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 INCF Short Course on Information Processing in Neural Systems

 -- From Single Neurons to Large-Scale Models of Cognition --

 May 2-10, 2015 @ Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück, Germany

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One of the big challenges in neuroinformatics is bridging the gap between our biophysical understanding of single cells and of networks of neurons on the one side, and the cognitive functions that are characterized in terms of information processing on the other side. This INCF Short Course will provide lectures and hands-on tutorials ranging from dynamical systems theory to cognitive modeling.

Target Audience:

PhD candidates and post-docs with backgrounds in neuroinformatics, theoretical neuroscience, complex systems, machine learning, applied mathematics/statistics or cognitive modeling.

Topics:

Dynamical systems: attractors, bifurcations, etc. (Herbert Jäger) Single neuron dynamics, networks, and computation (Nicolas Brunel) Mean-field theory, neurodynamics, and decision-making (Gustavo Deco) Probabilistic models of population coding and perception (tba) Reservoir computing in simple cognitive systems (Gordon Pipa) Learning of sensory representations in neural systems (Peter König) Neural architectures for biological cognition (tba) Neural networks, kernel methods, and categorization (Frank Jäkel) A tutorial on reservoir computing (Pipa & Jäger) A tutorial on large-scale simulations in Nengo (tba) A tutorial on information processing models with NEST (Marc-Oliver

Gewaltig)

The yearly, two-day OCCAM workshop (www.occam-os.de) is integrated into the INCF course and participants of the INCF course will also take part in the workshop.

Applications will be accepted until March 7, 2015. The registration fee is 250 Euros. We can offer a limited number of travel stipends to support students.

More information on the course and on application details can be found on the course webpage:

http://www.incf.ni.uos.de/