very much a neglected topic, there nevertheless have been various efforts at exploring this topic. Some of the efforts were computationally motivated (see, e.g., Sun, 2006: "Cognition and multi-agent interaction", published by Cambridge University Press). Some other efforts are more empirical or theoretical in nature (see, e.g., Turner, 2001: "Cognitive Dimensions of Social Science", published by Oxford University Press). There are both theoretical and practical rationales for developing "cognitive social sciences" (see Turner, 2001; Sun, 2006; DiMaggio, 1997; Tetlock and Goldgeier, 2000; Camerer, 2003). We contend that the social sciences may find their future in the cognitive sciences (at least in part), which may well lead to a powerful and productive combined intellectual enterprise. This combination or grounding may provide the social sciences with imaginative scientific research programs, hybridization/integration, new syntheses, novel paradigms/ frameworks, and so on, besides providing the cognitive sciences with new data sources and problems to address. The presentation and discussion at this workshop may lead to a collection of major work in the form of a well edited book or a special issue. Confirmed keynote speakers: Pascal Boyer Paul Thagard Mark Turner Submission: For regular oral presentation, please submit a paper of 3-8 pages, in the usual CogSci conference format (as specified at: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010 ). Please email the submission to: rsun at rpi dot edu For short oral or poster presentation, please submit an extended abstract of 1 page, in the usual CogSci conference format (as specified at: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010 ). Please email the submission to: rsun at rpi dot edu Submission Deadline: February 15, 2010 Workshop Chair: Ron Sun Workshop Program Committee: Ron Sun Philip Tetlock Paul Thagard Paul Bello Jun Zhang References: Camerer, C. (2003). Behavioral Game Theory: Experiments on Strategic Interaction. Princeton: Princeton University Press. DiMaggio, P. (1997). Culture and cognition. Annual Review of Sociology 23, 263-288. Sun, R. (2006). Cognition and Multi-Agent Interaction: From Cognitive Mdoeling to Social Simulation. Cambridge University Press, New York. 2006. Sun, R. (ed.), (2008). The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology. Cambridge University Press, New York. 2008. Tetlock, P. and Goldgeier, J. (2000). Human nature and world politics: Cognition, identity, and influence. International Journal of Psychology. 35 (2), 87-96. Thagard, P. (1996). Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 1996. Thagard, P. (2006). Hot thought: Mechanisms and Applications of Emotional Cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Turner, M. (2001). Cognitive Dimensions of Social Science. Oxford University Press. From a.k.seth at sussex.ac.uk Thu Jan 14 09:32:58 2010 From: a.k.seth at sussex.ac.uk (Anil Seth) Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:32:58 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD position available in computational neuroscience and consciousness. Message-ID: <4B4F2B1A.9050302@sussex.ac.uk> *Large-Scale Computational Models of Thalamocortical Systems Underlying Consciousness.* Funding is available (for UK/EU applicants) for a three-year full-time D.Phil. (Ph.D) in the area of computational neuroscience and consciousness, supervised by Dr. Anil Seth and Prof. Owen Holland. The successful candidate will develop a large-scale computational model of human thalamocortical systems using Graphics/ /Processor Unit (GPU) technology, and will use the model to investigate the neuronal consequences of simple psychophysical manipulations. The position will suit a candidate highly qualified in software engineering with a strong interest, and preferably prior training, in computational neuroscience and consciousness science. Sussex has one of the highest concentrations of expertise in consciousness science in the world, and this research area is growing rapidly within the University. For more information and for how to apply please visit http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AAN013/research-studentship/. Interested candidates should contact Dr. Seth (a.k.seth at sussex.ac.uk). Closing date for applications is Feb 20, 2010. -- Anil K. Seth, D.Phil. Reader, EPSRC Leadership Fellow School of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QJ, UK W: www.anilseth.com, T: (0)1273 678549 From steffen.wischmann at unil.ch Tue Jan 12 16:14:33 2010 From: steffen.wischmann at unil.ch (Steffen Wischmann) Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:14:33 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Call for papers - Special Session on Evolutionary Robotics at the 2010 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation Message-ID: <4B4CE639.9060108@unil.ch> 2010 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC) Special Session on Evolutionary Robotics ---------------------------------------------------- Barcelona, Spain. July 18-23, 2010 *CALL FOR PAPERS* *Organisers:* Patricia A. Vargas (Heriot-Watt University - Edinburgh) Steffen Wischmann (EPFL - Lausanne) Dario Floreano (EPFL - Lausanne) Phil Husbands (University of Sussex - Brighton) Website: http://lis.epfl.ch/specialsessions/CEC10/ *Scope:* Evolutionary Robotics (ER) aims to apply evolutionary computation techniques, inspired by darwinian selection, to automatically design the control and/or hardware of both real and simulated autonomous robots. Having an intrinsic interdisciplinary character, ER is being employed towards the development of many fields of research, among which we can highlight neuroscience, cognitive science, evolutionary biology and robotics. Hence the objective of this special session is to assemble a set of high-quality original contributions that reflect and advance the state-of-the-art in the area of Evolutionary Robotics, with an emphasis on the cross-fertilization between ER and the aforementioned research areas, ranging from theoretical analysis to real-life applications. Topics of interest include (but are not restricted to): - Evolution of robots which display minimal cognitive behaviour, learning, memory, spatial cognition, adaptation or homeostasis. - Evolution of neural controllers for robots, aimed at giving an insight to neuroscientists or advancing control structures. - Evolution of communication, cooperation and competition, using robots as a research platform. - Co-evolution and the evolution of collective behaviour. - Evolution of morphology in close interaction with the environment, giving rise to self-reconfigurable, self-designing, self-healing and self-reproducing robots. - Evolution of robot systems aimed at real-world applications as in aerial robotics, space exploration, industry, search and rescue, robot companions, entertainment and games. - Evolution of controllers on board real robots or the real?time evolution of robot hardware. - Novel or improved algorithms for the evolution or robot systems. - The use of evolution for the artistic exploration of robot design. *Important Dates:* Paper Submission: January 31, 2010 Notification of Acceptance: March 15, 2010 Camera-Ready Submission: May 2, 2010 *Paper Submission:* Submissions should follow the guidance given on the IEEE CEC 2010 conference website: http://www.wcci2010.org. When submitting, please select as the main research topic the Special Session on "Evolutionary Robotics" (S089). All submissions will be peer-reviewed with the same criteria used for other contributed papers. All accepted papers will be included and published in the conference proceedings. *Post Conference Publication:* Depending on the quality of the submissions, authors will be asked to contribute to a journal special issue on the topic of "Evolutionary Robotics". From ted.carnevale at yale.edu Thu Jan 14 10:06:56 2010 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:06:56 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Update on NEURON User Meeting and Parallel Network Course Message-ID: <4B4F3310.1010703@yale.edu> Space is still available in the "2010 NEURON Simulator Meeting" and the "Course on Parallelizing Network Models with NEURON" which will be held during the week of March 22 at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. The Course is designed for relatively advanced users who have active modeling projects, but the Simulator Meeting is intended for all who are interested in computational modeling of neurons and networks regardless of level of experience. Here are the titles of some of the presentations that will be given at the NEURON Simulator Meeting: Symposium on NEURON-RxD: Reaction-Diffusion Modeling in NEURON Speakers: Bill Lytton (SUNY Downstate), Michael Hines (Yale University), and others TBA Workshop on Parameter Optimization and Estimation Speakers: Christina Weaver (Franklin & Marshall College) and Sean Carver (Yale University) The abstracts of these presentations are posted at https://www.neuron.yale.edu/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1863 For more information, or to sign up for either or both of these events, please see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/static/meetings/nsm2010.html The registration deadline is Friday, February 26. --Ted From bowlby at bu.edu Fri Jan 15 11:46:13 2010 From: bowlby at bu.edu (Brian Bowlby) Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:46:13 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: 14th ICCNS: Call for Abstracts and Confirmed Invited Speakers Message-ID: FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS May 19?22, 2010 Boston University 677 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02215 USA http://www.cns.bu.edu/meetings/ Sponsored by the Boston University Center for Adaptive Systems, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (http://www.cns.bu.edu/), and Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (http://celest.bu.edu) with financial support from the National Science Foundation This interdisciplinary conference is attended each year by approximately 300 people from 30 countries around the world. As in previous years, the conference will focus on solutions to the questions: HOW DOES THE BRAIN CONTROL BEHAVIOR? HOW CAN TECHNOLOGY EMULATE BIOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE? The conference is aimed at researchers and students of computational neuroscience, cognitive science, neural networks, neuromorphic engineering, and artificial intelligence. It includes invited lectures and contributed lectures and posters by experts on the biology and technology of how the brain and other intelligent systems adapt to a changing world. The conference is particularly interested in exploring how the brain and biologically-inspired algorithms and systems in engineering and technology can learn. Single-track oral and poster sessions enable all presented work to be highly visible. Three-hour poster sessions with no conflicting events will be held on two of the conference days. Posters will be up all day, and can also be viewed during breaks in the talk schedule. CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS Moshe Bar (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School) The proactive brain: Predictions in visual cognition Leon Chua (University of California, Berkeley) [Plenary Speaker] Memristor minds Carol Colby (Carnegie Mellon University) Active vision Heiner Deubel (University of Munich) Attention before goal-directed actions Stephen Grossberg (Boston University) Linking What and Where in visual attention, recognition, navigation, and planning Earl Miller (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) [Plenary Speaker] The prefrontal cortex: Brain rhythms and cognition Anthony Movshon (New York University) Reading visual information from neuronal populations Steven Petersen (Washington University) Using network analysis tools to study the brain's control systems Russell Poldrack (UCLA) Stopping ourselves: The neural basis of response inhibition Josef Rauschecker (Georgetown University Medical Center) A functional and computational role for the dorsal stream in space and speech Barry Richmond (National Institutes of Health) Neuropsychological, physiological, and theoretical studies of stimulus-outcome learning in monkeys Linda Smith (Indiana University) Head, hand and eye: Action, attention, and learning in toddlers Xiao-Jing Wang (Yale University) Computational neurobiology of decision making WORKSHOP ON ?TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO DREAM? Steffen Gais (Ludwig Maximilians University) Cholinergic and other neurotransmitter influences on memory processing during sleep Michael Hasselmo (Boston University) Modulation of grid cells and head direction cells during waking and sleep Bruce McNaughton (University of Lethbridge) Memory trace reactivation in sleep Cliff Saper (Harvard Medical School) Sleep switches Robert Stickgold (Harvard Medical School) Sleep, memory, and dreams: Beyond consolidation Erin Wamsley (Harvard Medical School) Memories in the sleeping brain: A function for our dreams? Matt Wilson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Hippocampal memory reactivation during sleep WORKSHOP ON ?NEUROMORPHIC COMPUTING: FROM BRAINS TO NANOCHIPS? Ralph Etienne-Cummings (Johns Hopkins University) Implementing a spike-based HMAX vision system with a silicon neural array Henry Markram (Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne) The Blue Brain Project: Insights into the design of the neocortical microcircuitry Karlheinz Meier (University of Heidelberg) Neuromorphic computing ? Are we ready for a big step? Narayan Srinivasan (HRL Laboratories LLC) Low power analog neuromorphic hardware for large scale cortical computations CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Session Topics: * vision * object recognition * image understanding * neural circuit models * audition * neural system models * speech and language * mathematics of neural systems * unsupervised learning * robotics * supervised learning * hybrid systems (fuzzy, evolutionary, digital) * reinforcement and emotion * neuromorphic VLSI * sensory-motor control * industrial applications * cognition, planning, and attention * other * spatial mapping and navigation Contributed abstracts must be received, in English, by January 31, 2010. Email notification of acceptance will be provided by February 28, 2010. A meeting registration fee must accompany each abstract. The fee will be refunded if the abstract