Cosyne 2020 Tutorial sessions
Cosyne 2020 will host two tutorial sessions. Tutorials will be held on the same day, before the main meeting starts.
Tutorials location: Hilton Denver City Center Hotel
Note that lunch is not provided for either tutorial session.
Cosyne 2020 Afternoon tutorial session is sponsored by the Simons Foundation
Topic: Normative approaches to understanding neural coding and behavior
Speaker: Ann Hermundstad
Ann Hermundstad is a Group Leader in the Computation & Theory research core at Janelia Research Campus. She studies how the brain creates and uses adaptive sensorimotor representations to generate flexible behavior. Her lab uses a combination of theory, modeling, and data analysis to explore how neural circuits can do this efficiently and flexibly, and works in close collaboration with experimentalists to test these ideas in biological systems. Ann received her PhD in Physics from UC Santa Barbara. Before starting her lab at Janelia in 2016, she did a postdoc in theoretical neuroscience with Vijay Balasubramanian, initially at École Normale Supérieure in Paris and later at UPenn in Philadelphia.
Please note that there is a limit of 300 participants for the tutorial, and that separate registration and fee ($25) are required to attend the tutorial. To register for the tutorial, select the tutorial option when registering for the main meeting and/or workshops.
In this tutorial, we’ll approach problems in neural coding and behavior by asking how a resource-constrained information-processing system should be designed to solve a particular problem, and we’ll use this approach to try to understand why brains and animals might behave the way they do. We’ll touch on the following:
- Why ask why? The advantages (and limitations) of taking a normative approach
- What does a normative approach look like? We’ll discuss normative approaches to understanding general principles of neural coding, perception, and action selection. In the process, we’ll work through examples from frameworks like efficient and predictive coding, Bayesian inference, and reinforcement learning.
- So what? We’ll discuss how these approaches can provide principled explanations of seemingly unintuitive findings, and how these approaches can impact the way you tackle your own research questions
Please have a pen and paper handy for the hands-on exercises. A laptop with MATLAB or Python would allow you to work on a few extra problems. In addition to the session dedicated to hands-on exercises, the lectures may also feature a few quicker exercises.
Tutorial schedule, Thursday, 27 February 2020
12:00-01:00 Part 1: introduction to the normative approach | application to sensation & perception
01:00-01:20 Break
01:20-02:20 Part 2: …to action & learning
02:20-02:40 Break
02:40-03:40 Part 3: hands-on exercises
03:40-04:00 Part 4: summary and outlook
Teaching Assistants: Diego Arribas, Zoe Ashwood, Pierre-Etienne Fiquet, Caroline Haimerl, Anna Kutschireiter, Tzuhsuan Ma, Jorge Menendez, Josue Nassar, Marcella Noorman, Sashank Pisupati, Satpreet Singh, Charline Tessereau
Topic: Neurodata without Borders Tutorial
Speakers:
Ryan Ly, NWB core developer
Ben Dichter, NWB community liaison
NWB is a data standard for neurophysiology, providing neuroscientists with a common standard to share, archive, use, and build common analysis tools for neurophysiology data.
Please note that there is NO additional fee required to attend the tutorial. There is, however, a limit of 300 participants for the tutorial, and a separate registration is required to attend the tutorial. To register for the tutorial, select the tutorial option when registering for the main meeting and/or workshops.
Tutorial schedule, Thursday, 27 February 2020
08.00a - 08.10a Welcome, workshop overview
08.10a - 09.00a Introduction to Neurodata Without Borders and overview of tools made accessible using NWB
09.00a - 09.15a Break
09.15a - 10.15a Tutorial on using Python and Matlab to read and write NWB files
10.15a - 10.30a Break
10.30a - 11.30a Tutorial on analyzing electrophysiology and optophysiology data stored in NWB using community tools
