From alexei at bicasymposium.com Thu Sep 1 01:54:36 2011 From: alexei at bicasymposium.com (Alexei Samsonovich) Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2011 01:54:36 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: BICA 2011: CALL FOR LATE-BREAKING ABSTRACTS Message-ID: <7F3A7996-9688-4C06-9F3D-9A92705FF312@bicasymposium.com> Please ignore if already involved with BICA 2011. Sorry for duplicates. Please do circulate. * WHAT: Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures 2011, http://bicasociety.org/2011 * WHEN: November 5-6, 2011, Saturday-Sunday * WHERE: Holiday Inn, Arlington, Virginia, USA, adjacent to Washington, D.C., co-located with the AAAI Fall Symposia If you would like to give a TALK at BICA 2011, please submit a 150 word abstract via EasyChair at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bica2011 * DEADLINE: September 2nd Hope to see you in Arlington in November, --Alexei Samsonovich, BICA 2011 Co-Chair P.S. Accepted abstracts and papers will be published in the FAIA Series, IOS Press. Lodging available for $99+tax per night. If you do not wish to receive future announcements from BICA Society, please reply with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field. From antoine.bordes at hds.utc.fr Fri Sep 2 03:43:32 2011 From: antoine.bordes at hds.utc.fr (Antoine Bordes) Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:43:32 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: NIPS Workshop on Learning Semantics -- Call for Abstracts Message-ID: <20110902094332.17276k9jp4fpym0w@webmail.utc.fr> CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Learning Semantics ----------------- NIPS 2011 Workshop Melia Sierra Nevada & Melia Sol y Nieve, Sierra Nevada, Spain. Saturday December 17, 2011. http://learningsemanticsnips2011.wordpress.com OVERVIEW A key ambition of AI is to render computers able to evolve in and interact with the real world. This can be made possible only if the machine is able to produce a correct interpretation of its available modalities (image, audio, text, ...), upon which it would then build a reasoning to take appropriate actions. Computational linguists use the term "semantics" to refer to the possible interpretations (concepts) of natural language expressions, and showed some interest in "learning semantics", that is finding (in an automated way) these interpretations. However, "semantics" are not restricted to natural language modality, and are also pertinent for speech or vision modalities. Hence, knowing visual concepts and common relationships between them would certainly bring a leap forward in scene analysis and in image parsing akin to the improvement that language phrase interpretations would bring to data mining, information extraction or automatic translation, to name a few. Progress in learning semantics has been slow mainly because this involves sophisticated models which are hard to train, especially since they seem to require large quantities of precisely annotated training data. However, recent advances in learning with weak and limited supervision lead to the emergence of a new body of research in semantics based on multi-task/transfer learning, on learning with semi/ambiguous supervision or even with no supervision at all. The goal of this workshop is to explore these new directions and, in particular, to investigate the following questions: * How should meaning representations be structured to be easily interpretable by a computer and still express rich and complex knowledge? * What is a realistic supervision setting for learning semantics? How can we learn sophisticated representations with limited supervision? * How can we jointly infer semantics from several modalities? INVITED SPEAKERS (confirmed) Chris Burges - Microsoft Pedro Domingos - University of Washington Derek Hoiem - UIUC Raymond Mooney - UT at Austin Richard Socher - Stanford University Josh Tenenbaum - MIT DATES - Submission deadline: 23:59 EST, Monday, September 26, 2011. - Acceptance notification: Friday, October 21, 2011. - Workshop date: Saturday, December 17, 2011. SUBMISSION We solicit submission of abstracts to the workshop. Abstracts should be at most 2 pages long in the NIPS format (excluding references). Selected abstracts will be presented as posters during a morning and an afternoon sessions. Submissions should be sent by email to antoine.bordes at hds.utc.fr . Abstracts should be sent no later than 23:59 EST, Monday, September 26, 2011. ORGANIZERS Antoine Bordes - CNRS - UT Compi?gne Jason Weston - Google Ronan Collobert - IDIAP L?on Bottou - Microsoft From david.omer at tuebingen.mpg.de Thu Sep 1 12:19:19 2011 From: david.omer at tuebingen.mpg.de (David Omer) Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2011 18:19:19 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: PhD position in Visual Neuroscience at the Max-Planck inst. for biological cybernetics Message-ID: A PhD position is available for exploring information processing in the visual cortex of awake non-human primates. Our aim is to understand the basic mechanisms by which cortical microcircuits process sensory information as well as to investigating the role of spontaneous ongoing cortical activity. To achieve these goals we employ optical imaging based on voltage sensitive dyes together with optogenetic designed reporters and electrophysiology recordings of neuronal activity from the visual cortex during presentation of visual stimuli. We are a newly established scientific team at the department of ?Physiology of Cognitive Processes? at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in T?bingen, Germany. The institute, headed by Prof. Dr. Nikos Logothetis, offers a unique stimulating interdisciplinary scientific environment in which research is carried out at all levels of neuroscience. The ideal candidate will be highly motivated and will have an educational background in neuroscience, computational neuroscience, biology, or related fields. Applicants require a university degree (Diploma or equivalent M.Sc.). Knowledge in psychophysics and/or neurophysiology and/or is highly valued. Programming skills (e.g. Matlab) and experience in signal processing are highly desirable, and will need to be developed through the course of the PhD. Applications should include a CV, a statement of research experience and interests, and names of at least 2 referees. Please send your application electronically as a single pdf file to David Omer. Contact Dr. David Omer david.omer at tuebingen.mpg.de From kaimin.chang at gmail.com Thu Sep 1 11:33:56 2011 From: kaimin.chang at gmail.com (Kai-min Kevin Chang) Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:33:56 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Papers :: NIPS 2011 Workshop on Interpretable Decoding of Higher Cognitive States from Neural Data Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, We apologize if you received this message more than once. Please feel free to forward this message to colleagues that may be interested in our workshop. Sincerely, Organizing Committee for the NIPS 2011 Workshop on Interpretable Decoding of Higher Cognitive States from Neural Data ************************************************************** Call for Papers :: NIPS 2011 Workshop on Interpretable Decoding of Higher Cognitive States from Neural Data Dec 16 or 17, 2011, Granada, Spain Overview Over recent years, machine learning methods have become a crucial analytical tool in cognitive neuroscience (see reviews by Formisano et al., 2008; Pereira et al., 2009). Decoding techniques have dramatically increased the sensitivity of experiments, and so also the subtlety of cognitive questions that can be asked. At the same time the mental phenomena being studied are moving beyond lower-level perceptual and motor processes which are directly grounded in external measurable realities. Decoding higher cognition and interpreting the learned behaviour of the classifiers used pose unique challenges, as these psychological states are complex, fast-changing and often ill-defined. Contemporary machine learning methods deal well with the small numbers of cases, and high numbers of co-linear dimensions typical of neural data, and are generally optimized to maximize classification performance, rather than to enable meaningful interpretation of the features they learn from. And indeed recent work has succeeded to decode psychological phenomena including visual object recognition (e.g. Kriegeskorte et al., 2008; Connolly et al., 2011), perceptual interpretation of sounds (Staeren et al., 2009), lexical semantics (Mitchell et al., 2008; Simanova et al., 2010; Devereux et al., 2010; Murphy et al., 2011), decision making during game playing (Xiang et al., 2009) and the process of mental arithmetic (Anderson et al., 2008). But for the cognitive scientists who use these methods, the primary question is often not "how much" but rather "how" and "why" the patterns of neural activity identified by a machine learning algorithm encode particular cognitive processes. The aim of this workshop is therefore to 1) discuss the achievements and problems of the decoding of high-level cognitive states, and 2) explore the use of machine learning methodologies and other computational models that enable such cognitive interpretation of neural recordings of different modalities. Advances in this field require close collaboration between machine learning experts, neuroscientists and cognitive scientists. Thus, this workshop is highly interdisciplinary and will aim to attract submissions also from outside the existing NIPS community. By stimulating discussions among experts in the different fields, the workshop seeks to generate novel insights and new directions for research. Topics of interest The field requires techniques that are capable of taking advantage of spatially distributed patterns in the brain, that are separated in space but coordinated in their activity. Methods should also be sensitive to the fine-grained temporal patterns of multiple processes - which may proceed in a serial fashion, overlapping or in parallel with each-other, or in multiple passes with bidirectional information flows. Different recording modalities have distinctive advantages: fMRI provides very fine millimetre-level localisation in the brain but poor temporal resolution, while EEG and MEG have millisecond temporal resolution at the cost of spatial resolution. Ideally machine learning methods would be able to meaningfully combine complementary information from these different neuroimaging techniques (see e.g. De Martino et al., 2010). Moreover, as the processes underlying higher cognition are so complex, methods should be able to disentangle even tightly linked and confounded subprocesses. Finally, general use algorithms that could induce latent dimensions from neural data, and so reveal the "hidden" psychological states, would be a dramatic advance on current hypothesis-driven analytical paradigms. Originality of approach is encouraged and submissions on any related methodological approach are welcomed, such as: - Interpreting spatial and temporal location of selected features and their weights - Discovering "hidden" or "latent" cognitive representations - Disentangling confounded processes and representations - Comparing or combining data from recording modalities (e.g. fMRI, EEG, structural MRI, DTI, MEG, NIRS, EcOG, single cell recordings) - Fuzzy and partial classifications - Unaligned or incommensurate feature spaces and data representation As noted above, the complexity of higher cognition poses challenges. To take language comprehension as an example, speech is received at 3-4 words; acoustic, semantic and syntactic processing can occur in parallel; and the form of underlying representations (sentence structures, conceptual descriptions) remains controversial. We welcome submissions dealing with any high-level cognitive