is not accepted for presentation. Fees of accepted abstracts will be returned upon written request only until April 9, 2010. Abstracts must not exceed one 8.5"x11" page in length, with 1" margins on top, bottom, and both sides in a single-column format with a font of 10 points or larger. The title, authors, affiliations, surface, and email addresses should begin each abstract. A separate cover letter should include the abstract title; name and contact information for corresponding and presenting authors; requested preference for oral or poster presentation; and a first and second choice from the topics above, including whether it is biological (B) or technological (T) work [Example: first choice: vision (T); second choice: neural system models (B)]. Contributed talks will be 15 minutes long. Posters will be displayed for a full day. Overhead, slide, and computer projector facilities will be available for talks. Accepted abstracts will be printed in the conference proceedings volume. No extended paper will be required. Abstracts should be submitted electronically as Word files to cindy at bu.edu using the phrase ?14th ICCNS abstract submission? in the subject line or as paper hard copy (four copies of the abstract with one copy of the cover letter and the registration form) to Cynthia Bradford, Boston University, CNS Department, 677 Beacon Street, Boston MA 02215 USA. Fax submissions of the abstract will not be accepted. REGISTRATION INFORMATION: Early registration is recommended using the registration form below. Student registrations must be accompanied by a letter of verification from a department chairperson or faculty/research advisor. STUDENT TRAVEL FELLOWSHIPS: Funding is not available at this time for graduate student and postdoctoral travel fellowships, but may become available later. If funding becomes available, then information will be posted at the conference web site with further details about how to apply. REGISTRATION FORM Fourteenth International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems May 19?22, 2010 Boston University Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems 677 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02215 USA Fax: +1 617 353 7755 Mr/Ms/Dr/Prof:_____________________________________________________ Affiliation:_________________________________________________________ Address:__________________________________________________________ City, State, Postal Code:______________________________________________ Phone and Fax:_____________________________________________________ Email:____________________________________________________________ The registration fee includes a copy of the conference proceedings volume, a reception on Friday night, and 3 coffee breaks each day. CHECK ONE: ( ) $95 Conference (Regular) ( ) $65 Conference (Student) METHOD OF PAYMENT: [ ] Enclosed is a check made payable to "Boston University" Checks must be made payable in US dollars and issued by a US correspondent bank. Each registrant is responsible for any and all bank charges. [ ] I wish to pay by credit card (MasterCard, Visa, or Discover Card only) Name as it appears on the card:___________________________________________ Type of card: _____________________________ Expiration date:________________ Account number: _______________________________________________________ Signature:____________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100115/f8d2804a/attachment-0002.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100115/f8d2804a/attachment-0003.html From ommer at eecs.berkeley.edu Fri Jan 15 10:43:07 2010 From: ommer at eecs.berkeley.edu (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rn_Ommer?=) Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:43:07 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PostDoc in Biomedical Image Analysis - University of Heidelberg Message-ID: <4B508D0B.30507@eecs.berkeley.edu> PostDoc in Biomedical Image Analysis at the University of Heidelberg The Computer Vision group at the Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing (HCI) headed by Prof. Bj?rn Ommer and the Pain Research Group of Prof. Rohini Kuhner at the Institute of Pharmacology have a joint opening for a fully funded PostDoc position in Biomedical Image Analysis. The biomedical objective of the project is to investigate the structural plasticity of nerves under the effects of pain and diseases in in-vivo tissue. Structural changes in the organization of different types of peripheral nerve afferents (tactile nerves, nociceptors) are studied in the periphery (skin) after chronic nerve injury. The biomedical basis for this investigation are models of neuropathic pain, a variety of knockout and transgenic mice, and living tissue imaging methods. The main focus of the PostDoc position will be on pursuing research in Computer Vision to develop algorithms for the underlying, high resolution microscope imagery that is provided by biologists---i.e. image segmentation and enhancement of the microscopic images, as well as recognition in and registration of large numbers of 3D image stacks. The salary is TV-L13 and the position is to be filled as soon as possible. Ideal candidates will have an excellent PhD degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related field. They will have a strong mathematical background, solid programming experience in C++ and MatLab, and a strong interest in interdisciplinary research. A solid background in image analysis and computer vision is expected and fluency in English is required (both written and spoken). Prior experience in the biomedical foundations will be helpful but is not mandatory since expert knowledge is already provided by the Kuner group who are conducting the biological experiments. If you are interested in an interesting interdisciplinary research project then please send your complete application (including motivation letter, complete curriculum vitae, score records, and recommendation letters from two academic references) until February 26, 2010 by Email. The screening process will already start before this deadline, so early submissions are strongly encouraged. Email: hci [dot] applications [at] iwr [dot] uni-heidelberg [dot] de Prof. Dr. Bj?rn Ommer Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing (HCI) University of Heidelberg Web: http://hci.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/people/bommer/ Prof. Dr. Rohini Kuner Institute of Pharmacology University of Heidelberg Web:http://www.medizinische-fakultaet-hd.uni-heidelberg.de/Contact.107612.0.html?&FS=0&L=en From madclam at gmail.com Fri Jan 15 16:56:49 2010 From: madclam at gmail.com (Maddi Clam) Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:56:49 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Active and Autonomous Learning CFP Message-ID: Active and Autonomous Learning ======================== Special Session at WCCI 2010, Barcelona Spain, July 2010 Call for papers, deadline: ** January 31, 2010 ** Please consider submitting a paper to the special session on Active and Autonomous Learning and/or participating to the Active Learning challenge (USD 3600 in prizes plus travel expenses for the winners) http://clopinet.com/isabelle/Projects/WCCI2010/ Topics of interest include: ? Experimental Design ? Active Learning ? Autonomous Learning ? Incremental Learning ? Autonomous intelligent systems ? On-line learning ? Machine Learning for Data Mining ? Learning from unlabeled data. ? Artificial Vision ? Agent and Multi-Agent Systems ? Hybrid Systems ? Unsupervised Learning ? Classification Methods ? Novelty Detection ? Surveillance Systems and solutions (object tracking, multi-camera algorithms, behaviour analysis and learning, scene segmentation, system architecture aspects, operational procedures, usability, scalability) ? Gesture and Posture Analysis and Recognition ? Case Studies (shopping malls, railway stations, airport lounges, bank branches, etc) ? Autonomous Robots ? Industrial and Commercial Applications of Intelligent Methods ? Biometric Identification and Recognition ? Extraction of Biometric Features (fingerprint, iris, face, voice, palm, gait) ? Email, Web and Networks Security -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100115/9054f474/attachment.html From jeedward at yahoo.com Sun Jan 17 13:12:37 2010 From: jeedward at yahoo.com (John Edward) Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:12:37 -0800 (PST) Subject: Connectionists: Workshop on computational neuroscience Message-ID: <478501.40712.qm@web45903.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Workshop on computational neuroscience ? There is a special workshop on computational neuroscience at the 2010 multi-conference (MULTICONF-10) (website: http://www.promoteresearch.org) that will be held during July 12-14, 2010 in Orlando, Florida, USA. This workshop focuses on all areas of computational neuroscience and neuroinformatics. We invite draft paper submissions. The subject line of the submission email should be ?special workshop on computational neuroscience? ? The primary goal of MULTICONF is to promote research and developmental activities in computer science, information technology, control engineering, and related fields. Another goal is to promote the dissemination of research to a multidisciplinary audience and to facilitate communication among researchers, developers, practitioners in different fields.The following conferences are planned to be organized as part of MULTICONF-10. ? * International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (AIPR-10) * ?International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Control Systems (ARCS-10) * International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics and Chemoinformatics (BCBGC-10) * International Conference on Computer Networks (CN-10) * International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems and Web Technologies (EISWT-10) * International Conference on High Performance Computing Systems (HPCS-10) * International Conference on Information Security and Privacy (ISP-10) * International Conference on Image and Video Processing and Computer Vision (IVPCV-10) * International Conference on Software Engineering Theory and Practice (SETP-10) * International Conference on Theoretical and Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (TMFCS-10) ? We invite draft paper submissions. Please see the website http://www.promoteresearch.org for more details. ? Sincerely John Edward Publicity committee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100117/0a161c59/attachment.html From dayan at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk Mon Jan 18 09:17:19 2010 From: dayan at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk (Peter Dayan) Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:17:19 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Gatsby Unit Quinquennial Symposium: 22nd March 2010 In-Reply-To: <20080327220149.GA13656@crick.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> References: <20061013122857.GA10331@flies.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> <20070708230220.GA2602@crick.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> <20080327220149.GA13656@crick.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> Message-ID: <20100118141719.GA10714@flies.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> Gatsby Unit Quinquennial Symposium 10.30am-6:00pm Monday 22 March 2010 We are delighted to announce the 2010 Gatsby Unit Quinquennial Seminar, with talks by distinguished researchers in theoretical neuroscience and machine learning. The symposium will start at 10:30am on Monday 22nd March in the basement Lecture Theatre, 33 Queen Square, London WCIN 3BG All are welcome. Lunch and tea will be provided. ----------------------------------------------------- REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED : TO REGISTER, PLEASE EMAIL: asstadmin at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk before 15 March 2010 ----------------------------------------------------- 10:30-11:30 Daniel Wolpert Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge Probabilistic models of sensorimotor control and decision making The effortless ease with which humans move our arms, our eyes, even our lips when we speak masks the true complexity of the control processes involved. This is evident when we try to build machines to perform human control tasks. While computers can now beat grandmasters at chess, no computer can yet control a robot to manipulate a chess piece with the dexterity of a six-year-old child. I will review our recent work on how the humans learn to make skilled movements covering probabilistic models of learning, including Bayesian and structural learning, as well as decision making and the revision of decisions in the face of uncertainty. 11:30-12:30 Israel Nelken Dept. of Neurobiology and the ICNC, Hebrew University The representation of surprise in the auditory system Neurons in auditory cortex show high sensitivity to rare sounds, a phenomenon often called stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA). I will describe our attempts to find out what do the neurons really respond to, and to what extent SSA can be understood in terms of the simplest possible model, consisting of adaptation in narrow frequency channels. Finally, I will discuss some recent experiments in which we tested the sensitivity of neurons to features of the sound sequence that go beyond the rarity of the rare event, suggesting that neurons in auditory cortex are sensitive to higher-order regularities of the stimulus sequence. 12:30-14:30 Lunch and posters 14:30-15:30 John Hertz Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, and NORDITA, Stockholm The Inverse Ising Model: Why and How Ising models form a natural framework for modeling the distribution of multi-neuron spike patterns: Of all models that correctly describe the firing rates and pairwise firing correlations, the Ising model is the one of maximum entropy. The problem at hand here is an inverse one to that we usually encounter. Normally, one has a model with given couplings (Jij) and the task is to compute averages and correlation functions of the variables of the model. Here we are given the averages and correlations and the task is to find the couplings. In the simplest approach to this problem, one considers only the measured firing rates and equal-time pairwise firing correlations and tries to find the Ising model that has these statistics. In our work we have explored and compared a number of methods for doing this, using data from a realistic model network of spiking neurons. Several of these methods work remarkably well. This success is tempered, however, by our second set of findings. Using an information-theoretic measure of the overall quality of fit, we find that, while the Ising model is a good description of the distribution of spike patterns for small populations of neurons (~ 10), it does worse and worse for larger and larger populations (for reasons that are not yet understood). Finally, I will describe some recent work, which extends the Ising approach to describe non-equal-time firing correlations. 