neurodudes

2nd annual conference on computational cognitive neuroscience

program

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If anyone has any additional questions that they think would be good to address at the workshop, leave it as a comment below.

NIPS 2006 Workshop Announcement and Call for Abstracts
Decoding the Neural Code

There is great interest in sensory coding. Studies of sensory coding typically involve recording from sensory neurons during stimulus presentation, and the investigators determine which aspects of the neuronal response are most informative about the stimulus. These studies are left with a decoding problem: are the discovered codes, sometimes quite exotic, ultimately used by the nervous system to guide behavior? In our one-day workshop, researchers with many different backgrounds will evaluate what we know about neuronal decoders and suggest new strategies, both experimental and computational, for addressing the decoding problem.

Each hour, five to six researchers will address a particular question for five minutes, followed by a half-hour discussion. We will also set aside time for a poster session.

We tentatively plan to include the following questions, and are soliciting additional questions from our speakers:
1. Which variables that encode stimuli are actually used to guide behavior?
2. What mechanisms do nervous systems use to decode encoded information?
3. Are motor systems better than sensory systems for experimentally addressing decoding?
4. What computational and experimental techniques are needed to address decoding? For instance, should information theory be used to address decoding as well as encoding?

For information on abstract submission, go to the workshop web site at http://science.ethomson.net/NIPS_workshop.html.

Biophysics of Biological Circuits:
From Molecules to Networks
Summer School
http://www.uam.es/otroscentros/inc/summerschools/summerschool2006/

Engineering Principles in Biological Systems
Cold Spring Harbor Meeting
http://meetings.cshl.edu/meetings/engine06.shtml

Gordon Research Conference on “Sensory coding and the natural environment”

August 27-September 1
Big Sky, Montana

[program | committee | application]

His Holiness has spoken. He wants neuro-drugs to take and electrodes stuck in his brain so that he doesn’t have to spend hours meditating each day. (Enlightenment now!) If you want to do hot stuff, study physics or brain science. His interest in neuroscience stems from a long-standing interest in body hair. Yes, body hair. Americans need to figure their own way through this whole intelligent design business. Not all antidepressants are alike; for instance, the Dalai Lama is against tranquilizers. Definitely against tranquilizers. And, perhaps most surprisingly, His Holiness, approves of animal research — when it’s done right and with respect.

Minute-by-minute liveblog follows after the jump.
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We’ve made it through the abstruse and strangely ineffective security (in addition to the insane herd mentality of charging neuroscientists) and we’re ready to blog. Your spirtual enlightment will be forthcoming.

While you’re waiting, His Holiness has an op-ed piece in today’s NYT.

In keeping with these fancy new Internet trends, I will attempt to do some live-blogging from the Society for Neuroscience 2005 Annual Meeting that starts on Saturday in DC. The big event is of course the Dalai Lama’s talk on Saturday afternoon. I give my poster presentation pretty early on (Sunday morning- D22, come say hi), so I should be able to find some time to blog.

I’ll be flying out tomorrow to DC but, until the real action kicks off, those curious can look at my itinerary. If you know of any cool posters/talks that I’ve missed, post it in the comments. My full itinerary after the jump…
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> > This is a reminder that the Early Registration Deadline for the Neural
> > Information Processing Systems Conference and Workshops is:
> >
> > Thursday, November 3, 2005
> >
> > To register, log on to the NIPS website: http://www.nips.cc/

Scientists Bridle at Lecture Plan for Dalai Lama - New York Times

Same story as before. As SfN gets closer, I’m sure we’ll only hear more about this. Oh, and for fairness, here are links to both the anti-DL and pro-DL petitions.

A followup to our previous story about this:

The anti-Dalai Lama SFN speech petition is at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/sfn2005/

A newer, pro-Dalai Lama SFN speech petition is at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/sfn2005a/