functions that exhibit similar complexity, for instance: - Knowledge representation and concepts - Language and communication - Understanding visual and auditory experience - Memory and learning - Reasoning and problem solving - Decision making and executive control Submissions Authors are invited to submit full papers on original, unpublished work in the topic area of this workshop via the NIPS 2011 submission site at https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/NIPS2011/Default.aspx. Submissions should be formatted using the NIPS 2011 stylefiles, with blind review and not exceeding 8 pages plus an extra page for references. Author and submission information can be found at http://nips.cc/PaperInformation/AuthorSubmissionInstructions. The stylefiles are available at http://nips.cc/PaperInformation/StyleFiles. Each submission will be reviewed at least by two members of the programme committee. Accepted papers will be published in the workshop proceedings. Dual submissions to the main NIPS 2011 conference and this workshop are allowed; if you submit to the main session, indicate this when you submit to the workshop. If your paper is accepted for the main session, you should withdraw your paper from the workshop upon notification by the main session. Important Dates - Aug 30, 2011: Call for papers - Sep 23, 2011: Deadline for submission of workshop papers - Oct 15, 2011: Notification of acceptance - Oct 31, 2011: Camera-ready papers due - Dec 16 or 17, 2011: Workshop date Organisers The organizing committee are researchers who are all directly involved in machine learning of higher cognitive states, and have previous experience running similarly themed interdisciplinary workshops, including the NAACL Workshop on Computational Neurolinguistics (2010), ICCS Symposium on Neural Decoding of Higher Cognitive States (2010), the CAOS Special Session on Computational Approaches to the Neuroscience of Concepts (2010). - Kai-min Kevin Chang, Language Technologies Institute & Centre for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Carnegie Mellon University - Anna Korhonen, Computer Laboratory & Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge - Brian Murphy, Computation, Language and Interaction Group, Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento - Irina Simanova, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics & Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen Invited speakers - Elia Formisano, Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands - Francisco Pereira, Princeton University, USA (provisional) Programme committee The preliminary programme comittee listing is given below, and includes leading researchers in a range of fields covering machine learning, neuroscience and wider cognitive sciences: - John Anderson, Carnegie Mellon University, USA - Yi Chen, Max-Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig, Germany - Mark Cohen, University of California Los Angeles, USA - Kevyn Collins-Thompson, Microsoft Research, USA - Andy Connolly, Dartmouth College, USA - Jack Gallant, University of California Berkeley, USA - Marcel van Gerven, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands - Michael Hanke, Dartmouth College, USA - Jim Haxby, Dartmouth College, USA & University of Trento, Italy - Tom Heskes, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands - Mark Johnson, Macquarie University, Australia - Marius Peelen, University of Trento, Italy - Francisco Pereira, Princeton University, USA - Russ Poldrack, University of Texas Austin, USA - Dean Pomerleau, Intel Labs Pittsburgh, USA - Diego Sona, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy References - Anderson, J. R., Carter, C. S., Fincham, J. M., Qin,. Y., Ravizza, S. M., and Rosenberg-Lee, M. (2008). Using fMRI to Test Models of Complex Cognition. Cognitive Science, 32, 1323-1348. - Connolly, A. C., Guntupalli, J. S., Gors, J., Hanke, M., Halchenko, Y. O., Wu, Y., Abdi, H. and Haxby, J. V. (Submitted). Representation of biological classes in the human brain. - De Martino F., Valente G., de Borst A. W., Esposito F., Roebroeck A., Goebel R., Formisano E. (2010). Multimodal imaging: an evaluation of univariate and multivariate methods for simultaneous EEG/fMRI. Magn Reson Imaging. 28(8), 1104-12. - Devereux, B., Kelly, C., and Korhonen, A. (2010). Using fMRI Activation to Conceptual Stimuli to Evaluate Methods for Extracting Conceptual Representations from Corpora. Proceedings of the NAACL-HLT Workshop on Computational Neurolinguistics. - Formisano E., De Martino F., Valente G. (2008). Multivariate analysis of fMRI time series: classification and regression of brain responses using machine learning. Magn Reson Imaging, 26(7), 921-34. - Kriegeskorte, N., Mur, M., Ruff, D., Kiani, R., Bodurka, J., Esteky, H., Tanaka, K., and Bandettini, P. (2008). Matching categorical object representations in inferior temporal cortex of man and monkey. Neuron, 60(6), 1126-1141. - Mitchell, T. M., Shinkareva, S. V., Carlson, A., Chang, K. M., Malave, V. L., Mason, R. A., and Just, M. A. (2008). Predicting Human Brain Activity Associated with the Meanings of Nouns. Science, 320, 1191-1195. - Murphy, B., Poesio, M., Bovolo, F., Bruzzone, L., Dalponte, M., and Lakany, H. (2011). EEG decoding of semantic category reveals distributed representations for single concepts. Brain and Language, 117, 12-22. - Pereira F., Mitchell T., Botvinick M. (2009). Machine learning classifiers and fMRI: a tutorial overview. Neuroimage. 45(1 Suppl) S199-209. - Simanova, I., Van Gerven, M., Oostenveld, R., and Hagoort, P. (2010). Identifying object categories from event-related EEG: Toward decoding of conceptual representations. Plos One, 512, E14465. - Staeren N., Renvall H., De Martino F., Goebel R., Formisano E. (2009). Sound categories are represented as distributed patterns in the human auditory cortex. Curr Biol, 19(6), 498-502. - Xiang, J. and Chen, J. and Zhou, H. and Qin, Y. and Li, K. and Zhong, N. 2009: Using SVM to predict high-level cognition from fMRI data: a case study of 4* 4 Sudoku solving. Brain Informatics, 171-181. Links - NIPS 2011 website: http://nips.cc/Conferences/2011/ - Workshop website: https://sites.google.com/site/decodehighcogstate - Call for Papers: https://sites.google.com/site/decodehighcogstate/cfp/ (Please feel free to distribute the CFP to all the interested persons and groups.) -- Kai-min Kevin Chang http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kkchang/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110901/8d0bfc14/attachment-0001.html From dglanzma at mail.nih.gov Wed Sep 7 09:35:35 2011 From: dglanzma at mail.nih.gov (Glanzman, Dennis (NIH/NIMH) [E]) Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 09:35:35 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: FINAL CALL for Posters - 19th Annual Dynamical Neuroscience Meeting Message-ID: <87A69598824B3D4EBF14080B3F0906BE0404355126@NIHMLBX12.nih.gov> 19th Annual Dynamical Neuroscience Satellite Symposium Deep Brain Stimulation in Mental Illness, Neurological Disorders and Cognitive Impairment Preceding the 41st Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience Thursday and Friday, November 10-11, 2011 Marriott Renaissance Washington Hotel Mount Vernon Square Room 999 Ninth Street NW, Washington, DC Deep Brain Stimulation is a treatment which has been initiated in over a dozen neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions and disorders, yet the mechanism(s) underlying its efficacy are largely unknown and subject to much speculation. The procedure has also been reported to produce numerous instances of adverse effects, ranging from bleeding within the brain and infection to cognitive dysfunction, hallucinations, compulsivity and even depression. This symposium will address the current range of applications, efficacies, case studies, and the theory and modeling that attempt to uncover the biological underpinnings of its beneficial effects. The ultimate goal is to bring about a greater understanding of the means by which the beneficial effects are produced, at the molecular, cellular and network levels. Invited Speakers Helen M. Bronte-Stewart, Joseph J. Fins, Benjamin D. Greenberg, Jaimie M. Henderson, Kendall H. Lee, Sarah Hollingsworth "Holly" Lisanby, Helen S. Mayberg, Cameron C. McIntyre, Martha J. Morrell, Nicholas D. Schiff, Michele Tagliati, Philip A. Starr and Jerrold L. Vitek Keynote Address Winner of the 4th Annual Swartz Prize in Computational Neuroscience Symposium Organizers Cameron C. McIntyre, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Dennis L. Glanzman, NIMH/NIH Poster Receipt Deadline: September 30, 2011 For logistical information please contact Nakia Wilson, The Dixon Group, Inc., (202)-281-2825, nwilson at dixongroup.com For programmatic information, please contact Dennis Glanzman, NIMH/NIH, (301) 443-1576, glanzman at nih.gov There is no fee to attend this meeting. Register and submit a poster at this website: http://neuro.dgimeetings.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110907/3bd7bd3e/attachment.html From Eugene.Izhikevich at braincorporation.com Wed Sep 7 21:09:01 2011 From: Eugene.Izhikevich at braincorporation.com (Eugene Izhikevich) Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 18:09:01 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Brain Corporation job: 7 full-time industry positions in computational neuroscience of vision Message-ID: Seven full-time positions in computational neurosciences of vision at all levels are available immediately at Brain Corporation, San Diego, CA, to develop a biologically detailed spiking model of the mammalian visual system. REQUIREMENTS: (1) Published record of research on spiking networks, spike-timing dynamics, or STDP, (2) knowledge of the visual system beyond standard textbooks, and (3) excellent programming skills in MATLAB, PYTHON, or C/C++. Preference will be given to those who conducted research on spike-timing dynamics in visual processing. The employee compensation package includes industry-level salaries, annual performance-based bonuses, matching 401k contributions, and a stock option grant. Additionally, employees have access to facilities and amenities of Brain Corporation partner - Qualcomm Inc. - a leader in semiconductor technology. Submit your CV/resume and relevant papers to Dr. Eugene M. Izhikevich at . In your cover letter, please address all three requirements, your availability date, and your eligibility to work in the US. Applications without addressing the 3 requirements will not be considered or acknowledged. Dr. Eugene M. Izhikevich Chairman & CEO Brain Corporation San Diego, California From mjose.escobar at gmail.com Wed Sep 7 05:28:23 2011 From: mjose.escobar at gmail.com (Maria Jose Escobar) Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 05:28:23 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: LACONEU2012 Summer School: Neural Coding and Natural Image Statistics Message-ID: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the pleasure to invite Graduate and Undergraduate students to participate in: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- LACONEU 2012 II Latin American Summer School in Computational Neuroscience and Biomedical Analysis Special Topic: Neural Coding, Natural Images January 9th-13th, 2012 Valpara?so - CHILE http://www.laconeu.cl ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The principal aims of LACONEU 2012 Summer School are to disseminate and to develop Computational Neuroscience in Latin America, gathering researchers and students with common interests in the beautiful and historical city of Valparaiso, in Chile. LACONEU 2012 expects to foster a collaborative exchange between the attendees, researchers and students, based on fundamental theoretical and practical knowledge, and thus, to help the establishment of strong, long-term collaborations. The proficiencies and expertise