14:30-15:30 Yair Weiss School of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Learning and inference in low-level vision Low level vision addresses the issues of labeling and organizing image pixels according to scene related properties - such as motion, contrast, depth and reflectance. I will describe our attempts to understand low-level vision in humans and machines as optimal inference given the statistics of the world. In particular, I will show how message passing algorithms allow us to solve real-world instances of NP-hard problems and to efficiently learn energy functions despite an exponential number of constraints. 16:30-17:00 tea 17:00-18:00 Marty Banks Visual Space Perception Laboratory, UC Berkeley, USA Perceptual Bases for Rules of Thumb in Photography Photographers utilize many rules of thumb for creating natural-looking pictures. The explanations for these guidelines are vague and probably incorrect. I will explore two common photographic rules and argue that they are understandable from a consideration of the perceptual mechanisms involved and peoples' viewing habits. The first rule of thumb concerns the lens focal length required to produce pictures that are not spatially distorted. Photography textbooks recommend choosing a focal length that is ~3/2 the film width. The textbooks state vaguely that the rule creates a field of view that corresponds to that of normal vision" (Giancoli, 2000), "the same perspective as the human eye" (Alesse, 1989), or "approximates the impression human vision gives" (London et al., 2005). There are two phenomena related to this rule. One is perceived spatial distortions in wide-angle (short focal length) pictures. I will argue that the perceived distortions are caused by the perceptual mechanisms people employ to take into account oblique viewing positions. I will present some demonstrations that validate this explanation. The second phenomenon is perceived depth in pictures taken with different focal lengths. The textbooks argue that pictures taken with short focal lengths expand perceived depth and those taken with long focal lengths compress it. I will argue that these effects are due to a combination of the viewing geometry and the way people typically look at pictures. I will present demonstrations to validate this. The second rule of thumb concerns the camera aperture and depth-of-field blur. Photography textbooks do not describe a quantitative rule and treat the magnitude of depth-of-field blur as arbitrary. I will examine the geometry of apertures, lenses, and image formation. From that analysis, I will argue that there is a natural relationship between depth-of-field blur and the 3D layout of the photographed scene. I will present demonstrations that human viewers are sensitive to this relationship. In particular, depicted scenes are perceived differently depending on the relationship between blur and 3D layout. ----------------------------------------------------- REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED : TO REGISTER, PLEASE EMAIL: asstadmin at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk before 15 March 2010 ----------------------------------------------------- From zilles at cs.uregina.ca Sun Jan 17 22:22:34 2010 From: zilles at cs.uregina.ca (Sandra Zilles) Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:22:34 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: COLT 2010 2nd Call for Papers Message-ID: <6EEA9C0D-54AC-4CC1-82A9-17343A62B1EC@cs.uregina.ca> COLT 2010 - Call for Papers The 23rd Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT 2010) will take place in Haifa, Israel, on June 27-29, 2010 and will be co-located with ICML 2010. We invite submissions of papers addressing theoretical aspects of machine learning and empirical inference. We strongly support a broad definition of learning theory, including: ? Analysis of learning algorithms and their generalization ability ? Computational complexity of learning ? Bayesian analysis ? Statistical mechanics of learning systems ? Optimization procedures for learning ? Kernel methods ? Inductive inference ? Boolean function learning ? Unsupervised and semi-supervised learning and clustering ? On-line learning and relative loss bounds ? Learning in planning and control, including reinforcement learning ? Learning in games, multi-agent learning ? Mathematical analysis of learning in related fields, e.g., game theory, natural language processing, neuroscience, bioinformatics, privacy and security, machine vision, data mining, information retrieval We are also interested in papers that include viewpoints that are new to the COLT community. We welcome experimental and algorithmic papers provided they are relevant to the focus of the conference by elucidating theoretical results in learning. Also, while the primary focus of the conference is theoretical, papers can be strengthened by the inclusion of relevant experimental results. Papers that have previously appeared in journals or at other conferences, or that are being submitted to other conferences, are not appropriate for COLT. Papers that include work that has already been submitted for journal publication may be submitted to COLT, as long as the papers have not been accepted for publication by the COLT submission deadline (conditionally or otherwise) and that the paper is not expected to be published before the COLT conference (June 2010). Feedback on Review Quality There will be no rebuttal phase this year. However, authors will be given the opportunity to assess the quality of reviews and provide feedback to the reviewers, after the decisions have been made. These assessments will be used in particular to determine the Best Reviewer award (see below). Paper and Reviewer Awards This year, COLT will award both best paper and best student paper awards. Best student papers must be authored or coauthored by a student. Authors must indicate at submission time if they wish their paper to be eligible for a student award. This does not preclude the paper to be eligible for the best paper award. To further emphasize the importance of the reviewing quality, this year, COLT will also award a best reviewer award to the reviewer who has provided the most insightful and useful comments. Open Problems Session We also invite submission of open problems (see separate call). These should be constrained to two pages. There is a shorter reviewing period for the open problems. Accepted contributions will be allocated short presentation slots in a special open problems session and will be allowed two pages each in the proceedings. Paper Format and Electronic Submission Instructions Formatting and submission instructions will be available in early December at the conference website. Submissions should include the title, authors' names, and a 200-word summary of the paper suitable for the conference program. Papers should not exceed 13 pages (including bibliography) and should be formatted according to the following style file and sample LaTeX source (colt10e.sty, colt10- sample.tar.gz). Authors not using latex should ensure that their document complies with similar formatting (similar margins, 11pt font, single column). Shorter papers are strongly encouraged. Additional material beyond the 13 page limit can be placed in the appendix and might be read, at the discretion of the program committee. Important Dates Preliminary call for papers issued October 15, 2009 Electronic submission of papers (due by 5:59pm PST) February 19, 2010 Electronic submission of open problems March 13, 2010 Notice of acceptance or rejection May 07, 2010 Submission of final version May 21, 2010 Feedback on reviews due May 28, 2010 Joint ICML/COLT workshop day June 25, 2010 2010 COLT conference June 27-29, 2010 OrganizationProgram Co-chairs: ? Adam Tauman Kalai (Microsoft Research) ? Mehryar Mohri (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Google Research) Program Committee: Shivani Agarwal Mikhail Belkin Shai Ben-David Nicol? Cesa-Bianchi Ofer Dekel Steve Hanneke Jeff Jackson Sham Kakade Vladimir Koltchinskii Katrina Ligett Phil Long Gabor Lugosi Ulrike von Luxburg Yishay Mansour Ryan O?Donnell Massimiliano Pontil Robert Schapire Rocco Servedio Shai Shalev-Shwartz John Shawe-Taylor Gilles Stoltz Ambuj Tewari Jenn Wortman Vaughan Santosh Vempala Manfred Warmuth Robert Williamson Thomas Zeugmann Tong Zhang Publicity Chair: ? Sandra Zilles (University of Regina) Local Arrangements Chair: ? Shai Fine (IBM Research Haifa) From inaki.navarro at upm.es Mon Jan 18 16:21:50 2010 From: inaki.navarro at upm.es (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?I=F1aki_Navarro?=) Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:21:50 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: (Last CFP - Deadline Extension) BICS 2010 Message-ID: <8cc3f3ce1001181321l1aa271e2t4bae67c253120a44@mail.gmail.com> *We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this message. LAST CALL FOR PAPERS - Deadline Extended Due to several requests, the submission deadline for BICS 2010 has been extended to: January 31, 2010. (23.59 GMT+1) ============================================================================== ____ _____ _____ _____ ___ ___ __ ___ | _ \_ _/ ____|/ ____| |__ \ / _ \/_ |/ _ \ | |_) || || | | (___ ) | | | || | | | | | _ < | || | \___ \ / /| | | || | | | | | |_) || || |____ ____) | / /_| |_| || | |_| | |____/_____\_____|_____/ |____|\___/ |_|\___/ BRAIN-INSPIRED COGNITIVE SYSTEMS CONFERENCE Madrid, Spain, July 14-16, 2010 www.bicsconference.org Ricardo Sanz, General Chair Sponsored by ICSC ============================================================================== BICS 2010 is a multitrack conference organised around four strongly related symposia (NC 2010, BIS 2010, CNS 2010 and MoC 2010). The three previous BICS conferences were BICS 2008 (Sao Luis, Brasil), BICS 2006 (Lesbos, Greece) and BICS 2004 (Stirling, UK). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference Symposia ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sixth International ICSC Symposium on Neural Computation (NC 2010) Fifth International ICSC Symposium on Biologically Inspired Systems (BIS 2010) Fourth International ICSC Symposium on Cognitive Neuroscience (CNS 2010) Third International ICSC Symposium on Models of Consciousness (MoC 2010) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Motivation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems - BICS 2010 aims to bring together leading scientists and engineers who use analytic and synthetic methods both to understand the astonishing processing properties of biological systems and, specifically those of the living brain, and to exploit such knowledge to advance engineering methods for building artificial systems with higher levels of cognitive competence. BICS 2010 is a meeting point of cognitive systems engineers and brain scientists where cross-domain ideas are fostered in the hope of getting new emerging insights on the nature, operation and extractable capabilities of brains. This multiple approach is necessary because the progressively more accurate data about brains is producing a growing need of both a quantitative and theoretical understanding and an associated capacity to manipulate this data and translate it into engineering applications rooted in sound theories. BICS 2010 is intended for both researchers that aim to build brain inspired systems with higher cognitive competences, and as well to life scientists who use and develop mathematical and engineering approaches for a better understanding of complex biological systems like the brain. BICS 2010 is organized around four major interlaced focal symposia that are organized into patterns that encourage cross-fertilization across the symposia topics. This emphasizes the role of BICS as a major meeting point for researchers and practitioners in the areas of biological and artificial cognitive systems. Debates across disciplines will enrich researchers with complementary perspectives from diverse scientific fields. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Call for Workshops and Tutorials ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Organizing Committee for BICS 2010 requests proposals for a full or half day workshop or tutorial, to be held on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at the Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. This day of workshops and tutorials will precede the main conference. The workshops and tutorials have consistently provided high-quality, topically-focused forums for researchers at the forefront of basic and applied research in brain inspired cognitive systems. Workshops should be focused on interactions of participants to exchange new ideas and explore new directions in research. Tutorials should provide self-contained descriptions of established research topics. The primary criteria for selection are anticipated level of interest, impact, novelty or creativity, and technical background of presenters. We request that workshop and tutorial organizers initially email a brief, single-paragraph description of the proposed topic and a list of organizers by January 31, 2010 to the BICS Program manager at ipc at bicsconference.org. A template for the final proposal of approximately 3 pages will be mailed to all interested parties. The full proposal submission should include a title, an abstract and a description of the proposed content, a tentative schedule, and the expected requirements for space and equipment. Full proposals for review will be due by January 31, 2010. All decisions will be made by February 15, 2010. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dates ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference: July 14-16, 2010 Workshops and tutorials: July 13, 2010 Paper submission Submission of contributions: January 31, 2010 Notification of acceptance: March 10, 2010 Final contributions due: May 15, 2010 Workshops and Tutorials submission Submission of proposals: January 31, 2010 Notification of acceptance: February 15, 2010 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference Publications ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All accepted papers will be included in the Conference Proceedings, which will be published in electronic format. Attendant authors will receive a copy of them on CD. * BICS'10 book by Springer Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version of them after the conference, to be included as book chapters in the BICS'10 book to be published by Springer. * Special Issue of Cognitive Computation A post-conference Special Issue of the journal Cognitive Computation will also be published by Springer with extended versions of selected BICS'2010 papers chapters and invited contributions. * Special Issue of the International Journal of Machine Consciousness A post-conference Special Issue of the International Journal of Machine Consciousness will also be published with extended versions of selected contributions to the Symposium on Models of Consciousness of BICS'10. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venue ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The conference will be held at the Escuela Superior de Ingenieros Industriales of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM ETSII). Address: Jose Gutierrez Abascal 2 28006 Madrid Spain Geo:lat=40.4404 lon=-3.6902 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference Scope ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Neural Computation (NC) NeuroComputational (NC) Systems ? NC Hybrid Systems ? NC Learning ? NC Control Systems ? NC Signal Processing ? NC Architectures ? NC Devices ? NC Perception and Pattern Classifiers ? Support Vector Machines ? Fuzzy or Neuro-Fuzzy Systems ? Evolutionary Neural Networks ? Biological Neural Network Models ? NC Applications Biologically Inspired Systems (BIS) Brain Inspired (BI) Systems ? BI Vision ? BI Audition and sound processing ? BI Other sensory modalities ? BI Motion processing ? BI Robotics ? BI Adaptive and Control systems ? BI Evolutionary systems ? BI Oscillatory systems ? BI Signal processing ? BI Learning ? Neuromorphic systems Cognitive Neuroscience (CNS) CN of vision ? CN of non-vision sensory modalities ? CN of volition ? Systems Neuroscience ? Attentional Mechanisms ? Affective Systems ? Language ? Cortical Models ? Sub-Cortical Models ? Cerebellar Models ? Neural correlates Models of consciousness (MoC) World awareness ? Self-awareness ? Imagination? Qualia models ? Virtual Machine Approaches ? Formal Models of Consciousness ? Control Theoretical Models ? Developmental/Infant Models ? Will and Volition ? Emotion and Affect Philosophical implications ? Neurophysiological Grounding ? Enactive approaches ? Heterophenomenology ? Analytic/Synthetic phenomenology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Program Committee ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jaime G?mez (Technical University of Madrid), Chair of the PC Amir Hussain (University of Stirling, UK), NC Chair Leslie Smith (University of Stirling, UK), BIS Chair Igor Aleksander (Imperial College, UK), CNS Chair Antonio Chella (University of Palermo, UK), MoC Chair David Gamez (Imperial College, London, UK) Hugo Gravato Marques (University of Essex, UK) Alexei Samsonovich (George Mason University, VA, USA) Raul Arrabales (Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain) Pentti Haikonen (University of Illinois, Springfield, IL, USA) Tom Ziemke (University of Sk?vde, Sweden) David Balduzzi (University of Wisconsin, WI, USA) Riccardo Manzotti (IULM, Milan, Italy) James Albus (George Mason University, VA, USA) James Austin (Cybula Ltd, UK) Giacomo Indiveri (University of Zurich, Switzerland) Alister Hamilton (University of Edinburgh, UK) F. Claire Rind (Newcastle University, UK) Sue Denham (University of Plymouth, UK) Philip Hafliger (University of Oslo, Norway) David Windridge (University of Surrey, UK) Luis Rocha (Indiana University, Bloomington, USA) Shun-ichi Amari (RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan) Jose C. Principe (University of Florida, USA) Professor Ron Sun (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA) Anil K Seth (University of Sussex, UK) Bernard Widrow (Stanford University, USA) Stephen Grossberg (Boston University, USA) Umamaheshwari Ramamurthy (University of Memphis, TN, USA) Hans-Heinrich Bothe (Technical University of Denmark Lyngby, Denmark) Marcilio Souto (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil) Irene Macaluso (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland) Will Browne (University of Reading, UK) Petros A. M. Gelepithis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) Mark Humphries (University of Sheffield, UK) Robert Lowe (University of Sk?vde, Sweden) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Organizing Committee ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ramon Gal?n, Chair of the OC Carlos Hern?ndez I?aki Navarro Manuel Rodr?guez Pascual Campoy Paloma de la Puente Adolfo Hernando Miguel Olivares Guadalupe S?nchez ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contact ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ General requests: info at bicsconference.org Organization committee: oc at bicsconference.org Program committee: pc at bicsconference.org Conference website: www.bicsconference.org Conference mailist: http://lists.aslab.upm.es/mailman/listinfo/bics ============================================================================== From retienne at jhu.edu Wed Jan 20 10:50:02 2010 From: retienne at jhu.edu (retienne) Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:50:02 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: 2010 Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop Announcement Message-ID: <4B57262A.8040705@jhu.edu> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEUROMORPHIC COGNITION ENGINEERING WORKSHOP www.ine-web.org Sunday June 27th - Saturday July 17th, 2010, Telluride, Colorado Organizers: Ralph Etienne-Cummings, Johns Hopkins University Timothy Horiuchi, University of Maryland, College Park Tobi Delbruck, Institute for Neuroinformatics, Zurich 2010 Topic Leaders: Ernst Niebur & Malcolm Slaney - Attention and Selection Jorg Conradt & Matt Cook ? Spike-based Robotics/Navigation in Spikes Bert Shi & Patrick Kanold ? Multimodal Sensory Fusion/Self 0rganization John Harris & Shih-Chii Liu? Spike-based Computation Chuck Higgins & Justin Sanchez ? Brain-Machine Interfacing Ralph Etienne-Cummings ? Education/Tutorials/Methods Terry Sejnowski ? Computational Neuroscience (mini-workshop) Workshop Advisory Board: Andreas ANDREOU (The Johns Hopkins University) Andre van SCHAIK (University of Sydney) Avis COHEN (University of Maryland) Barbara SHINN-CUNNINGHAM (Boston University) Giacomo INDIVERI (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Jonathan TAPSON (University of Cape Town) Rodney DOUGLAS (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Shihab SHAMMA (University of Maryland) We invite applications for a three-week summer workshop that will be held in Telluride, Colorado from Sunday June 27th - Saturday July 17th, 2010. The application deadline is *Friday, March 1st* and application instructions are described at the bottom of this document. The 2010 Workshop and Summer School on Neuromorphic Engineering is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Institute for Neuroinformatics - University and ETH Zurich, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Maryland - College Park, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, University of Sydney, and the Salk Institute. Previous year workshop can be found at: http://ine-web.org/workshops/workshops-overview/index.html and last year's wiki is https://neuromorphs.net/ws2009/ . GOALS: Neuromorphic engineers design and fabricate artificial neural systems whose organizing principles are based on those of biological nervous systems. Over the past 13 years, this research community has focused on the understanding of low-level sensory processing and systems infrastructure; efforts are now expanding to apply this knowledge and infrastructure to addressing higher-level problems in perception, cognition, and learning. In this 3-week intensive workshop and through the Institute for Neuromorphic Engineering (INE), the mission is to promote interaction between senior and junior researchers; to educate new members of the community; to introduce new enabling fields and applications to the community; to promote on-going collaborative activities emerging from the Workshop, and to promote a self-sustaining research field. FORMAT: The three week summer workshop will include background lectures on systems and cognitive neuroscience (in particular sensory processing, learning and memory, motor systems and attention), practical tutorials on analog VLSI design, mobile robots, hands-on projects, and special interest groups. Participants are required to take part and possibly complete at least one of the projects proposed. They are furthermore encouraged to become involved in as many of the other activities proposed as interest and time allow. There will be two lectures in the morning that cover issues that are important to the community in general. Because of the diverse range of backgrounds among the participants, some of these lectures will be tutorials, rather than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Projects and interest groups meet in the late afternoons, and after dinner. In the early afternoon there will be tutorials on a wide spectrum of topics, including analog VLSI, mobile robotics, auditory systems, central-pattern-generators, selective attention mechanisms, cognitive systems, etc. LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS: The summer school will take place in the small town of Telluride, 9000 feet high in Southwest Colorado, about 6 hours drive away from Denver (350 miles). Great Lakes Aviation and America West Express airlines provide daily flights directly into Telluride. All facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are fully accessible to participants with disabilities. Participants will be housed in ski condominiums, within walking distance of the school. Participants are expected to share condominiums. The workshop is intended to be very informal and hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous experience in analog VLSI circuit design, computational or machine vision, systems level neurophysiology or modeling the brain at the systems level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories to apply, in particular if they are prepared to work on specific projects, talk about their own work or bring demonstrations to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software). Wireless internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout the workshops will assist with software and hardware issues. We will have a network of PCs running LINUX and Microsoft Windows for the workshop projects. We encourage participants to bring along their personal laptop. No cars are required. Given the small size of the town, we recommend that you do not rent a car. Bring hiking boots, warm clothes, rain gear, and a backpack, since Telluride is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Unless otherwise arranged with one of the organizers, we expect participants to stay for the entire duration of this three week workshop. ------ FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS: ------ Notification of acceptances will be mailed out around mid March 2009. The Workshop covers all your accommodations and facilities costs. You are responsible for your own travel to the Workshop. For expenses not covered by federal funds, a Workshop registration fee is required. The fee is $550 per participant, however, due to the difference in travel cost, we offer a discount to non-US participants. European registration fees will be reduced to $300; non-US/non-European registration fees will be reduced to $150. The cost of a shared condominium will be covered for all academic participants but upgrades to a private room will cost extra. Participants from National Laboratories and Industry are expected to pay for these condominiums. ------ HOW TO APPLY: ------- Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e. postdoctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage women and minority candidates to apply. Anyone interested in proposing specific projects should contact the appropriate topic leaders directly. The application website is (after January 1st, 2010): http://ine-web.org/telluride-conference-2010/apply-info Application will include: * First name, Last name, Affiliation, valid e-mail address. * Curriculum Vitae. * One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop, including possible ideas for workshop projects. * Two letters of recommendation (uploaded directly by references). The application deadline is March 1, 2010. Applicants will be notified by e-mail. 1 January, 2010 - Applications accepted on website 1 March, 2010 - Applications Due mid-March - Notification of Acceptance (v6-20.1.2010) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Etienne-Cummings Professor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 105 Barton Hall/3400 N. Charles St. Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD 21218 Email: retienne at jhu.edu E URL: http://etienne.ece.jhu.edu/~etienne Tel: 410 - 516 - 3494 Fax: 410 - 516 - 5566 From inaki.navarro at upm.es Mon Jan 18 16:20:05 2010 From: inaki.navarro at upm.es (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?I=F1aki_Navarro?=) Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:20:05 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: (Last CFP - Deadline Extension) BICS 2010 Message-ID: <8cc3f3ce1001181320s5ee40218vc013e417f00e705e@mail.gmail.com> *We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this message. LAST CALL FOR PAPERS - Deadline Extended Due to several requests, the submission deadline for BICS 2010 has been extended to: January 31, 2010. (23.59 GMT+1) ============================================================================== ____ _____ _____ _____ ___ ___ __ ___ | _ \_ _/ ____|/ ____| |__ \ / _ \/_ |/ _ \ | |_) || || | | (___ ) | | | || | | | | | _ < | || | \___ \ / /| | | || | | | | | |_) || || |____ ____) | / /_| |_| || | |_| | |____/_____\_____|_____/ |____|\___/ |_|\___/ BRAIN-INSPIRED COGNITIVE SYSTEMS CONFERENCE Madrid, Spain, July 14-16, 2010 www.bicsconference.org Ricardo Sanz, General Chair Sponsored by ICSC ============================================================================== BICS 2010 is a multitrack conference organised around four strongly related symposia (NC 2010, BIS 2010, CNS 2010 and MoC 2010). The three previous BICS conferences were BICS 2008 (Sao Luis, Brasil), BICS 2006 (Lesbos, Greece) and BICS 2004 (Stirling, UK). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference Symposia ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sixth International ICSC Symposium on Neural Computation (NC 2010) Fifth International ICSC Symposium on Biologically Inspired Systems (BIS 2010) Fourth International ICSC Symposium on Cognitive Neuroscience (CNS 2010) Third International ICSC Symposium on Models of Consciousness (MoC 2010) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Motivation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems - BICS 2010 aims to bring together leading scientists and engineers who use analytic and synthetic methods both to understand the astonishing processing properties of biological systems and, specifically those of the living brain, and to exploit such knowledge to advance engineering methods for building artificial systems with higher levels of cognitive competence. BICS 2010 is a meeting point of cognitive systems engineers and brain scientists where cross-domain ideas are fostered in the hope of getting new emerging insights on the nature, operation and extractable capabilities of brains. This multiple approach is necessary because the progressively more accurate data about brains is producing a growing need of both a quantitative and theoretical understanding and an associated capacity to manipulate this data and translate it into engineering applications rooted in sound theories. BICS 2010 is intended for both researchers that aim to build brain inspired systems with higher cognitive competences, and as well to life scientists who use and develop mathematical and engineering approaches for a better understanding of complex biological systems like the brain. BICS 2010 is organized around four major interlaced focal symposia that are organized into patterns that encourage cross-fertilization across the symposia topics. This emphasizes the role of BICS as a major meeting point for researchers and practitioners in the areas of biological and artificial cognitive systems. Debates across disciplines will enrich researchers with complementary perspectives from diverse scientific fields. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Call for Workshops and Tutorials ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Organizing Committee for BICS 2010 requests proposals for a full or half day workshop or tutorial, to be held on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at the Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. This day of workshops and tutorials will precede the main conference. The workshops and tutorials have consistently provided high-quality, topically-focused forums for researchers at the forefront of basic and applied research in brain inspired cognitive systems. Workshops should be focused on interactions of participants to exchange new ideas and explore new directions in research. Tutorials should provide self-contained descriptions of established research topics. The primary criteria for selection are anticipated level of interest, impact, novelty or creativity, and technical background of presenters. We request that workshop and tutorial organizers initially email a brief, single-paragraph description of the proposed topic and a list of organizers by January 31, 2010 to the BICS Program manager at ipc at bicsconference.org. A template for the final proposal of approximately 3 pages will be mailed to all interested parties. The full proposal submission should include a title, an abstract and a description of the proposed content, a tentative schedule, and the expected requirements for space and equipment. Full proposals for review will be due by January 31, 2010. All decisions will be made by February 15, 2010. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dates ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference: July 14-16, 2010 Workshops and tutorials: July 13, 2010 Paper submission Submission of contributions: January 31, 2010 Notification of acceptance: March 10, 2010 Final contributions due: May 15, 2010 Workshops and Tutorials submission Submission of proposals: January 31, 2010 Notification of acceptance: February 15, 2010 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference Publications ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All accepted papers will be included in the Conference Proceedings, which will be published in electronic format. Attendant authors will receive a copy of them on CD. * BICS'10 book by Springer Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version of them after the conference, to be included as book chapters in the BICS'10 book to be published by Springer. * Special Issue of Cognitive Computation A post-conference Special Issue of the journal Cognitive Computation will also be published by Springer with extended versions of selected BICS'2010 papers chapters and invited contributions. * Special Issue of the International Journal of Machine Consciousness A post-conference Special Issue of the International Journal of Machine Consciousness will also be published with extended versions of selected contributions to the Symposium on Models of Consciousness of BICS'10. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venue ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The conference will be held at the Escuela Superior de Ingenieros Industriales of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM ETSII). Address: Jose Gutierrez Abascal 2 28006 Madrid Spain Geo:lat=40.4404 lon=-3.6902 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference Scope ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Neural Computation (NC) NeuroComputational (NC) Systems ? NC Hybrid Systems ? NC Learning ? NC Control Systems ? NC Signal Processing ? NC Architectures ? NC Devices ? NC Perception and Pattern Classifiers ? Support Vector Machines ? Fuzzy or Neuro-Fuzzy Systems ? Evolutionary Neural Networks ? Biological Neural Network Models ? NC Applications Biologically Inspired Systems (BIS) Brain Inspired (BI) Systems ? BI Vision ? BI Audition and sound processing ? BI Other sensory modalities ? BI Motion processing ? BI Robotics ? BI Adaptive and Control systems ? BI Evolutionary systems ? BI Oscillatory systems ? BI Signal processing ? BI Learning ? Neuromorphic systems Cognitive Neuroscience (CNS) CN of vision ? CN of non-vision sensory modalities ? CN of volition ? Systems Neuroscience ? Attentional Mechanisms ? Affective Systems ? Language ? Cortical Models ? Sub-Cortical Models ? Cerebellar Models ? Neural correlates Models of consciousness (MoC) World awareness ? Self-awareness ? Imagination? Qualia models ? Virtual Machine Approaches ? Formal Models of Consciousness ? Control Theoretical Models ? Developmental/Infant Models ? Will and Volition ? Emotion and Affect Philosophical implications ? Neurophysiological Grounding ? Enactive approaches ? Heterophenomenology ? Analytic/Synthetic phenomenology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Program Committee ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jaime G?mez (Technical University of Madrid), Chair of the PC Amir Hussain (University of Stirling, UK), NC Chair Leslie Smith (University of Stirling, UK), BIS Chair Igor Aleksander (Imperial College, UK), CNS Chair Antonio Chella (University of Palermo, UK), MoC Chair David Gamez (Imperial College, London, UK) Hugo Gravato Marques (University of Essex, UK) Alexei Samsonovich (George Mason University, VA, USA) Raul Arrabales (Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain) Pentti Haikonen (University of Illinois, Springfield, IL, USA) Tom Ziemke (University of Sk?vde, Sweden) David Balduzzi (University of Wisconsin, WI, USA) Riccardo Manzotti (IULM, Milan, Italy) James Albus (George Mason University, VA, USA) James Austin (Cybula Ltd, UK) Giacomo Indiveri (University of Zurich, Switzerland) Alister Hamilton (University of Edinburgh, UK) F. Claire Rind (Newcastle University, UK) Sue Denham (University of Plymouth, UK) Philip Hafliger (University of Oslo, Norway) David Windridge (University of Surrey, UK) Luis Rocha (Indiana University, Bloomington, USA) Shun-ichi Amari (RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan) Jose C. Principe (University of Florida, USA) Professor Ron Sun (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA) Anil K Seth (University of Sussex, UK) Bernard Widrow (Stanford University, USA) Stephen Grossberg (Boston University, USA) Umamaheshwari Ramamurthy (University of Memphis, TN, USA) Hans-Heinrich Bothe (Technical University of Denmark Lyngby, Denmark) Marcilio Souto (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil) Irene Macaluso (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland) Will Browne (University of Reading, UK) Petros A. M. Gelepithis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) Mark Humphries (University of Sheffield, UK) Robert Lowe (University of Sk?vde, Sweden) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Organizing Committee ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ramon Gal?n, Chair of the OC Carlos Hern?ndez I?aki Navarro Manuel Rodr?guez Pascual Campoy Paloma de la Puente Adolfo Hernando Miguel Olivares Guadalupe S?nchez ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contact ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ General requests: info at bicsconference.org Organization committee: oc at bicsconference.org Program committee: pc at bicsconference.org Conference website: www.bicsconference.org Conference mailist: http://lists.aslab.upm.es/mailman/listinfo/bics ============================================================================== From Pierre.Kornprobst at sophia.inria.fr Wed Jan 20 05:09:26 2010 From: Pierre.Kornprobst at sophia.inria.fr (Pierre Kornprobst) Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:09:26 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Post-doctoral Position in Computational Neuroscience at INRIA Message-ID: <4B56D656.8030503@sophia.inria.fr> *Post-doctoral Position in Computational Neuroscience at INRIA* *Title: Bio-inspired image and video compression schemes* *Supervised by* Pierre Kornprobst, INRIA Researcher The INRIA, Neuromathcomp Project Team is looking for highly motivated candidates to work in the field of computational neuroscience with a focus on information theory. This work is to provide strong basis to conceive novel bio-inspired video compression schemes based on realistic spiking retinal simulators. It is a very challenging and motivating subject for two main reasons: The first is that video compression techniques are now essential for most standart equipments such as HDTV and DVD, and that recent technical progress allow us to imagine more elaborated coding schemes. The second is that neuroscience and recent discoveries about the nervous system could be a source of inspiration to propose new ideas, especially if one is able to better understand the statistics of spike trains. The first goal will be to better define for a spiking retinal simulator to be "realistic". To do so, we will start from the Virtual Retina simulator, which is a large-scale spiking simulator developed in the team (see [1]). Virtual Retina already proved its capacity to reproduce accurately several retinal cells behaviors such as contrast gain control. We want to extend this validation to additional retinal cells behaviors by comparing the statistics of simulated and real spike trains thanks to statistical tools developed in the team (see [2]). Based on these results and, we will consider to make the parameters of the simulator evolve according to plasticity rules (see [3]). The second goal will be to investigate decoding strategies based on simulated realistic spike trains obtained from the Virtual Retina. This work will start from some recent efforts from the team to understand how to "invert" retinal operations when still images are presented (see [4,5]) and it will be based on other related contribution not necessarily focus on the visual system such as [6]. Successful candidate is expected to interact with several researchers and PhD students coming from different disciplines and already working on the different aspects mentioned above. Mainly, the candidate will interact with Bruno Cessac (theoretical physics and mathematics), Marc Antonini (electrical engineering), and Pierre Kornprobst (mathematics and computational neuroscience). Also, other interactions corresponding to current proposals will be encouraged, for example with Adrian Palacios and Institut de la Vision. *Related references* [1] Virtual Retina: A biological retina model and simulator, with contrast gain control A. Wohrer and P. Kornprobst, Journal of Computational Neuroscience, Volume 26:2, pp. 219-249 (2009) [2] ENAS: Event neural assembly Simulation [3] How Gibbs distributions may naturally arise from synaptic adaptation mechanisms, B. Cessac, H. Rostro, J.C. Vasquez, T. Vi?ville, Journal of Statistical Physics, 136, (3), 565-602 (2009). [4] Retinal filtering and image reconstruction, A. Wohrer, P. Kornprobst and M. Antonini, INRIA Research report no 6960, 2009 [5] A novel bio-inspired static image compression scheme for noisy data transmission over low-bandwidth channels, K. Masmoudi, M. Antonini, P. Kornprobst and L. Perrinet, ICASSP 2010, to appear. [6] Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code. F Rieke, D Warland, R de Ruyter van Steveninck & W Bialek (MIT Press, Cambridge, 1997) *Deadline to apply: February, 20* *To know more*, please check job offers in the Neuromathcomp project team website [http://www-sop.inria.fr/neuromathcomp] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100120/d3ec283b/attachment-0001.html From rivestfr at iro.umontreal.ca Wed Jan 20 16:17:25 2010 From: rivestfr at iro.umontreal.ca (Francois Rivest) Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:17:25 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Alternative Time Representation in Dopamine Models Message-ID: <00c701ca9a15$f6f78dd0$e4e6a970$@umontreal.ca> I am glad to announce the publication of a new model of timing in TD models of dopamine (see abstract below). Feel free to e-mail me comments or questions at [rivestfr [at] iro.umontreal.ca]. Rivest, Kalaska, & Bengio (2009) Alternative time representation in dopamine models. Journal of Computational Neuroscience. