Connectionists: World wide VVTNS series: Wednesday, December 4, 2024, at 11:00 am EST| Laura Driscoll Allen Institute

[David Hansel]

[image: VVTNS.png]
https://www.wwtns.online
<https://streaklinks.com/A9c7PbbpKY7PxB6PaAJWGD3-/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wwtns.online>
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on twitter: wwtns at TheoreticalWide

You are cordially invited to the lecture given by

Laura Driscoll

Allen Institute

 on the topic of

Task structure shapes underlying dynamical systems

that implement computation
The lecture will be held on zoom on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, at *11:00
am EST *
To receive the zoom link: https://www.wwtns.online/register-page

*Abstract: *The talk will be in two parts. 1) First, I will present
published work on multitasking artificial recurrent neural networks that
revealed "dynamical motifs". Dynamical motifs are recurring patterns of
network activity that implement specific computations through dynamics,
such as attractors, decision boundaries and rotations. Motifs are reused
across tasks and reflect the modular subtask structure of commonly studied
cognitive tasks. We believe this compositional structure to be a feature of
most complex cognitive tasks. This work establishes dynamical motifs as a
fundamental unit of compositional computation, intermediate between neuron
and network. 2) Building on these insights, we are now investigating
whether shared dynamical motifs can explain the effectiveness of curriculum
learning in animal behavior. Also known as animal shaping, curriculum
learning is a training approach where complex tasks are learned in stages
through a series of subtasks. Our work provides a novel framework for
analysis of neural and behavioral data and has the potential to guide the
design of optimal training protocols for both artificial systems and for
animals.

*About VVTNS : Launched as the World Wide  Theoretical Neuroscience Seminar
(WWTNS) in November 2020 and renamed in homage to Carl van Vreeswijk in
Memoriam (April 20, 2022), Speakers have the occasion to talk about
theoretical aspects of their work which cannot be discussed in a setting
where the majority of the audience consists of experimentalists. The
seminars, **held on Wednesdays at 11 am ET,**  are 45-50 min long followed
by a discussion. The talks are recorded with authorization of the speaker
and are available to everybody on our YouTube channel.*



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