of the Faculty participants represent an unique opportunity for this research area in Latin America. For this version of LACONEU 2012 we have selected the specific field of Neural Coding, specifically at the Retina and Cortical level, taking advantage of recent developments in sophisticated multi-electrodes recording devices, spike sorting algorithms, natural images usage, statistical theories and formal models for neural coding. The multidisciplinary study of the Neural Code uses tools based on complex biological and theoretical frameworks: neuroscience, physics, statistics, mathematics and computational approaches; bringing the understanding of how the nervous system makes sense of the environment. CONFIRMED SPEAKERS - E.J. Chichilnisky (Salk University, USA) - Tim Gollish (Max Plank Institute, Germany) - Michael Berry II (Princeton University, USA) - Peter Sterling (University of Pennsylvania, USA) - Rava da Silveira (ENS, France) - Pedro Maldonado (ICBM, Chile) - Jean Lorenceau (LENA, France) - Adrian Palacios (CINV, Chile) - Bruno Cessac (INRIA, France) - Maria-Jose Escobar (UTFSM, Chile) - Patricio Orio (CINV, Chile) - Fr?deric Alexandre (INRIA, France) - Thierry Vi?ville (INRIA, France) IMPORTANT DATES - Application submission deadline: September 30th, 2011 (visit the webpage to see the details) - Acceptance notification: October 20th, 2011. TRAVEL GRANTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDENTS Looking forward to see you in January! ----------------------------------------- Mar?a Jos? Escobar, Ph.D. Departamento de Electr?nica Universidad T?cnica Federico Santa Mar?a, Av. Espa?a 1680, Valpara?so, Chile Of: B-318 Ph: +56-32-2 65 47 61 / Fax: +56-32-2 79 74 69 Email: mariajose.escobar at usm.cl WWW: http://www.profesores.elo.utfsm.cl/~mjescobar -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110907/11440d3a/attachment-0001.html From n.yousif at imperial.ac.uk Thu Sep 8 09:10:47 2011 From: n.yousif at imperial.ac.uk (Yousif, Nada) Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 13:10:47 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position Message-ID: <02E4F09F2182184C945EC178BB45AA860D4BAA36@icexch-m1.ic.ac.uk> [post on behalf of Joern Diedrichsen j.diedrichsen at ucl.ac.uk] The Motor Control Group in the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (PI: Joern Diedrichsen) has an open postdoctoral position for the project "Learning and recovery of skilled finger movements", funded for 36 month by the Wellcome Trust. The goal of the project is to use the multivariate analysis of fMRI activity patterns to understand the acquisition (and re-acquisition) of skilled motor behaviours. Ideally, the postholder has a strong background (or strong will to acquire it) in fMRI, computational neuroscience, and motor control / learning. Closing date for applications is the 4th of October. More about the lab: http://www.icn.ucl.ac.uk/motorcontrol/ For further details about the vacancy and how to apply on line please go to http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/jobs/ and search on Reference Number 1206249. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110908/08534df1/attachment.html From pierre.kornprobst at inria.fr Tue Sep 6 02:31:09 2011 From: pierre.kornprobst at inria.fr (Pierre Kornprobst) Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2011 08:31:09 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Opening five postdoc positions at INRIA in the NeuroMathComp group Message-ID: Title: Opening five postdoc positions at INRIA in the NeuroMathComp group The NeuroMathComp group is part of INRIA and CNRS, two major government French Research Institutes. Members of the group are actively conducting research in mathematical and computational neuroscience. The group is funded through several European grants (BrainScales, ERC NerVi, Keops, FACETS-ITN). In this context we are currently looking for five excellent postdoc candidates in four areas: 1) Neural field models for motion perception (2 positions) 2) Meanfield methods in neuroscience (1 position) 3) Solving Partial Differential Equations and variational problems with networks of spiking neurons (1 position) 4) How to interpret the neural code to identify image and video categories? (1 position) To learn more about our research and these postdoc offers go to http://www-sop.inria.fr/neuromathcomp and follow the "Job offers" link. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110906/036aadd6/attachment.html From rish at us.ibm.com Fri Sep 2 14:57:24 2011 From: rish at us.ibm.com (Irina Rish) Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 14:57:24 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: NIPS 2011 Workshop on Machine Learning and Inference in Neuroimaging Message-ID: Call for Papers NIPS 2011 Workshop on Machine Learning and Inference in Neuroimaging https://sites.google.com/site/mlini2011/ December 16-17, 2011, Melia Sierra Nevada & Melia Sol y Nieve, Sierra Nevada, Spain Submission deadline: September 30, 2011 Overview: -------------- Modern multivariate statistical methods have been increasingly applied to various problems in neuroimaging, including ?mind reading?, ?brain mapping?, clinical diagnosis and prognosis. Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) is a promising machine-learning approach for discovering complex relationships between high-dimensional signals (e.g., brain images) and variables of interest (e.g., external stimuli and/or brain's cognitive states). Modern multivariate regularization approaches can overcome the curse of dimensionality and produce highly predictive models even in high-dimensional, low-sample scenarios typical in neuroimaging (e.g., 10 to 100 thousands of voxels and just a few hundreds of samples). However, despite the rapidly growing number of neuroimaging applications in machine learning, its impact on how theories of brain function are construed has received little consideration. Accordingly, machine-learning techniques are frequently met with skepticism in the domain of cognitive neuroscience. In this workshop, we intend to investigate the implications that follow from adopting machine-learning methods for studying brain function. In particular, this concerns the question how these methods may be used to represent cognitive states, and what ramifications this has for consequent theories of cognition. Besides providing a rationale for the use of machine-learning methods in studying brain function, a further goal of this workshop is to identify shortcomings of state-of-the-art approaches and initiate research efforts that increase the impact of machine learning on cognitive neuroscience. Moreover, from the machine learning perspective, neuroimaging is a rich source of challenging problems that can facilitate development of novel approaches. For example, feature extraction and feature selection approaches become particularly important in neuroimaging, since the primary objective is to gain a scientific insight rather than simply learn a ``black-box'' predictor. However, unlike some other applications where the set features might be quite well-explored and established by now, neuroimaging is a domain where a machine-learning researcher cannot simply "ask a domain expert what features should be used", since this is essentially the question the domain expert themselves are trying to figure out. While the current neuroscientific knowledge can guide the definition of specialized 'brain areas', more complex patterns of brain activity, such as spatio-temporal patterns, functional network patterns, and other multivariate dependencies remain to be discovered mainly via statistical analysis. The list of open questions of interest to the workshop includes, but is not limited to the following: ? How can we interpret results of multivariate models in a neuroscientific context? ? How suitable are MVPA and inference methods for brain mapping? ? How can we assess the specificity and sensitivity? ? What is the role of decoding vs. embedded or separate feature selection? ? How can we use these approaches for a flexible and useful representation of neuroimaging data? ? What can we accomplish with generative vs. discriminative modelling? Workshop Format: -------------------------- In this two-day workshop we will explore perspectives and novel methodology at the interface of Machine Learning, Inference, Neuroimaging and Neuroscience. We aim to bring researchers from machine learning and neuroscience community together, in order to discuss open questions, identify the core points for a number of the controversial issues, and eventually propose approaches to solving those issues. The workshop will be structured around 3 main topics: - machine learning and pattern recognition methodology - causal inference in neuroimaging - linking machine learning, neuroimaging and neuroscience Each session will be opened by 2-3 invited talks, and an in depth discussion. This will be followed by original contributions. Original contributions will also be presented and discussed during a poster session. The workshop will end with a panel discussion, during which we will address specific questions, and invited speakers will open each segment with a brief presentation of their opinion. This workshop proposal is part of the PASCAL2 Thematic Programme on Cognitive Inference and Neuroimaging ( http://mlin.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/ ). Paper Submission: -------------------------- We seek for submission of original research papers. The length of the submitted papers should not exceed 4 pages in Springer format (here are the LaTeX2e style files). We aim at publishing accepted paper after the workshop in a proceedings volume that contains full papers, together with review papers by the invited speakers. Authors are expected to prepare a full 8 page paper for the final camera ready version after the workshop. Important dates: -------------------------- - September 30, 2011 - paper submission - October 15th, 2011 - notification of acceptance/rejection - December 16th - 17th - Workshop in Sierra Nevada, Spain, following the NIPS conference Invited Speakers: -------------------------- Polina Golland (MIT, US) James V. Haxby (Dartmouth College, US) Tom Mitchell (CMU, US) Daniel Rueckert (Imperial College, UK) Peter Spirtes (CMU, US) Ga?l Varoquaux (Neurospin/INRIA, France) Program Committee: -------------------------- Guillermo Cecchi (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) Melissa Carroll (Google) Moritz Grosse-Wentrup (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, T?bingen, Germany)* James V. Haxby (Dartmouth College, USA, University of Trento, Italy) Georg Langs (Medical University of Vienna)* Bjoern Menze (ETH Zuerich, CSAIL, MIT) Janaina Mourao-Miranda (University College London, United Kingdom) Vittorio Murino (University of Verona/Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy) Francisco Pereira (Princeton University) Irina Rish (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center)* Mert Sabuncu (Harvard Medical School) Bertrand Thirion (INRIA, NEUROSPIN) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110902/69b3bf3f/attachment-0001.html From rsalakhu at cs.toronto.edu Tue Sep 6 22:34:26 2011 From: rsalakhu at cs.toronto.edu (Ruslan Salakhutdinov) Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2011 22:34:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Connectionists: Call For Contributions: NIPS 2011 workshop on Challenges in Learning Hierarchical Models: Transfer Learning and Optimization Message-ID: CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS IN CHALLENGES NIPS 2011 workshop on Challenges in Learning Hierarchical Models: Transfer Learning and Optimization Melia Sierra Nevada & Melia Sol y Nieve, Sierra Nevada, Spain https://sites.google.com/site/nips2011workshop/home Important Dates: ---------------- Deadline for submissions: October 