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10827-009-0191-1 Abstract: Dopaminergic neuron activity has been modeled during learning and appetitive behavior, most commonly using the temporal-difference (TD) algorithm. However, a proper representation of elapsed time and of the exact task is usually required for the model to work. Most models use timing elements such as delay-line representations of time that are not biologically realistic for intervals in the range of seconds. The interval-timing literature provides several alternatives. One of them is that timing could emerge from general network dynamics, instead of coming from a dedicated circuit. Here, we present a general rate-based learning model based on long short-term memory (LSTM) networks that learns a time representation when needed. Using a na?ve network learning its environment in conjunction with TD, we reproduce dopamine activity in appetitive trace conditioning with a constant CS-US interval, including probe trials with unexpected delays. The proposed model learns a representation of the environment dynamics in an adaptive biologically plausible framework, without recourse to delay lines or other special-purpose circuits. Instead, the model predicts that the task-dependent representation of time is learned by experience, is encoded in ramp-like changes in single-neuron activity distributed across small neural networks, and reflects a temporal integration mechanism resulting from the inherent dynamics of recurrent loops within the network. The model also reproduces the known finding that trace conditioning is more difficult than delay conditioning and that the learned representation of the task can be highly dependent on the types of trials experienced during training. Finally, it suggests that the phasic dopaminergic signal could facilitate learning in the cortex. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Francois Rivest, M.Sc. Candidat au PhD en Informatique (w/Neuroscience) Laboratoire d?Informatique des Syst?mes Adaptatifs Groupe de Recherche sur le Syst?me Nerveux Central Universit? de Montr?al http://www-etud.iro.umontreal.ca/~rivestfr/wordpress From x.troncoso at neuralcorrelate.com Thu Jan 21 13:17:36 2010 From: x.troncoso at neuralcorrelate.com (Xoana G Troncoso) Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:17:36 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Illusion Submissions: 6th annual Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest Message-ID: <5099dbe71001211017r488b821byf60d944bca462d99@mail.gmail.com> ****CALL FOR ILLUSION SUBMISSIONS: THE 6TH ANNUAL BEST VISUAL ILLUSION OF THE YEAR CONTEST**** http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com *** We are happy to announce the world's 6th annual Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest!!*** The deadline for illusion submissions is February 15th, 2010! The 2010 contest will be held in Naples, Florida (Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts, http://www.thephil.org/) on Monday, May 10th, 2010, as an official satellite of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS) conference. The Naples Philharmonic Center is an 8-minute walk from the main VSS headquarters hotel in Naples, and is thus central to the VSS conference. Past contests have been highly successful in drawing public attention to vision research, with over ***FOUR MILLION*** website hits from viewers all over the world, as well as hundreds of international media stories. The First, Second and Third Prize winners at the 2009 contest were Arthur Shapiro, Zhong-Lin Lu, Emily Knight, & Robert Ennis (American University, University of Southern California, Dartmouth College, SUNY College of Optometry, USA), Yuval Barkan & Hedva Spitzer (Tel-Aviv University, Israel), and Richard Russel (Harvard University, USA). To see the illusions, photo galleries and other highlights from the 2009 and previous contests, go to http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com Illusion submissions can be novel visual, cognitive, or multimodal illusions (unpublished, or published no earlier than 2009) in standard image, movie or html formats. Exciting new variants of classic or known illusions are also admissible. An international panel of impartial judges will rate the submissions and narrow them to the TOP TEN. Then, at the Contest Gala in Naples, the TOP TEN illusionists will present their contributions and the attendees of the event (that means you!) will vote to pick the TOP THREE WINNERS! Illusions submitted to previous editions of the contest can be re-submitted to the 2010 contest, so long as they meet the above requirements and were not among the TOP THREE winners in previous years. Submissions will be held in strict confidence by the panel of judges and the authors/creators will retain full copyright. No illusions will be posted on the illusion contest's website without the creators' explicit permission. As with submitting your work to any scientific conference, participating in to the Best Illusion of the Year Contest does not preclude you from also submitting your work for publication elsewhere. Submissions can be made to Dr. Xoana Troncoso (Illusion Contest Coordinator, Neural Correlate Society) via email (x.troncoso at neuralcorrelate.com) until February 15, 2010. Illusion submissions should come with a (no more than) one-page description of the illusion and its theoretical underpinnings (if known). Illusions will be rated according to: . Significance to our understanding of the visual system . Simplicity of the description . Sheer beauty . Counterintuitive quality . Spectacularity Visit the illusion contest website for further information and to see last year's illusions: http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com Submit your ideas now and take home this prestigious award! Xoana Troncoso (Illusion Contest Coordinator) Susana Martinez-Conde (President, Neural Correlate Society) On behalf of the Executive Board of the Neural Correlate Society: Jose-Manuel Alonso, Stephen Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, Luis Martinez, Xoana Troncoso, Peter Tse -- Xoana G Troncoso, PhD Postdoctoral Scholar in Neuroscience Andersen Laboratory California Institute of Technology 1200 E California Blvd. M/C 216-76 Pasadena, California 91125, USA phone: +1-626-395-8337 email: x.troncoso at neuralcorrelate.com website: www.vis.caltech.edu/~xoana/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100121/9d207150/attachment.html From aapo.hyvarinen at helsinki.fi Fri Jan 22 05:34:03 2010 From: aapo.hyvarinen at helsinki.fi (Aapo Hyvarinen) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:34:03 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc positions in brain imaging signal analysis Message-ID: <4B597F1B.3030705@helsinki.fi> Applications are invited for *** Two postdoctoral positions *** in the project "Computational analysis of complex brain imaging data" in Helsinki, Finland. This is a joint project with Aapo Hyvarinen (Univ of Helsinki) and Riitta Hari (Aalto University, formerly called Helsinki Univ of Technology). The postdoctoral training consists of developing new models, methods, and paradigms for brain imaging experiments using MEG and EEG. Almost all brain imaging data are currently analyzed by simple methods which constrain the experiments to simple laboratory situations. We develop new methods with which we can analyze brain activity in situations closer to everyday-life. An important example is the setting of two-person neuroscience, in which two subjects are in social interaction with each other, while both of their brains are scanned. Another example is when the subject is in resting state and we only observe the internal dynamics of the brain. One of the post-doc positions has a more computational-mathematical orientation and is concentrated on development of new data analysis methods for MEG and EEG. It is located in Hyvarinen's group at the University of Helsinki, which is one of the world's leading groups in unsupervised machine learning and its applications in neuroscience. The other position combines experimental work with methods development and is in Hari's group at the Brain Research Unit of the Aalto University (Helsinki University of Technology), well-known world-wide for its work in the development of MEG. The selected candidates will receive world-class post-doctoral training in a highly multidisciplinary and paradigm-shifting project. Applications from candidates with a PhD degree in computer science, neuroscience, statistics, psychology, signal processing, or similar, are welcome. Candidates with experience in neuroscience are preferred but exceptionally strong candidates with a strong future commitment to neuroscience are also eligible. Candidates who are likely to obtain a PhD degree in the next few months can also apply. The starting date and the duration are flexible. Please send your application to: aapo.hyvarinen at helsinki.fi . Attach at least: CV, publication list, short statement of research interests, and names and email addresses of 2-3 people willing to give their opinion on your competence. Review of applications will start on 15th February and continue until the positions are filled. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aapo Hyvarinen Dept of Mathematics and Statistics & Dept of Computer Science University of Helsinki www.cs.helsinki.fi/aapo.hyvarinen/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From jbednar at inf.ed.ac.uk Fri Jan 22 12:08:42 2010 From: jbednar at inf.ed.ac.uk (James A. Bednar) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:08:42 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: New paper: Modeling the Emergence of Whisker Direction Maps in Rat Barrel Cortex Message-ID: <19289.56218.305232.790698@cortex.inf.ed.ac.uk> Dear colleagues, We are delighted to announce the publication of the following research article: Wilson SP, Law JS, Mitchinson B, Prescott TJ, Bednar JA (2010) Modeling the Emergence of Whisker Direction Maps in Rat Barrel Cortex. PLoS ONE 5(1): e8778. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008778 http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008778 Abstract Based on measuring responses to rat whiskers as they are mechanically stimulated, one recent study suggests that barrel-related areas in layer 2/3 rat primary somatosensory cortex (S1) contain a pinwheel map of whisker motion directions. Because this map is reminiscent of topographic organization for visual direction in primary visual cortex (V1) of higher mammals, we asked whether the S1 pinwheels could be explained by an input-driven developmental process as is often suggested for V1. We developed a computational model to capture how whisker stimuli are conveyed to supragranular S1, and simulate lateral cortical interactions using an established self-organizing algorithm. Inputs to the model each represent the deflection of a subset of 25 whiskers as they are contacted by a moving stimulus object. The subset of deflected whiskers corresponds with the shape of the stimulus, and the deflection direction corresponds with the movement direction of the stimulus. If these two features of the inputs are correlated during the training of the model, a somatotopically aligned map of direction emerges for each whisker in S1. Predictions of the model that are immediately testable include (1) that somatotopic pinwheel maps of whisker direction exist in adult layer 2/3 barrel cortex for every large whisker on the rat's face, even peripheral whiskers; and (2) in the adult, neurons with similar directional tuning are interconnected by a network of horizontal connections, spanning distances of many whisker representations. We also propose specific experiments for testing the predictions of the model by manipulating patterns of whisker inputs experienced during early development. The results suggest that similar intracortical mechanisms guide the development of primate V1 and rat S1. I would like to encourage you to add comments, notes and ratings on the article via the link above, Yours sincerely Stuart P. Wilson, Judith S. Law, Ben Mitchinson, Tony J. Prescott, James A. Bednar. Stuart Wilson (PhD Student) Adaptive Behaviour Research Group Department of Psychology The University of Sheffield Western Bank Sheffield S10 2TN UK s.p.wilson at sheffield.ac.uk www.abrg.group.shef.ac.uk/people/stuart/ http://stuartwilson.postgrad.shef.ac.uk/ -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. From kenneth.harris at imperial.ac.uk Sat Jan 23 15:07:28 2010 From: kenneth.harris at imperial.ac.uk (Harris, Kenneth D) Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:07:28 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Faculty job at Imperial College London Message-ID: <8999CAFBA2D8184FB90E4727AEC81E5DD632921C@icexm6.ic.ac.uk> I'm writing to advertise a faculty job opening at Imperial College London. Imperial is one of the world's top engineering schools, with a growing and highly collaborative neuroscience community as well as strengths in related disciplines such as robotics, computing, photonics, cell biology, and nanotechnology, The job is a joint appointment between the Departments of Bioengineering and Electrical and Electronic Engineering. We are looking for an experimental or computational neuroscientist with a strong record of academic achievement, able to direct an exciting and independent research programme in an area that synergises with our current activities. Details of the job are here: https://www4.ad.ic.ac.uk/OA_HTML/OA.jsp?OAFunc=IRC_VIS_VAC_DISPLAY&p_svid=15155&p_spid=785011 All the best, Kenneth Harris. -- Kenneth D. Harris, Ph.D. Reader Departments of Bioengineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Imperial College London SW7 2AZ Phone: +44 (0)20 7594 6370 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100123/173e792a/attachment.html From juergen at idsia.ch Mon Jan 25 15:08:56 2010 From: juergen at idsia.ch (Schmidhuber Juergen) Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:08:56 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Fellowships for Postdocs and PhD Students at the Swiss AI Lab IDSIA Message-ID: <7F614603-D01B-4D46-A92B-A565ADCF5FB3@idsia.ch> We are continually seeking postdocs and PhD students for several machine learning projects, including a new one on tactile pattern recognition with artificial and biological fingers. We also encourage