17, 2011 Notification of acceptance: October 28, 2011 Overview: ---------------- As part of the 2011 workshop on Challenges in Learning Hierarchical Models, we also organize two challenges. The winners of each challenge will be awarded an oral presentation of their method at the NIPS workshop. *Optimization challenge:* Participants are asked to submit code to train neural networks with various depths on a large dataset. At evaluation time, we will vary slightly parameters of the networks and benchmark the training time. Participants will have a lot of freedom, such as the use of pretraining, initialization, programming languages and so on. More details regarding this challenge are available at https://sites.google.com/site/nips2011workshop/optimization-challenges *Transfer learning challenge:* Participants are given a large dataset (CIFAR-100), which they can use to train their models on, as well as a related task with very few labelled examples. At evaluation time, models will be evaluated on this related task. The examples in the related task have been recently collected as part of this challenge and have never appeared in the literature. https://sites.google.com/site/nips2011workshop/transfer-learning-challenge Submission Instructions: ---------------- We solicit participants to test their methods on two challenges: - Transfer Learning Challenge - Optimization Challenge The aim is to facilitate discussion among participants through a common task using a strict protocol that makes results comparable. Results should be submitted via email to: transflearn.optim.wnips2011 at gmail.com no later than 23:59 EST, Monday, October 17, 2011. The paper and challenge tracks are independent from each other. This means that the contributors can choose to submit a paper to the workshop without contesting in challenges or contest in one of the challenges without submitting. Multiple submissions to different tracks (paper and challenge) are also encouraged. Organizers ---------- Quoc V. Le, Computer Science Department, Stanford University Marc'Aurelio Ranzato, Google Inc Ruslan Salakhutdinov, Department of Statistics, University of Toronto Andrew Ng, Computer Science Department, Stanford University Josh Tenenbaum, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT From schwarzwaelder at bcos.uni-freiburg.de Tue Sep 6 03:52:35 2011 From: schwarzwaelder at bcos.uni-freiburg.de (=?ISO-8859-15?Q?Kerstin_Schwarzw=E4lder?=) Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:52:35 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Applications: Bernstein Award for Computational Neuroscience 2012 In-Reply-To: <4E65D10D.2090709@bcos.uni-freiburg.de> References: <4E65D10D.2090709@bcos.uni-freiburg.de> Message-ID: <4E65D143.4000808@bcos.uni-freiburg.de> Dear colleagues, I would like to bring to your attention that for the seventh time, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has announced an open call for applications for a "Bernstein Award". The "Bernstein Award for Computational Neuroscience" is endowed with up to 1.25 Mio ? for a period of five years and allows young scientists of all nationalities to establish an independent research group at a German university or research institution. The BMBF announcement can be found under the following links: German version English version Posters to announce the Bernstein Award locally can be downloaded from here: German version English version *Application deadline is May 2nd, 2012.* Kind regards, Kerstin Schwarzwaelder -- Dr. Kerstin Schwarzw?lder Bernstein Coordination Site of the National Network for Computational Neuroscience Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg Hansastr. 9A 79104 Freiburg Germany phone: +49 761 203 9594 fax: +49 761 203 9585 schwarzwaelder at bcos.uni-freiburg.de www.nncn.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110906/aaa925e3/attachment.html From taras at kowaliw.ca Tue Sep 6 07:30:36 2011 From: taras at kowaliw.ca (Kowaliw, Taras) Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:30:36 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: DevLeaNN Workshop extended submission deadline: 23 September Message-ID: <4E66045C.1000100@kowaliw.ca> [Apologies for multiple postings] **EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE** Call for Papers and Extended Abstracts DevLeaNN: A Workshop on Development and Learning in Artificial Neural Networks October 27 and 28, in Paris, France http://devleann.iscpif.fr DevLeaNN is a two-day workshop devoted to showcasing the current state-of-the-art at the intersection of development and learning in artificial neural network design. The purpose of DevLeaNN is to gather researchers from related streams of research to present both novel research and summaries of research portfolios. Topics include, but are not limited to: * constructive or pruning techniques / network ensembles * neural Darwinism * neuro-evolutionary techniques * reservoir computing (Echo State Networks, Liquid State Machines) * deep neural networks * artificial development / artificial embryogeny / generative and developmental techniques * genotype-to-phenotype mappings * temporal / spatial development * artificial genetic regulatory networks * neuromodulation * plasticity * knowledge representation / population coding * topological optimization We are soliciting papers and extended abstracts. Both novel research and summaries of existing research portfolios are welcome. We are presently negotiating a published proceedings of extended versions of submissions with Springer's Studies in Computational Intelligence Series. WORKSHOP DATE AND VENUE: October 27-28, 2011 Institut des syst?mes complexes, Paris, France IMPORTANT DATES: * Paper/Extended Abstract Submission: Friday 23 September, 2011 * Paper/Extended Abstract Notification: Wednesday 05 October, 2011 * Workshop: Thursday 27 and Friday 28 October, 2011 (To accommodate time-conscious travellers, submissions received by the old deadline, 9 September, will be notified by 23 September) INVITED SPEAKERS: * Hugues Berry (Universit? de Lyon) * Yaochu Jin (University of Surrey) * Thomas Trappenberg (Dalhousie University) For more information, or to submit or register, please visit: http://devleann.iscpif.fr Thanks for your attention, and we hope to see you in Paris! T. Kowaliw, N. Bredeche, and R. Doursat -- _____ Taras Kowaliw, Ph.D. Guest Researcher / Chercheur Post-Doctorant, Institut des Syst?mes Complexes - Paris ?le-de-France, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 57-59 rue Lhomond, 75005, Paris, France t.: +33 01 42 17 40 35 | f.: + 33 01 45 35 79 21 w.: http://kowaliw.ca | e.: taras at kowaliw.ca From juho.rousu at cs.helsinki.fi Tue Sep 13 06:13:40 2011 From: juho.rousu at cs.helsinki.fi (Juho Rousu) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:13:40 +0300 Subject: Connectionists: Post-doctoral position in Machine Learning for Biological Networks Message-ID: <2418671D-AD65-4341-945F-47EC35F6E774@cs.helsinki.fi> Post-doctoral position in Machine Learning for Biological Networks Computational Systems Biology and Bioinformatics (CSBB, http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/group/sysfys/) research group at University of Helsinki, Department of Computer Science, has an opening for a POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCHER in the field of machine learning for biological network inference. The position is funded by the EU FP7 project "BIO knowLEDGE Extractor and Modeller for Protein Production" (BIOLEDGE) as well as the National Centre of Excellence in Algorithmic Data Analysis (ALGODAN), funded by Academy of Finland. We expect the applicants to have a PhD (or to have submitted a dissertation for evaluation) in Computer Science, Statistics, Computational Biology or related field, with excellent publication record, as well as experience in one or more of the following fields: - Kernel methods - Machine learning for structured data - Optimisation algorithms - Large-scale data analysis In addition, we value experience in the following: - Biological network reconstruction - Structured output prediction - Gene function and interaction prediction Excellent programming and technical skills, as well as excellent written and oral communication skills are required. The successful candidate will join the CSBB research group to develop new machine learning methods and large-scale optimization algorithms for biological function and interaction prediction within the BIOLEDGE project (EU FP7, 2011-2015), a collaboration between Universities of Helsinki, Cambridge, Malaga as well as VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and three SMEs. Initially a 2-year contract will be offered. Salary is based on demand level 5 of the salary system of University of Helsinki, corresponding to monthly gross salary of 3151-3642 euro, depending on individual performance. An extension of the contract up to 4 years is possible, depending on performance and availability of funding. Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki (http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/en/home) carries out basic and applied research in computer science, and offers advanced teaching based on that research. The department is top-ranked in its field in Finland and has been elected a national centre of excellence in higher education. The department offers an excellent environment for high-quality research, with several world-class research groups in the area of algorithms, machine learning and data mining. The department has a top-of-the-line infrastructure, for example a new large-scale computation cluster of ca. 1900 computation cores. University of Helsinki is within the top-20 Universities in Europe. It is continuously rated within top-100 in the world, e.g., according to http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp. Helsinki is named as number 1 city in Monocle`s annual Quality of Life survey 2011 http://t.co/P0jZFeR Please send your application to Docent Juho Rousu at (rekry.bioledge[at]cs.helsinki.fi). Please include CV, transcripts of your studies, a statement of research interests, as well as names of possible referees. Applications received by September 23, 2011 will receive full consideration. For further information about the position, please contact Docent Juho Rousu Department of Computer Science P.O Box 68 00014 University of Helsinki tel: +358 50 415 1702 email: firstname.lastname[at]cs.helsinki.fi From leibold at zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de Fri Sep 9 03:08:04 2011 From: leibold at zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de (Christian Leibold) Date: Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:08:04 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Special issue of Network on "Analysis and modeling of multicellular dynamics" Message-ID: <4E69BB54.60002@zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de> Dear colleagues: I am pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue of Network: Computation in Neural Systems on "Analysis and modeling of multicellular dynamics" The tremendous technological advance of neuronal recording methods over recent years has generated extensive data sets about the activities of many neurons in parallel. These data describe collective neuronal processing to a level of detail that only several years ago would have been considered impossible by many researchers. It is now possible to do multielectrode recordings of extracellular spiking from over a hundred neurons in parallel; further, two-photon microscopy allows parallel intracellular calcium imaging of even hundreds of neurons. The leading labs presently strive to bring these techniques into behaving animal research and to further increase the number of recorded single cells - and even cellular compartments. These developments pose an enormous challenge to theoretical neuroscientists. On the one hand more