applicants with expertise in recurrent networks and/or reinforcement learning. Please follow instructions under http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/sn2010.html http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/eu2009.html http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/sinergia2008.html Interviews possible at IDSIA, CogSys 2010 (Zurich, Jan 27-28), EUCogII 2010 (Zurich, Jan 29), AGI 2010 (Lugano, March 5-8), or by Skype. Juergen Schmidhuber From ted.carnevale at yale.edu Mon Jan 25 21:39:14 2010 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:39:14 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Talks, tutorials, and workshops at the 2010 NEURON Simulator Meeting Message-ID: <4B5E55D2.1030903@yale.edu> Here are the titles of the three most recent additions to the list of talks, tutorials, and workshops that are planned for the 2010 NEURON Simulator Meeting, March 22-23 at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ: Title: Computational Neuro-Matrimony: Dealing with Failures to Communicate Format: Talk Speaker: Jean-Marc Fellous, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Title: A Practical Introduction to NEURON Format: Tutorial Speaker: Ted Carnevale Title: Hacking NEURON Format: Workshop Moderators: Ted Carnevale and Bill Lytton This thread in The NEURON Forum https://www.neuron.yale.edu/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1863 contains the growing list of abstracts of these and other presentations that will be given at the Meeting. If you are interested in attending the 2010 NEURON Simulator Meeting, or the "Course on Parallelizing Network Models with NEURON" which will follow it on March 24-26, there is still time to sign up for either or both. But it would be a good idea to act quickly because 1. the registration deadline for both events is Feb. 26--less than 5 weeks from now, and 2. the network parallelization course is likely to fill up well before Feb. 26 because of the limited number of seats that are available. --Ted From ilafiete at mail.clm.utexas.edu Tue Jan 26 11:54:18 2010 From: ilafiete at mail.clm.utexas.edu (Ila Fiete) Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:54:18 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral fellowship in computational neuroscience (UT Austin, Fiete group) Message-ID: <4B5F1E3A.1080706@mail.clm.utexas.edu> Postdoctoral fellowship in computational neuroscience --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Fiete group at UT Austitn is seeking a highly motivated and accomplished individual for a postdoctoral position in computational neuroscience. The general interests of the group are in neural coding and dynamics. Collaborations with the greater neuroscience community are strongly encouraged. The initial appointment is 1 year, with a possibility of extension to 3 years. Environment: Neuroscience research at Austin spans the range from molecular to systems to quantitative psychology, and includes several computational neuroscience groups. For more information about our research and the neuroscience community at UT Austin, please visit http://www.clm.utexas.edu/~fiete/, http://clm.utexas.edu/index.html, http://www.cps.utexas.edu/Research/index.html, and http://neuroscience.utexas.edu/ Austin is the 16th-largest US city, and is home to the highest density of high-tech companies outside of Silicon valley. To Apply: Applicants must have a quantitative background (e.g. Ph.D. in Physics, Mathematics, Computational Neuroscience, Computer Science, or Engineering). Enthusiasm for and a strong record in research are musts. Experience with Matlab or C and some knowledge of neuroscience is desirable but not necessary. Please email me with 1) a copy of your CV or resume, 2) a statement of research interests, and 3) please arrange to have 3 letters of recommendation sent to me by email. I will review applications immediately on receiving all requested information. Please apply by February 10 for full consideration. Best regards, Ila Fiete From Elizabeth.Thomas at u-bourgogne.fr Wed Jan 27 09:55:33 2010 From: Elizabeth.Thomas at u-bourgogne.fr (Elizabeth Thomas) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:55:33 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: =?windows-1252?q?European_Society_for_Cognitive_P?= =?windows-1252?q?sychology_=28ESCoP=29_=93Computational_and_Mathematical_?= =?windows-1252?q?Modelling_of_Cognition=94_9-19_July_2010?= Message-ID: <4B6053E5.1060107@u-bourgogne.fr> European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP) European Summer School on */?Computational and Mathematical Modelling of Cognition? 9-19 July 2010 Mallnitz (K?rnten), Austria Preliminary Announcement /*(January 2010) /Principal organizers and instructors: /Stephan Lewandowsky (University of Western Australia) Klaus Oberauer (University of Zurich, Switzerland) Simon Farrell (University of Bristol, U.K.) /Contributing organizers and instructors: /Gordon Brown (University of Warwick, U.K.) Bob French (CNRS, University of Burgundy, France) J?rg Rieskamp (University of Basel, Switzerland) Lael Schooler (Max-Planck Institute Berlin, Germany) Joachim Vandekerckhove (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium) E. J. Wagenmakers (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) */Overview /* Most areas of cognitive psychology have recognized the power of computational and mathematical models and have embraced their benefits to rigorous theorizing. One illustration of this trend is the growing popularity of Bayesian approaches to cognitive modelling. This powerful trend comes, however, at a cost: The complexity of models and modelling techniques render it increasingly difficult for non-experts to acquire the necessary skills and then keep pace with developments. This summer school is dedicated to */introducing/* */researchers to the basic techniques of computational and mathematical modelling from the ground up and in a hands-on manner/*. The instructors represent a broad range of expertise and are all research leaders in their field with extensive experience in teaching of modelling. The academic program is as follows: We will first underscore the need for computational modelling by examining some pertinent recent examples from cognitive psychology. We then introduce participants to the basics of parameter estimation, before turning to presentation of maximum-likelihood techniques, model comparison and selection, and interpretation of models. Additional sessions will be dedicated to connectionism (neural networks), cognitive architectures (e.g., ACT-R) and to Bayesian approaches to modelling and model selection. All material will be presented with hands-on examples (using MATLAB). Our approach will be largely problem-based. */Venue /* The School will be held at the Hotel Alpengarten (http://www.alpengarten.at/en) in Mallnitz, a small town in Austria?s ?Hohe Tauern? National Park, a short train ride from the Mozart town of Salzburg. */Cost /* The complete cost for attendance at the Summer School is ?*/395 for students /*(currently-enrolled in a post-secondary course of study anywhere in the world) and ?*/695 for all others/*. This package includes (a) twin share accommodation at the conference hotel from July 9 through 19, 2010 (10 nights, additional cost for single */?100/*); (b) breakfast and morning and afternoon teas and snacks (but not lunch and dinner, lunch for the 10 days can be purchased for an additional */?150/*); and (c) all course materials, including a copy of a textbook (Lewandowsky and Farrell,/ Elements of Computational and Mathematical Modeling in Cognition/; Sage Publications, forthcoming.) Applicants from new EU countries (i.e., Malta, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Akrotiri, and Dhekelia) will also be considered for a reduction in attendance cost of */?100 /*(from ?395 down to ?295). */Attendees are additionally responsible for their own travel expenses. Attendees are also expected to have a laptop with MATLAB installed (Student version is sufficient). /* */Eligibility and Attendance Criteria /* There is a maximum of 25 places in the School. Attendees will be selected on the basis of prior performance and to ensure a well-balanced mixture of skills within the group. We particularly welcome attendance by academics in cognition and allied fields who want to broaden their expertise to include modelling. Applicants from outside the EU are welcome. To ensure the success of the School, attendants are expected to have (a) at least an undergraduate degree in psychology or an allied field; and (b) a basic level of ability to use MATLAB or equivalent programming expertise. This competence can be obtained by working through the tutorial at http://web.ift.uib.no/Teori/KURS/WRK/mat/singlemat.html and by working through one of a number of great books that will be listed on our website. */No advanced knowledge of mathematics or matrix algebra is required. /*The exact prerequisites will be specified on www.cogsciwa.com by March 1. */Important Dates /* */Now: /*Feel free to contact the principal organizer, Stephan Lewandowsky (lewan at psy.uwa.edu.au ) , for further information. */1 March- 30 April: /*Visit*/ /*www.cogsciwa.com for more information about attendance requirements and submit applications. */15 May:/* All attendees will be informed of the outcome of their applications and waiting list will be announced. Applicants from new EU countries eligible for a */?100 /*discount*/ /*will also be contacted. */1 June: /*Full payment of School fees must be received or slot will be allocated to people on waiting list. */9-19 July: /*Welcome to Austria! From silvia.chiappa at tuebingen.mpg.de Wed Jan 27 07:37:54 2010 From: silvia.chiappa at tuebingen.mpg.de (Silvia Chiappa) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:37:54 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Cognitive Science and Machine Learning Summer School Message-ID: <4B6033A2.40008@tuebingen.mpg.de> We invite applications for the Summer School on Cognitive Science and Machine Learning that will be held at Sardegna Ricerche (Italy) in May 2010 and will be sponsored by the PASCAL2 Network of Excellence. http://www.mlss.cc/sardinia10 The summer school will take place immediately before and near the AISTATS 2010 conference. ============================= Theme of the Summer School: Cognitive science aims to reverse engineer human intelligence; machine learning provides one of our most powerful sources of insight into how machine intelligence is possible. Cognitive science therefore raises challenges for, and draws inspiration from, machine learning; and insights about the human mind may help inspire new directions for machine learning. This summer school brings together leading researchers from both fields, and those working at the interface between them. It is aimed at graduate students, post-docs and established researchers from both the cognitive science and machine learning communities, interested in exploring the interface between human and machine intelligence. ============================= Confirmed Speakers (partial list): Nick Chater, University College London Alex Clark, Royal Holloway University of London Silvia Chiappa, Cambridge University Peter Dayan, University College London Tom Griffiths, UC Berkeley Konrad K?rding, University of Chicago Neil Lawrence, Manchester University Bernhard Sch?lkopf, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics Satinder Singh, University of Michigan Josh Tenenbaum, MIT Chris Watkins, Royal Holloway University of London Felix Wichmann, Technical University of Berlin ============================= Organisers: Nick Chater, University College London Silvia Chiappa, Cambridge University Tom Griffiths, UC Berkeley Neil Lawrence, Manchester University Bernhard Sch?lkopf, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics Josh Tenenbaum, MIT ============================= Important Dates: Application Submission Deadline: March 1 2010 Notification: March 26 2010 Subscription Deadline: April 1 2010 School: from May 6 to May 12 2010 From sen.cheng at rub.de Wed Jan 27 17:10:19 2010 From: sen.cheng at rub.de (Sen Cheng) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:10:19 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Three PhD positions in Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: Applications are invited for three PhD positions in the research unit of Prof. Sen Cheng at the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. Our unit investigates the theoretical basis for learning and memory processes at the neuronal circuit level. A special emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the learning process, which largely has been neglected up to date. Access to experimental data such as electrophysiological and EEG recordings and behavioral data can be facilitated through collaboration with experimental groups both on campus and at other institutions worldwide. The Ruhr University Bochum is home to a vibrant research community in neuroscience. Students will be encouraged to join the International Graduate School of Neuroscience and interact with the Institute of Neuroinformatics. Our unit is one of three units in the newly formed Mercator Research Group "Structure of Memory". The group is funded by the Stiftung Mercator and investigates episodic and semantic memory processes and their relation to other cognitive functions. It comprises a diverse and interdisciplinary team of philosophers and experimental as well as theoretical neuroscientists. The main language of communication in the group is English. The successful applicants will have a background in either neuroscience or a quantitative science such as physics, mathematics, or engineering. Experience in computational neuroscience is not required, but a familiarity with quantitative data analysis methods and/or mathematical or computer models will be an asset. For further information see www.rub.de/cns. To apply please send a letter stating your motivation and your research interests, a complete CV, and the names and email addresses of at least two referees to mrg1 at rub.de by March 7th, 2010. The Ruhr University Bochum is committed to equal opportunity. We strongly encourage applications from qualified women and persons with disabilities. --- Stiftung Mercator, one of Germany's largest foundations, initiates and funds projects that promote better educational opportunities in schools and universities. In the spirit of Gerhard Mercator, it supports initiatives that embody the idea of open-mindedness and tolerance through intercultural encounters, sharing of knowledge and culture. The foundation provides a platform for new ideas to enable people ? regardless of their national, cultural or social background ? to develop their personality, become involved in society and make the most of the opportunities available to them. --- The Ruhr University Bochum is one of Germany?s leading research universities. The University draws its strengths from both the diversity and the proximity of scientific and engineering disciplines on a single, coherent campus. This highly dynamic setting enables students and researchers to work across traditional boundaries of academic subjects and faculties. Host to 32,600 students and 4,700 staff, the Ruhr University is a vital institution in the Ruhr area, which has been selected as European Capital of Culture for the year 2010. From vcut at bu.edu Wed Jan 27 21:00:56 2010 From: vcut at bu.edu (Vassilis Cutsuridis) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:00:56 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: 3rd CfP for the special Issue "Saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning" of the Cognitive Computation journal References: Message-ID: <953C27FB8C8C43E18AF3EFA8E0EC491F@Zeus> ======================== THIRD CALL FOR PAPERS ======================== ---------------------------------------------------------------- Special Issue of the Cognitive Computation Journal (Springer) on "Saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning" ---------------------------------------------------------------- Guest Editors John G. Taylor, King's College, London, U.K. (john.g.taylor at kcl.ac.uk) Vassilis Cutsuridis, Boston University, USA (vcut at bu.edu) -------- Scope -------- How is a complex visual scene processed? How is the selection of one particular location in a visual scene accomplished? Does it involve bottom-up, sensory driven cues or top-down world knowledge expectations or both? How is the decision made when to terminate a fixation and move the gaze? How is the decision made where to direct the gaze in order to take the next sample? The goal of the special issue is to advance our understanding of the state-of-the-art on bottom-up and top-down approaches to active visual search and picture scanning. Neurocomputational, computer vision and experimental review papers on perceptual saliency, attention, learning and memory, decision making and gaze control are welcome. The manner in which attention is involved is considered a highly relevant topic to the special issue. ----------------- Important dates ---------------- Submission deadline: April 1, 2010 Review deadline: July 1, 2010 Author notification: July 2, 2010 Author?s response: August 1, 2010 Publication by journal: ~November/December, 2010 ----------- Submission ----------- Electronic submissions for the Cognitive Computation journal can be found under http://www.springer.com/biomed/neuroscience/journal/12559 Please indicate in your cover letter that your article is for the special issue "Computational models of saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning". ------------- Contact ------------- Dr. Vassilis Cutsuridis Center for Memory and Brain Psychology Department Boston University Boston, MA USA Email: vcut at bu.edu Web: http://people.bu.edu/vcut/ From grzes at cs.york.ac.uk Thu Jan 28 04:51:01 2010 From: grzes at cs.york.ac.uk (Marek Grzes) Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:51:01 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd CFP ALA 2010 workshop on Adaptive and Learning Agents @ AAMAS'10 Message-ID: <4B615E05.9090109@cs.york.ac.uk> We apologize if you receive more than one copy. Paper deadline: FEBRUARY 2, 2010 * The workshop with a long and successful history now in its 10th edition * ACM proceedings format with up to 8 pages * Special issue of the Advances in Complex Systems (ACS) journal after the workshop ******************************************************* 2nd Call for Papers ALA 2010: Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop at AAMAS 2010 The ALA workshop has a long and successful history and is now in its 10th edition. The workshop is a merger of European ALAMAS and the American ALAg series which is usually held at AAMAS. Details may be found at the workshop web site: http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/~grzes/ala10/ ******************************************************* * Submission Deadline: February 2, 2010 * Notification of acceptance: March 2, 2010 * Camera-ready copies: March 15, 2010 ******************************************************* Adaptive and Learning Agents, particularly those in a multiagent setting are becoming more and more prominent as the sheer size and complexity of many real world systems grows. How to adaptively control, coordinate and optimize such systems is an emerging multi-disciplinary research area at the intersection of Computer Science, Control theory, Economics, and Biology. The ALA workshop will focus on agent and multiagent systems which employ learning or adaptation. The goal of this workshop is to increase awareness and interest in adaptive agent research, encourage collaboration and give a representative overview of current research in the area of adaptive and learning agents and multiagent systems. It aims at bringing together not only scientists from different areas of computer science but also from different fields studying similar concepts (e.g., game theory, bio-inspired control, mechanism design). This workshop will focus on all aspects of adaptive and learning agents and multiagent systems with a particular emphasis on how to modify established learning techniques and/or create new learning paradigms to address the many challenges presented by complex real-world problems. The topics of interest include but are not limited to: * Novel combinations of reinforcement and supervised learning approaches * Integrated learning approaches that work with other agent reasoning modules like negotiation, trust models, coordination, etc. * Supervised multiagent learning * Reinforcement learning (single and multiagent) * Planning (single and multiagent) * Reasoning (single and multiagent) * Distributed learning * Adaptation and learning in dynamic environments * Evolution of agents in complex environments * Co-evolution of agents in a multiagent setting * Cooperative exploration and learning to cooperate and collaborate * Learning trust and reputation * Communication restrictions and their impact on multiagent coordination * Design of reward structure and fitness measures for coordination * Scaling learning techniques to large systems of learning and adaptive agents * Emergent behaviour in adaptive multiagent systems * Game theoretical analysis of adaptive multiagent systems * Neuro-control in multiagent systems * Bio-inspired multiagent systems * Applications of adaptive and learning agents and multiagent systems to real world complex systems * Learning of Co-ordination Papers in the workshop that focus on multiagent approaches are eligible to be extended for inclusion in a special issue of the Advances in Complex Systems (ACS) journal. A review cycle is scheduled for summer 2010, details will be given on the workshop site. Only papers presented at the workshop are eligible for inclusion in the special issue. ******************************************************* Submission Details Paper submissions may be emailed in the pdf format to grzes at cs.york.ac.uk with the subject Submission ALA-10. Submissions may be up to 8 pages in the ACM proceedings format (i.e., the same as AAMAS papers in the main conference track). Accepted work will be allocated time for oral presentation during the one day workshop. ******************************************************* Organization Workshop chairs: Marek Grzes (University of York, UK) Matthew Taylor (University of Southern California, USA) If you have any questions about the ALA workshop, please contact the chairs by e-mail: grzes at cs.york.ac.uk Senior Steering Committee Members: Franziska Kl?gl (University of Orebro, Sweden) Daniel Kudenko (University of York, UK) Ann Now? (Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium) Lynne E. Parker (University of Tennessee, USA) Sandip Sen (University of Tulsa, USA) Peter Stone (University of Texas at Austin, USA) Kagan Tumer (Oregon State University, USA) Karl Tuyls (Maastricht University, The Netherlands) ******************************************************* From bower at uthscsa.edu Thu Jan 28 21:01:24 2010 From: bower at uthscsa.edu (james bower) Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:01:24 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Special Symposium at CNS*2010 in San Antonio Texas Message-ID: <06C4F4AF-E69A-4999-9BE8-1B427E1B818F@uthscsa.edu> Special Symposium Announcement Computational Neuroscience: What have we learned in 20 years and what do we still need to know? As part of the main program at: CNS *2010 July 24th - 30th San Antonio Texas http://www.cnsorg.org/ Abstract Submission Deadline for CNS*2010: Feb. 14th ABSTRACT SUBMISSION WEBSITE: http://www.cnsorg.org/2010/submission.shtml It has been 20 years since plans were made to organize the worlds first open international meeting in computational neuroscience. Quoting from the introduction to the proceedings of the first meeting in 1990, "Sensing that recent leaps in computational power and knowledge of the nervous system may have set the state for a revolution in theoretical neurobiology, our motive was to organize a conference focused on emerging modeling tools and emerging neurobiological concepts". As part of CNS*2010, we have invited key participants in the last 20 years of CNS meetings to present their views on where computational neuroscience has been and where it is going. This special symposium will allow for both reflection and predictions on the future of our computational approach to understanding how brains work. We hope to see you in San Antonio: Jim Bower, Charles Wilson, Todd Troyer (local CNS*2010 organizers) Invited Speakers Dr. John Miller (Montana State University) ?Analysis of invertebrate nervous systems as models for understanding complex function? Dr. Ron Calabrese (Emory University) ?The more we look, the more biological variation we see: How has and should this influence modeling of small networks?? Dr. Alain Destexhe (CNRS - France) The Nervous System, still noisy after all these years? Dr. Upinder Bhalla (NCBS- Bangalore India) "Still looking for the memories: molecules and synaptic plasticity." Dr. John Rinzel (NYU) ?Modeling neuronal dynamics - our trajectory?? Dr. Bruno Olshausen (University of California Berkeley) ?Learning about vision: questions we've answered, questions we haven't answered, and questions we haven't yet asked.? Dr. Sharon Crook (Arizona State University) ?Learning from the past: Approaches for Reproducibility in Computational Neuroscience? Dr. Avrama Blackwell (George Mason University) Calcium: the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything Dr. Christiane Linster (Cornell University) ?The olfactory system, still computing, but how??? Dr. Michael Hasselmo (Boston University) ?20 years of oscillations and memory: The long and winding road linking cellular mechanisms to behavior.? Dr. James M. Bower Professor of Computational Neurobiology Research Imaging Center University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, Texas Department of Biology University of Texas - San Antonio Phone: 210 382 0553 Email: bower at uthscsa.edu Web: www.bower-lab.org CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE: The contents of this email and any attachments to it may be privileged or contain privileged and confidential information. This information is only for the viewing or use of the intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error or are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of, or the taking of any action in reliance upon, any of the information contained in this e- mail, or any of the attachments to this e-mail, is strictly prohibited and that this e-mail and all of the attachments to this e-mail, if any, must be immediately returned to the sender or destroyed and, in either case, this e-mail and all attachments to this e-mail must be immediately deleted from your computer without making any copies hereof and any and all hard copies made must be destroyed. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by e-mail immediately. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100128/f0357c86/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CNS poster.tiff Type: image/tiff Size: 1086974 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100128/f0357c86/CNSposter-0001.tiff From terry at salk.edu Sat Jan 30 16:38:25 2010 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:38:25 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - February, 2010 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 22, Number 2 - February 1, 2010 ARTICLES Memory Capacities for Synaptic and Structural Plasticity Andreas Knoblauch, Gunther Palm, and Friedrich T. Sommer Derivatives of Logarithmic Stationary Distributions for Policy Gradient Reinforcement Learning Tetsuro Morimura, Eiji Uchibe, Junichiro Yoshimoto, Jan Peters, and Kenji Doya LETTERS Systematic Fluctuation Expansion for Neural Network Activity Equations Michael A. Buice, Jack D. Cowan, and Carson C. Chow Cross-Correlations in High-Conductance States of a Model Cortical Network John Hertz Dynamics and Robustness of Familiarity Memory J.M. Cortes, A. Greve, A.B. Barrett, and M.C.W. van Rossum Supervised Learning in Spiking Neural Networks with ReSuMe: Sequence Learning, Classification and Spike-Shifting Filip Ponulak and Andrzej Kasinski Convolutional Networks Can Learn to Generate Affinity Graphs for Image Segmentation Srinivas C. Turaga, Joseph F. Murray, Viren Jain, Fabian Roth, Moritz Helmstaedter, Kevin Briggman, Winfried Denk, and H. Sebastian Seung On the Effects of Signal Acuity in a Multi-Alternative Model of Decision Making Tyler McMillen and Sam Behseta ----- ON-LINE - http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/neco SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2010 - VOLUME 22 - 12 ISSUES USA Others Electronic only Student/Retired $65 $128 $60 Individual $115 $178 $107 Institution $962 $1,025 $860 Canada: Add 5% GST to USA prices MIT Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge, MA 02142-9902. Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-orders at mit.edu http://mitpressjournals.org/neuralcomp -----