efficient data analysis methods are required to harvest the full potential of these recordings. On the other hand these data allow a new way of envisioning and validating computational models of neural systems. The networks in the brain now evolve from an abstract computational entity to experimentally tractable dynamical systems. The possible implications of this are significant, potentially slowly closing the gap between microcircuits and large scale signals as EEG or MRI. This special issue will cover topics on analysis techniques of multi-cellular recordings, models of neuronal networks that may aid in such analysis techniques, the cellular basis of field potentials, mechanisms underlying oscillations and synchrony, and phenomenological models of spike correlations. Submission instructions can be found at: http://informahealthcare.com/net contributions to the special issue should be marked in the submission letter accordingly Important Dates Submissions due: 30. November 2011 Revised Submissions due: 31. January 2012 Planned date of publication: June 2012 From Elizabeth.Thomas at u-bourgogne.fr Tue Sep 13 03:47:03 2011 From: Elizabeth.Thomas at u-bourgogne.fr (Elizabeth Thomas) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 09:47:03 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc in Cognitive and Motor Development Studies Message-ID: <4E6F0A77.6060305@u-bourgogne.fr> We would appreciate it very much if you could post the following announcement on your news site. Sincerely Elizabeth Thomas INSERMU887 *2 Year Postdoc Position in Cognitive and Motor Development* We are seeking a 2 year postdoctoral candidate for an investigation on the human development of motor and cognitive capacities. The study focuses in particular on the role of motor activity in the development of infant interval timing capacities.The position will involve helping to set up infant EMG recordings and the analysis of the resulting data.The infant experiments will also be accompanied by some adult interval timing experiments. The ideal candidate will be experienced in EMG recordings and analysis. Familiarity with MATLAB and fluency in English are also necessary.The candidate should be willing to learn new techniques of data analysis, in particular those drawn from machine learning (SVM, kernel methods, etc.) The investigation will be carried out with a grant from the French National Research Agency and the British Economic Social Research Council.This project is an interdisciplinary study to attempt to understand the emergence of interval-timing capabilities.Our ultimate goal is to demonstrate empirically the extent to which these abilities are learned and especially the role of motor activity in this development.This project has brought together the Center for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck University, London (http://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk), a world renowned infant lab in Britain, and two of France's leading centres of experimental psychology (LEAD-CNRS UMR 5022, http://leadserv.u-bourgogne.fr/en/) and motor-activity (INSERM U887, Motricit? et Plasticit?, http://www.u-bourgogne.fr/-Unite-de-recherche-.html then go to: "Laboratoire Motricit?-Plasticit?").In national reviews held at the beginning of 2011, both labs were awarded the highest possible rating, A+, for number and quality of journal publications, international visibility, etc.The motor-activity work in the project will be carried out by Dr Elizabeth Thomas (INSERM U887), the computational modeling work will be led by Dr Robert French (LEAD-CNRS), and by Professor Denis Mareschal at CBCD in London.While the candidate will spend most of his/her time in Dijon, he/she will also make regular trips to London in order to help set up the baby EMG recordings and monitor its progress. The contract will start in January 2012. Dijonis ideally situated in the heart of Burgundy, a region known throughout the world for its haute cuisine and wine.In addition, Dijon is an hour and a half by train to Paris, less than an hour from the Jura Mountains and 3 hours by car to Chamonix, the hiking, climbing, and skiing centre of the French Alps. Interested candidates may send their CV to Elizabeth.Thomas at u-bourgogne.fr -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110913/c01a4465/attachment-0001.html From doya at oist.jp Sun Sep 18 21:34:58 2011 From: doya at oist.jp (Kenji Doya) Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:34:58 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: Research Positions in Computational Neuroscience at OIST Message-ID: <2937DDA2-1160-4054-819A-1C0B84A5ADFF@oist.jp> Neural Computation Unit (PI: Kenji Doya) at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) is recruiting researchers and technical staff for the following four topics in its new research projects in Decision Making and Psychiatric Disorders: 1. Optical Imaging of Predictive Models in Cortical Microcircuits 2. Neuroinformatics for Decision Making Research 3. Machine Learning Approach to Diagnosis of Psychiatric Disorders 4. Modeling Dopamine and Serotonin Systems and Psychiatric Disorders Please refer to the descriptions below for the details of each position. An applicant should have Ph.D., M.S., or a comparable degree in a relevant area. The contract is initially till March 2011 and renewable up to four years. Please send a CV and a brief description of research interest to: nc-position-2011 at oist.jp by October 10th, 2011. The search will continue until the positions are filled. **** 1. Optical Imaging of Predictive Models in Cortical Microcircuits For perception in partially-observable environment and model-based decision making, prediction of the environmental state by combining previous percepts and the agent?s own action is critical. There have been a number of theoretical models of how cortical microcircuits implement predictive forward models and Bayesian inference, which deserve experimental testing. The researcher will work on two-photon imaging of mouse parietal/premotor/prefrontal cortex and/or analysis of massively parallel neural recording data to discover the neural circuit mechanism of "mental simulation". 2. Neuroinformatics for Decision Making Research We are starting a new research program in ?Brain Mechanisms for Prediction and Decision Making? with ten laboratories ranging from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, machine learning and robotoics. They will produce a variety of rich experimental data including fMRI and PET images, multi-electrode recoding, optical imaging, and behavioral data from humans, primates, rodents, and fish. The role of the researcher or technical staff is to design, construct and maintain the database for efficient exchange of data between the collaborating labs and their public dissemination for further analysis and modeling. Development of software tools for data preprocessing, statistical data analysis, data-driven modeling and visualization is also an important research topic. 3. Machine Learning Approach to Diagnosis of Psychiatric Disorders Our collaborating psychiatrists are collecting multi-dimensional data from depression and control subjects, including structural MRI, functional MRI under resting state and task performance, SNPs for serotonin/dopamine related genes, blood biomarkers, psychological tests, and clinical diagnosis. The researcher will develop a machine learning paradigm for the diagnosis and prediction of subtypes of depression. The first stage will take a supervised learning approach using doctors? diagnoses, and the second stage will take an unsupervised learning approach to identify undocumented disease subtypes. 4. Modeling Dopamine and Serotonin Systems and Psychiatric Disorders The monoaminergic systems including dopamine and serotonin play important roles in healthy behaviors and psychiatric disorders. Based on the neural and chemical recording and optogenetic manipulation data in awake behaving rodents, the researcher will construct a dynamic model of the interactions of the dopamine and serotonin systems with behaviors and the environment for the regulation of reinforcement and aversive learning under normal and pathological conditions. **** Relevant links Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology: http://www.oist.jp/ Neural Computation Unit: http://www.nc.irp.oist.jp/ ---- Kenji Doya Neural Computation Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology 1919-1 Tancha, Onna, Okinawa 904-0412, Japan Phone: +81-98-966-8594; Fax: +81-98-966-2891 http://www.nc.irp.oist.jp/ From daniele.marinazzo at ugent.be Mon Sep 19 16:37:03 2011 From: daniele.marinazzo at ugent.be (Daniele Marinazzo) Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:37:03 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: NIPS 2011 satellite workshop - causal graphs: linking brain structure to function Message-ID: *NIPS 2011 Satellite Meeting on* *CAUSAL GRAPHS: LINKING BRAIN STRUCTURE TO FUNCTION* *Dec 11, 2011. Carmen de la Victoria, Granada* *One-day workshop funded by CEI BIOTIC GENIL* *The workshop Causal Graphs: Linking Brain Structure to Function will take place in Granada, one day before the start of NIPS 2011. This one-day workshop will be held on Dec 11 at the Carmen de la Victoriain the Albaycin, the old center of Granada, Spain. Due to space limitations, attendance will be limited to only 70 participants. * *The workshop will discuss recent investigations combining causality measures and network analysis methods in Neuroscience. The main goal is to create cross-talk and encourage a dialogue between these research fields, discussing potential incompatibilities, advantages and disadvantages of one approach over the other to address important nonscientific questions. * * * *This is an open call for researchers who would like to present their latest results in two possible formats: 20-min talk or poster presentation. Applicants are invited to submit an abstract of max 250 words describing the main motivation, methods and outcomes of their research. Applications should be sent to causal.graphs at gmail.com and should also indicate Name, Institution and Email addresses of all co-authors. Applications with a direct Neuroscience background connecting methods to data are strongly encouraged.* * * *Possible topics include: Network Analysis Methods, Causality, Information Theory, Computational Neuroimaging, Neural Connectivity. * *Deadlines* *Submission deadline (both talks and posters) October 15th, 2011* *Acceptance decisions mailed out on October 20th, 2011* * * * * *Confirmed Key Speakers:* *Anil Seth (Sussex University, UK)* *Stefano Panzeri (IIT, Italy)* *Marcus Kaiser (Newcastle University, UK)* * * * * *Organizers:* *Jesus Cortes (Granada University, Spain)* *Andrea Greve (Cambridge University, UK)* *Daniele Marinazzo (Ghent University, Belgium)* *Miguel Angel Mu?oz (Granada University, Spain)* *Sebastiano Stramaglia (Bari University, Italy) * * * * * *Registration fees:* *For NIPS attendants, 60 EUR * *For NIPS Non-attendants, 180 EUR* * * * * -- Daniele Marinazzo -- http://www.da.ugent.be Department of Data Analysis, Gent University Henri Dunantlaan 1, B-9000 Gent, Belgium -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110919/54b13623/attachment.html From ted.carnevale at yale.edu Wed Sep 14 14:44:04 2011 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:44:04 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: NEURON course at SFN 2011 meeting deadline approaching Message-ID: <4E70F5F4.4060509@yale.edu> Space is still available in the NEURON course that we will be presenting at this year's meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. However, the registration deadline is October 14, just one month from today, so you should act soon if you intend to take the course. For more information and an on-line application form see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/static/courses/dc2011/dc2011.html --Ted From axel.hutt at inria.fr Tue Sep 20 03:47:17 2011 From: axel.hutt at inria.fr (Axel Hutt) Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:47:17 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc position in data analysis at INRIA In-Reply-To: <1430304079.124780.1315938829473.JavaMail.root@zmbs1.inria.fr> Message-ID: <826449722.192586.1316504837465.JavaMail.root@zmbs1.inria.fr> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Postdoc position in time-frequency analysis of EEG in general anaesthesia at INRIA in Nancy, France --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A full-time Postdoc position is available in the team INRIA-team CORTEX on data analysis of electroencephalographic data (EEG) observed during surgery in hospital under general anaesthesia. The work aims to extract signal features in the time-frequency domain to detect changes in the power spectrum when the surgery starts. The detection of these effects is important to understand better the underlying neural mechanisms of general anaesthesia. The position will start January 2012 and is financed for one year by the ERC Starting Grant MATHANA. In case a prolongation by another year might be possible. The candidate should hold a degree in either electrical engineering or computer science. She/he should also demonstrate a strong interest in neuroscience since she/he will cooperate with medical researchers measuring the data under investigation. Please send electronically applications including a CV to Axel Hutt (axel.hutt at inria.fr). -- Axel Hutt INRIA CR Nancy - Grand Est Equipe CORTEX 615, rue du Jardin Botanique 54603 Villers-les-Nancy Cedex France http://www.loria.fr/~huttaxel From btorbennielsen at gmail.com Mon Sep 19 09:27:56 2011 From: btorbennielsen at gmail.com (Benjamin Torben-Nielsen) Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:27:56 +0300 Subject: Connectionists: Otto Loewi Conference. Eilat, November 27-30, 2011 Message-ID: <922F1B48-41F1-406A-A0C3-C43C2034E2E8@gmail.com> Dear all, We would like to draw you attention for The 12th Otto Loewi and 1st ELSC Conference entitled: "Otto Loewi's dream (or nightmare) on neurons and synaptic complexity" which will take place in Eilat, Israel, on November 27th-30th, 2011. Organizers: Arthur Konnerth & Yosi Yarom Confirmed speakers: Heinz Beck J?rn Hounsgaard Oren Schuldiner Michael Brecht Arthur Konnerth Menahem Segal Gy?rgy Buzs?ki Ilan Lampl Idan Segev Nils Brose Aharon Lev-Tov Gilad Silberberg Barry Connors Rodolfo Llinas Angus Silver Egidio D'Angelo Thomas Misgeld Inna Slutsky Chris De Zeeuw Israel Nelken Haim Sompolinsky Winfried Denk Yifat Prut Benjamin Torben-Nielsen Michael Gutnick William Ross Eilon Vaadia Michael Hausser Nathalie Rochefort Yoel Yaari Uwe Heinemann Dietmar Schmitz Yosi Yarom Fritjof Helmchen For more information and registration, please visit: http://elsc.huji.ac.il/content/12th-otto-loewi-and-1st-elsc-conference or contact emanuel.sestieri at mail.huji.ac.il On behalf of the organizers, --- Dr. Benjamin Torben-Nielsen Hebrew University Jerusalem From thomas.wennekers at plymouth.ac.uk Tue Sep 20 15:01:05 2011 From: thomas.wennekers at plymouth.ac.uk (Thomas Wennekers) Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:01:05 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Theme Issue about "The Complexity of Sleep" Message-ID: <7AF2B5B178BA9F499794A6467E6BAB937B3B518B91@ILS133.uopnet.plymouth.ac.uk> Dear Reader The journal "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A" has just published a Theme Issue about "The Complexity of Sleep", which might be of interest to members of this email list. http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/369/1952.toc Regards Thomas From brandporter at gmail.com Tue Sep 20 17:24:01 2011 From: brandporter at gmail.com (Brandon Porter) Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:24:01 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: EEG analysis Message-ID: We are a private cognitive neuroscience laboratory looking for someone with experience in time-series analysis to help write programs for the evaluation of EEG data. Please contact me with inquiries. Brandon Porter Ethical Science Foundation brandporter at gmail.com -- Brandon B. Porter, M.D., Ph.D. "I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance." -William Faulkner -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110920/c8a40c7c/attachment.html From ronan.collobert at idiap.ch Tue Sep 20 16:05:56 2011 From: ronan.collobert at idiap.ch (Ronan Collobert) Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:05:56 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: PhD positions in deep learning @ Idiap Research Institute, Switzerland Message-ID: <89F7E6EA-F640-4340-9DF1-93D94E1EA422@idiap.ch> We are opening three PhD positions in the area of Machine Learning (more specifically deep learning, a.k.a. deep neural networks), applied to speech processing, natural language processing and document retrieval. Please have a look at the following pages for details: http://www.idiap.ch/education-and-jobs Candidates should hold a master degree, in engineering, physics, computer science, or applied mathematics. Strong mathematical background, as well as excellent programming skills (C/C++ and various scripting languages under Linux environment) are expected. The duration of the appointment is 3-4 years. Annual gross salary ranges from 43,000 Swiss Francs (first year) to 47,000 Swiss Francs (last year). The successful candidates will become doctoral students at EPFL (http://www.epfl.ch), and thus have to be accepted for enrollment by either the Electrical Engineering Doctoral School (EDEE - http://phd.epfl.ch/page-19690-en.html) or the Computer, Communication and Information Sciences Doctoral School (EDIC - http://phd.epfl.ch/edic) before joining Idiap. The next deadlines for EDEE Application are September 15, 2011 and January 15, 2012. -------- About the Idiap Research Institute: http://www.idiap.ch About Martigny: http://www.martigny.com/martigny/switzerland/office-tourism/welcome.html -- Ronan Collobert Idiap Research Institute Rue Marconi 19 CH-1920 Martigny From triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de Wed Sep 21 07:52:07 2011 From: triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de (Jochen Triesch) Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:52:07 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Ten Doctoral Fellowships at the IMPRS for Neural Circuits Message-ID: <4E79CFE7.7090505@fias.uni-frankfurt.de> Call for Applications The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Neural Circuits was recently funded by the Max Planck Society and offers ten positions every year for talented students holding a relevant Master?s or Bachelor?s degree to perform research resulting in a PhD. The program is taught in English. The common focus of the IMPRS for Neural Circuits will be the understanding of neural circuits (from the simple to the large and complex), at all scales required to achieve this understanding. This ambitious objective will require analyses at the molecular, cellular, multi-cellular, network and behavioral levels, with the full understanding that macroscopic phenomena (spatial patterns, dynamics) can be scale-dependent, and that reductionism is not always sufficient as a method. In the IMPRS for Neural Circuits we offer a multidisciplinary program to excellent doctoral students with backgrounds in neuroscience, mathematics, physics, computer science, (bio) chemistry, biology and medicine as well as research experience in the participating institutions of the Frankfurt Neuroscience community. Students will participate in a tailor-made educational program including research rotations and neuroscience courses but also in trainings in transferable skills as well as summer schools, lecture series and exchange programs with excellent research institutes abroad. We invite excellent students to apply for a position at the IMPRS for Neural Circuits. The deadline for applications is January 15, 2012. Note that only online applications will be accepted. For more information, please visit the websitewww.imprs.brain.mpg.de. From tetiana.aksenova at cea.fr Wed Sep 21 10:47:13 2011 From: tetiana.aksenova at cea.fr (AKSENOVA Tetiana 221977) Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:47:13 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Fellowship in neural engineering Message-ID: Postdoctoral Fellowship in neural engineering at CEA Grenoble, France. Applicants are invited for a postdoctoral position in the field of neural engineering with the focus on Brain Computer Interface (BCI). The successful applicant will perform research in the fields of applied statistics, signal processing, adaptive modeling, machine learning and fast calculations for real time applications. The particular goal of the project is the development of self paced ECoG based BCI with multiple degrees of freedom. The postdoctoral scientist will contribute to study of movement related brain dynamics. He/she will be integrated to the group of signal processing working in collaboration with researchers of Clinatec whose expertise spans mathematics, computer science, microelectronics, nanoscience and neuroscience with the goal of performing functional BCI system. The ideal candidate will have a doctoral degree, or equivalent, in a relevant discipline (Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics) with an emphasis on computational approaches to the neuronal systems analyses. Programming in Matlab and C/C++ will be part of the project. Candidates with the experience in EEG/ECoG based BCI or in EEG/ECoG data analysis will be preferred. The work will be performed at the Centre of Atomic Energy (CEA, Grenoble, France) at Clinatec (CEA/LETI/CLINATEC). For more information look at http://www-leti.cea.fr/fr/Decouvrez-le-Leti/Les-plateformes-d-innovation2/Clinatec Salary is commensurate with experience and the position carries a full social security and health coverage. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Applications including a CV, a motivation letter and the names of two references must be sent electronically to Tetiana Aksenova (tetiana.aksenova at cea.fr), Corinne Mestais (corinne.mestais at cea.fr). Selected candidates will be interviewed in Grenoble. For more information please e-mail to Dr.Tetiana Aksenova (tetiana.aksenova at cea.fr). _____________________ Dr. Tetiana Aksenova, Chair RTRA CEA/LETI/CLINATEC, MINATEC Campus, 17 rue des Martyrs 38054 GRENOBLE Cedex 9 Tel : +33 4 38 78 03 20 Fax : +33 4 38 78 54 56 Email : tetiana.aksenova at cea.fr -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110921/defc5627/attachment-0001.html From pkoenig at uos.de Sun Sep 25 06:09:42 2011 From: pkoenig at uos.de (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Peter_K=F6nig?=) Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:09:42 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: =?iso-8859-1?q?PhD/Postdoc_position_within_ERC-Ad?= =?iso-8859-1?q?vance_Investigators_Grant=22_The_merging_of_the_senses=3A_?= =?iso-8859-1?q?understanding_multisensory_experience=22=2E_=28Peter_K=F6n?= =?iso-8859-1?q?ig=2C__University_Osnabr=FCck_=29?= Message-ID: <4E7EFDE6.5020605@uos.de> The research group for Neurobiopsychology (Prof. Dr. Peter K?nig) at the Institute of Cognitive Science invites applications for the following positions a) 1 Researcher (Postdoc level) (Salary level according to E 13 TV-L, 100%) and b) 3 Researchers (Salary level according to E 13 TV-L, 50%) to be filled at earliest practicable date for a period of 3 years each. The positions involve research within the ERC Advanced Investigators Grant "The merging of the senses: understanding multisensory experience" (jointly awarded with Prof. Dr. Andreas K Engel, University Clinics Hamburg Eppendorf) that is running for a total of 5 years. They focus on processing of multimodal sensory information and sensorimotor integration under natural conditions. This includes behavioral measurement, psychophysical methods, physiological measurements (EEG, MEG, TMS), methods of sensory augmentation, mathematical modeling, computer simulations and brain-computer interfaces. Furthermore, the position involves participation in teaching Cognitive Science courses. The position allows for further qualification. Employment prerequisites: For a) Candidates are expected to have a scientific university degree, a PhD, a good research record in at least one of the areas listed above as well as a good command of the English language. For b) Candidates are expected to have a scientific university degree, a good research record in at least one of the areas listed above as well as a good command of the English language The University of Osnabr?ck strives for an increase in the number of women in academic employment. Women are therefore especially encouraged to apply and will be preferentially considered under the condition of equal qualification. Disabled candidates with equivalent qualification will be given a preference. Applications with the usual documentation should be submitted no later than October 14th, 2011 to the Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabr?ck, Albrechtstra?e 28, 49076 Osnabr?ck. Further information can be obtained from Prof. Dr. Peter K?nig, (pkoenig at uni- osnabrueck.de). -- Prof. Dr. Peter K?nig Institute of Cognitive Science University Osnabr?ck Albrechtstr. 28 49076 Osnabr?ck +49 541 969 2399 http://cogsci.uni-osnabrueck.de/~NBP/ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/pkcs7-signature Size: 2512 bytes Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110925/62682e83/smime.bin From sinankalkan at googlemail.com Mon Sep 26 06:17:59 2011 From: sinankalkan at googlemail.com (Sinan KALKAN) Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:17:59 +0300 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: Workshop on Deep Hierarchies in Vision Message-ID: Please circulate freely. ===================== *Call for papers:* ===================== Workshop on Deep Hierarchies in Vision (in conjunction with CogSys2012 - 5th Int. Conf. on Cognitive Systems) Webpage: http://www.kovan.ceng.metu.edu.tr/~sinan/DHV/ => February 21, 2012; Vienna-Austria <= Organizers: Ales Leonardis, Norbert Krueger, Richard Bowden, Sinan Kalkan, Nicolas Pugeault, Frank Guerin Webpage for the 5th Int. Conf. on Cognitive Systems: http://cogsys2012.acin.tuwien.ac.at/ ===================== *Overview:* ===================== Processing in the brain in general and visual processing in particular is organized in a hierarchical fashion, from simple localized features to complex, large scale features. The visual system consists of a hierarchy, in which neurons in early visual areas extract simple image features (orientation, motion, disparity) over a small local region of visual space, which are then transmitted to neurons in higher visual areas responding to more complex features (e.g. shape) over a larger region of visual space. Hierarchical representations can derive and organize features at multiple levels. Hierarchical representations with many levels are called 'deep hierarchies'. They build on top of each other by exploiting the shareability of features among more complex compositions or objects themselves. Sharing features, on the one hand, means sharing common computations, which brings about (highly desirable) computational efficiency. On the other hand, reusing the commonalities between objects? models places their representations in relation to other objects, thus leading to high generalization capabilities and lower storage demands. However, although all neurophysiologic evidence suggests that in the human visual system quite a number of levels are realized, it has turned out that the design and/or learning of such deep hierarchical systems is a very difficult task. Most existing computer vision systems are 'flat' (e.g., having rather simple features - such as SIFT - as input and then applying some kind of SVM learning) and hence cannot make use of the advantages connected to deep hierarchies. Here in particular the generalization capabilities are crucial for any form of cognitive intelligence. As a consequence, we see the issue of establishing deep hierarchies as one major challenge for the establishment of truly cognitive systems. The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers from vision, robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and neurophysiology to discuss existing obstacles in the design of deep hierarchies, possible solutions as well as perspectives for deep hierarchies in vision and robotics. A special issue with contributions from the workshop on 'Deep Hierarchies in Vision' in a journal is planned. ===================== *Invited speakers:* ===================== Christian Igel The Image Group, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Justus Piater Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science University of Innsbruck, Austria Laurenz Wiskott Institut f?r Neuroinformatik Ruhr-Universit?t Bochum, Germany Peter Janssen Division of Neurophysiology Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium ===================== *Submission:* ===================== We invite two-page extended abstracts until the 1st of December, 2011. We provide a Latex template for two-page extended abstracts at: http://www.kovan.ceng.metu.edu.tr/~sinan/DHV/. Please follow this template and submit a PDF file online at our workshop website. The submissions will be reviewed by three reviewers, and the decisions will be announced by the 20th of December, 2011. A special issue with contributions from the workshop on 'Deep Hierarchies in Vision' in a journal is planned. ===================== *Important Dates:* ===================== Abstract Submission: 01.12.2011 (23:59 UTC/GMT) Notification of Acceptance: 20.12.2011 Camera-ready Submission: 15.01.2012 Workshop: 21.02.2012 ===================== *Program Co-chairs:* ===================== Laurenz Wiskott Institut f?r Neuroinformatik Ruhr-Universit?t Bochum, Germany Peter Janssen Division of Neurophysiology Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium ===================== *Contacts:* ===================== Ales Leonardis, ales.leonardis at fri.uni-lj.si Norbert Krueger, norbert at mmmi.sdu.dk Sinan Kalkan, skalkan at ceng.metu.edu.tr -- Sinan KALKAN, Asst. Prof. Dept. of Computer Engineering Middle East Technical University Ankara TURKEY Web: http://kovan.ceng.metu.edu.tr/~sinan Tel: + 90 - 312 - 210 5547 / + 90 - 312 - 210 7371 Fax: + 90 - 312 - 210 5544 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110926/691bd696/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: DHV2012_call.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 268003 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110926/691bd696/DHV2012_call-0001.pdf From terry at salk.edu Mon Sep 26 12:20:54 2011 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 09:20:54 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - August, 2011 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 23, Number 8 - August 1, 2011 ARTICLE Distributed Control of Uncertain Systems Using Superpositions of Linear Operators Terence D. Sanger NOTE A Simple Derivation of a Bound on the Perceptron Margin Using Singular Value Decomposition Omri Barak and Mattia Rigotti LETTERS Firing Variability Is Higher Than Deduced from the Empirical Coefficient of Variation Susanne Ditlevsen and Petr Lansky Online Variational Inference for State-Space Models with Point-Process Observations Andrew Zammit Mangion, Ke Yuan, Visakan Kadirkamanathan, Mahesan Niranjan, and Guido Sanguinetti Diffusive Information Accumulation by Minimal Recurrent Neural Models of Decision-Making Philip Smith and Cameron R. L. McKenzie A New Clustering Approach on the Basis of Dynamical Neural Field Dequan Jin, Jigen Peng, and Bin Li Quickly Generating Representative Samples from an RBM-Derived Process Olivier Breuleux, Yoshua Bengio, and Pascal Vincent A Regularized Correntropy Framework for Robust Pattern Recognition Ran He, Wei-Shi Zheng, Bao-Gang Hu, and Xiang-Wei Kong A Self-Organized Artificial Neural Network Architecture for Sensory Integration with Applications to Letter-Phoneme Integration Tamas Jantvik, Lennart Gustafsson, and Andrew Papli?ski Asymptotic Convergence Properties of the EM Algorithm for Mixture of Experts Yan Yang and Jinwen Ma ----- ON-LINE - http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/neco SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2011 - VOLUME 23 - 12 ISSUES USA Others Electronic only Student/Retired $67 $130 $62 Individual $118 $181 $110 Institution $986 $1,049 $882 Canada: Add 5% GST 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 ----- From dayan at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk Mon Sep 26 16:40:08 2011 From: dayan at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk (Peter Dayan) Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:40:08 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Training Fellowships @ Gatsby In-Reply-To: <20101011230824.GA1449@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> References: <20101011230824.GA1449@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> Message-ID: <20110926204008.GF1049@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> The Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit invites applications for a postdoctoral training fellowship in theoretical neuroscience and related areas. Research in the Unit focuses on the interpretation of neural data, population coding, perceptual processing, neural dynamics, neuromodulation, and learning. The Unit also has significant interests across a range of areas in machine learning. For further details of our research please see: http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/research.html Details are available through http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/vacancies/TN%20Postdoc2011.html Applications must be made online via the UCL job vacancies website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/jobs/. The closing date for applications is 31st October, 2011. Interviews will be held 30th November, 2011. From read at usc.edu Mon Sep 26 17:58:52 2011 From: read at usc.edu (Stephen Read) Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:58:52 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc: Neural mechanisms of risky decision making Message-ID: <2A4172DA-1F59-4C18-9C34-08CE14A9B41A@usc.edu> The Department of Psychology at the University of Southern California announces one or more Postdoctoral Scholar positions to study the neural mechanisms of risky decision-making (under the direction of Professor Stephen J. Read). The postdoctoral fellow is expected to contribute to NIMH-funded research investigating the neural mechanisms of risky sexual decision making in Meth and non-Meth using men who have sex with men (MSM) at USC, as part of a team including Zhong-Lin Lu, Antoine Bechara, Lynn C. Miller, and Robert Appleby. Using behavioral testing, fMRI, and computational modeling techniques (e.g, Neural Networks), the goal of the decision making project is to develop a detailed model of the neural mechanisms involved in risky sexual decision-making. The individual in this position will be involved in the design and conduct of behavioral experiments in the scanner, in data analysis, and in the computational modeling of the relevant neural circuits/mechanisms. Opportunities exist for interaction with social psychology faculty and with faculty in the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center. Requirements ? Candidates should have a Ph.D. in a relevant discipline, experience with fMRI, and experience with behavioral and/or computational approaches to decision-making and cognitive processing. Familiarity with computational and statistical methods (e.g. MatLab, Psychtoolbox, Neural Networks, statistical programs) is highly advantageous. The appointment could begin immediately for a period of one year. Renewal is based on performance and availability of grant support. Salary will be commensurate with experience, minimum salary: $40,000. Application Procedures ? Please send a cover letter (including a description of research skills), a CV, and the names/contact information of three (3) references to: Stephen J. Read (read at usc.edu) Stephen J. Read Department of Psychology University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061 read at usc.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110926/d993eac1/attachment-0001.html From Yaochu.Jin at surrey.ac.uk Mon Sep 26 18:06:42 2011 From: Yaochu.Jin at surrey.ac.uk (Yaochu.Jin@surrey.ac.uk) Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:06:42 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position in computational neuroscience available Message-ID: University of Surrey Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Department of Computing Research Fellow Salary: Up to ??32751per annum (subject to qualifications and experience) We are seeking a Research Fellow to work on a cross-disciplinary research project in the fields of computational neuroscience, computational systems biology and computational intelligence. You will work in the Nature Inspired Computing and Engineering (NICE) Group within the Computing Department. You will have a PhD (or equivalent) in computer science, computational neuroscience, or electrical engineering and a strong interest in computational neuroscience, computational biology and computational intelligence. Expertise in spiking neural network based reservoir computing is essential; knowledge in activity-dependent plasticity or computational modelling of gene regulatory networks is a plus. Programming skills in C/C++ and Matlab is also highly desirable. Start date: 1st December 2011 or as soon as possible thereafter. The appointment is for 13 months with an extension possibility depending on the availability of further funding. Informal enquires to Prof. Yaochu Jin (e-mail: yaochu.jin at surrey.ac.uk, tel: +44 (0) 1483 686037). For an application pack and to apply on-line please go to our website: www.surrey.ac.uk/vacancies If you are unable to apply on-line please contact Mr Peter Li, HR Assistant on Tel: +44 (0) 1483 686060 or email k.truss at surrey.ac.uk. Please quote Closing date for applications is Monday, 4th November 2011 For further information about the University of Surrey, please visit www.surrey.ac.uk We acknowledge, understand and embrace cultural diversity --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Professor Yaochu Jin Head of the Nature-Inspired Computing and Engineering (NICE) Group Department of Computing, University of Surrey Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, United Kingdom Room 35 BB02 Phone: +44(0)1483 686037 Fax: +44(0)1483 686051 Email: yaochu.jin at surrey.ac.uk http://www.surrey.ac.uk/computing/people/yaochu_jin/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Tue Sep 27 12:42:57 2011 From: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu (Mark A. Gluck) Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:42:57 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: New Paper: Impaired context reversal learning, but not cue reversal learning, in patients with aMCI Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, A newly published paper, described below, presents a new task developed by Einat Levy-Gigi in our lab at Rutgers-Newark that assesses the interactions between cue and context learning, dissociating the influences of positive and negative feedback. In this first application of the task we have studied aMCI patients in Budapest, Hungary, with our collaborator, Szabolcs Keri. Other studies using this task in different clinical populations will follow as part of a broader program to better understand how context mediates hippocampal-based learning processes across various psychiatric disorders. The paper is: Levy-Gigi, E., Kelemen, O., Gluck, M. A., & Keri, S. (2011). Impaired context reversal learning, but not cue reversal learning, in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychologia. In press. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.08.005 ABSTRACT: We assessed 30 newly diagnosed patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and 30 matched healthy controls. Reversal learning was assessed using a novel reinforcement learning task developed in our lab at Rutgers University. Participants first acquired and then reversed stimulus-outcome associations based on negative and positive feedback (losing and gaining points). Stimuli consisted of a cue (geometric shapes) and a spatial context (background color or pattern). Relative to controls, patients with aMCI exhibited a marked reversal learning deficit, which was highly selective for the reversal of context. The acquisition of stimulus-outcome associations and cue reversal learning were spared. Performance on the context reversal learning task significantly correlated with the right hippocampal volume. This paper can be downloaded as a PDF from http://www.gluck.edu/pdf/Levy_aMCI_Neuropsychologia_epub.pdf As always, we welcome and appreciate comments and feedback on this work, as well as ideas for future work to build on this. Best wishes, Mark -- ___________________________________________ Dr. Mark A. Gluck, Professor Director, Rutgers Memory Disorders Project Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Rutgers University Phone: (973) 353-3668/3298 197 University Ave. Newark, New Jersey 07102 Email: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Lab: http://www.gluck.edu Memory Loss & Brain Newsletter: http://www.memorylossonline.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110927/8038c3a8/attachment.html From thomas.wennekers at plymouth.ac.uk Tue Sep 27 06:19:27 2011 From: thomas.wennekers at plymouth.ac.uk (Thomas Wennekers) Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:19:27 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Workshop on Sounds and Sound Processing Message-ID: <201109271119.27256.thomas.wennekers@plymouth.ac.uk> Making Sense of Sounds Workshop on Sounds and Sound Processing in Natural and Artificial Systems 20/21 February 2012, Plymouth UK How much can we learn about what is going on in the world simply by listening? http://helen.pion.ac.uk/the-meaning-of-sound-2012 Living organisms constantly generate sonic cues about their presence as they move and interact with the world around them. What can we tell about their behaviour or state of mind through the sounds they emit or modulate as they act and interact with the environment? This workshop will discuss many aspects of sound processing, including sound perception in natural systems (humans and animals), the use of sounds to probe the environment (bio-sonar), computational modelling of auditory processing, and the development of bio-inspired real-time sound processing systems. Submissions are invited that address, but are not restricted to, the following topics: Listening in time Listening in the real world Listening to movement Neural basis for auditory perception Bio-inspired hardware devices and systems Submissions may take the form of a talk, poster or demo; please indicate your preferred medium. Deadlines: Abstract : 31 December 2011 Registration : 31 January 2012 Invited Speakers Andreas Andreou (Johns Hopkins University) Tjeerd Andringa (Groningen University) Guy Brown (Sheffield University) Maria Chait (Ear Institute, UCL) Susan Denham (Plymouth University) Julio Georgiou (University of Cyprus) Alexander Gutschalk (Heidelberg University) Giacomo Indiveri (University of Zurich) Georg Klump (Oldenburg University) Katrin Krumbholz (MRC Institute of Hearing Research) Maneesh Sahani (Gatsby Institute, UCL) Thomas Wennekers (Plymouth University) Istvan Winkler (Institute for Psychology, Hungary) Conference venue will be the Plymouth Marine Aquarium http://www.national-aquarium.co.uk/ There will be a conference dinner at the Aquarium Feb the 20th, and a public evening talk at Feb 21 by Andreas Andreou: "Mind from matter; a journey through sound" Participating in this workshop is free and there is some financial support for those students or postdocs needing it. Abstracts (100-200 words) should be submitted by email to: scandleworkshop at gmail.com Workshop websites with additional information: http://www.pion.ac.uk/the-meaning-of-sound-2012 http://scandle.eu Please send any further enquiries to Lucy Davies: lucy.davies4 at plymouth.ac.uk This workshop is funded by the European Community through grant ICT-231168-SCANDLE --- "SCANDLE: acoustic SCene ANalysis for Detecting Living Entities" -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110927/1b52797b/attachment-0001.html From m.lengyel at eng.cam.ac.uk Fri Sep 30 10:45:21 2011 From: m.lengyel at eng.cam.ac.uk (=?iso-8859-1?Q?M=E1t=E9_Lengyel?=) Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:45:21 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: PhD in Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: Applications are invited for a PhD student position in the group of Mate Lengyel (http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~m.lengyel) at the Computational and Biological Learning Lab at the University of Cambridge. The group works on mathematical models of the brain using a combination of methods from probabilistic machine learning, information theory, dynamical systems, and statistical physics. We are particularly interested in understanding how humans and other animals learn about their environments and use this knowledge flexibly to make predictions and guide their future decisions. We collaborate very closely with experimental neuroscience groups providing us the opportunity to test the predictions of our theories. Applicants must have - strong problem solving and mathematical skills - a keen interest in neuroscience - a relevant first degree such as Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Physics, Psychology or Statistics Students seeking to combine work in neuroscience and machine learning are particularly encouraged to apply. Applicants should email the following in pdf or plain text to the CBL administrator Diane Unwin : - their CV - a statement of research interests - transcript(s) for previous degrees and arrange for three academic referees to send us letters of reference. Pre-application enquires should be addressed to Mate Lengyel. The deadline for receiving applications is 21 October 2011. Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed on 1-2 November 2011. The position is offered for a period of three years, starting on 1 January 2012. -- Mate Lengyel, PhD Computational and Biological Learning Lab Cambridge University Engineering Department Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK tel: +44 (0)1223 748 532, fax: +44 (0)1223 332 662 email: m.lengyel at eng.cam.ac.uk web: www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~m.lengyel From ted.carnevale at yale.edu Fri Sep 30 14:23:51 2011 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:23:51 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: NEURON course registration deadline Oct. 14 Message-ID: <4E860937.4030601@yale.edu> The registration deadline for the NEURON course that we will be presenting at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience is Friday, October 14, less than two weeks from now. A few seats remain available, so if you are interested in the course, you should act now. For a course description and registration form, see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/static/courses/dc2011/dc2011.html --Ted