Neuroscience

Biology of the Inner Ear: Experimental and Analytical Approaches

sandstormer — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 20:41:56 +0000

Biology of the Inner Ear: Experimental and Analytical Approaches sandstormer Mon, 11/22/2021 - 15:41

Directors: Ruth Anne Eatock, University of Chicago; Andy Groves, Baylor College of Medicine; and Philip Joris, KU Leuven

Course Description

The Biology of the Inner Ear course (BIE) teaches advanced research approaches to the development, function, and pathology of the inner ear and downstream auditory and vestibular pathways in the central nervous system. BIE began in 2007 and is held every 2 years.

Applicants – are welcomed at the graduate, postdoctoral or resident level or beyond, and with backgrounds in biological, chemical, physical, computational, or medical sciences. BIE is open to US-based or international applicants and seeks a diverse group of students.

Course content – BIE provides extraordinary opportunities for student-faculty interactions. In 3 weeks, more than 40 expert faculty introduce the class of 15-20 students to:

challenges driving different sub-fields – e.g., What genes control development of the beautifully ordered inner ear? What molecules mediate transduction of sound, head motion or water displacement into electro-chemical signals? How do we perceive sound pitch and localize sounds? How does attention influence hearing? What does information theory reveal about how the vestibular system helps us move through the environment? How do we fix or replace broken inner ears?

technical approaches – genetic, molecular, anatomical, neurophysiological, behavioral and psychophysical

model systems – such as the fruit fly auditory system, zebrafish lateral line, and rodent hearing and vestibular pathways from inner ear to cortex

Course organization – a comprehensive system of lectures, tutorials, research seminars, demonstrations, laboratory exercises conducted side-by-side with faculty, independent laboratory time, and informal discussions. Protocols and notes are shared electronically. Sundays are free time. At course’s end, participants have the opportunity to share highlights from individual or team experiences as informal presentations.

Questions? Contact course directors Ruth Anne Eatock, Andy Groves or Philip Joris.

Brains, Minds and Machines

sandstormer — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 20:34:27 +0000

Brains, Minds and Machines sandstormer Mon, 11/22/2021 - 15:34

Directors: Boris Katz, MIT; and Gabriel Kreiman, Harvard Medical School

Course Description

The basis of intelligence – how the brain produces intelligent behavior and how to endow machines with human-like intelligence – is arguably the greatest problem in science and technology. To solve it, we will need to understand how natural intelligence emerges from computations in neural circuits, with rigor sufficient to reproduce similar intelligent behavior in machines. Success in this endeavor will ultimately enable us to understand ourselves better, to produce smarter machines, and perhaps even to make ourselves smarter. Today’s AI technologies are impressive but quite different from human intelligence. We still do not understand the mechanisms underlying the robustness, the generalization, and the continual learning capabilities of biological intelligence. The synergistic combination of cognitive science, neurobiology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science holds the promise of significant progress. Elucidating how human intelligence works will in turn lead to more sophisticated AI algorithms. The goal of this course is to help produce a community of leaders that is equally knowledgeable in neuroscience, cognitive science, and computer science and will lead the scientific understanding of intelligence and the development of true biologically inspired AI.

The class discussions will cover a range of topics, including:

Neuroscience: neurons and models
Computational vision
Biological vision
Machine learning
Bayesian inference
Planning and motor control
Memory
Social cognition
Inverse problems & well-posedness
Audition and speech processing
Natural language processing

These discussions will be complemented in the first week by MathCamps and NeuroCamps, to refresh the necessary background. Throughout the course, students will participate in workshops and tutorials to gain hands-on experience with these topics. Lectures will be followed by afternoons of computational labs, with additional evening research seminars.

All students must attend the entire three weeks of the course, participate in all course lectures, participate in a research project, and present their research project at the conclusion of the course.

The course will culminate with student presentations of their projects. These projects provide the opportunity for students to work closely with the resident faculty, to develop ideas that grow out of the lectures and seminars, and to connect these ideas with problems from the students’ own research at their home institutions.

This course aims to cross-educate computer engineers and neuroscientists; it is appropriate for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty in computer science or neuroscience. Students are expected to have a strong background in at least one discipline (such as neurobiology, physics, engineering, and mathematics). Our goal is to develop the science and the technology of intelligence and to help train a new generation of scientists that will leverage the progress in neuroscience, cognitive science, and computer science.

Methods in Computational Neuroscience

sandstormer — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 20:31:05 +0000

Methods in Computational Neuroscience sandstormer Mon, 11/22/2021 - 15:31

Directors: Stefano Fusi, Columbia University; and Roozbeh Kiani, New York University

Course Description

Animals interact with a complex world, encountering a variety of challenges: They must gather data about the environment, discover useful structures in these data, store and recall information about past events, plan and guide actions, learn the consequences of these actions, etc. These are, in part, computational problems that are solved by networks of neurons, from roughly 100 cells in a small worm to 100 billion in humans. Methods in Computational Neuroscience introduces students to the computational and mathematical techniques that are used to address how the brain solves these problems at levels of neural organization ranging from single membrane channels to operations of the entire brain.

In each of the first three weeks, the course focuses on material at increasing levels of complexity (molecular/cellular, network, cognitive/behavioral), but always with an eye on these questions: Can we derive biologically plausible mechanisms that explain how nervous systems solve specific computational problems that arise in the laboratory or natural environment? Can these problems be decomposed into manageable pieces, and can we relate such mathematical decompositions to the observable properties of individual neurons and circuits? Can we identify the molecular mechanisms that provide the building blocks for these computations, as well as understand how the building blocks are organized into cells and circuits that perform useful functions?

Core presentations in weeks one to three will be given jointly by theorists and experimentalists who have worked, often together, on the same problems. In the first week, to supplement the lectures, there will be numerous optional tutorials covering topics including dynamical systems, information theory, UNIX basics, and simulation using NEURON, MATLAB, and XPP. As each week progresses, the issues brought up in these presentations will be explored in laboratory demonstrations and exercises that invite the students to follow and generalize from the paths outlined in the lectures. Exercises involve both quantitative analysis of experimental data and exploration of models through analytic and numerical techniques. To reinforce the theme of collaboration between theory and experiment, exercises are often performed in teams that combine students with theoretical and experimental backgrounds.

The fourth week of the course is reserved for student projects. These projects provide the opportunity for students to work closely with the resident faculty, to develop ideas that grew out of the lectures and seminars, and to connect these ideas with problems from the students’ own research topics.

This course is appropriate for graduate students, postdocs and faculty in a variety of fields, from zoology, ethology, and neurobiology, to physics, engineering, and mathematics. Students are expected to have a strong background in one discipline, and to have made some effort to introduce themselves to a complementary discipline. The course is limited to 24 students, who will be chosen to balance the representation of theoretical and experimental backgrounds.

This course is partially supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain, the National Institute for Drug Abuse, NIH and the Organization for Computational Neurosciences.

Summer Program in Neuroscience, Excellence and Success (SPINES)

sandstormer — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 20:27:41 +0000

Summer Program in Neuroscience, Excellence and Success (SPINES) sandstormer Mon, 11/22/2021 - 15:27

Directors: Stephanie Correa, University of California, Los Angeles; and Gerald Downes, UMass Amherst

Course Description

SPINES has had an outstanding 20+ year track record of training successful neuroscientists from backgrounds underrepresented in neuroscience to be leaders in the field, honing a variety of important professional skills, including communicating your science, winning grants, honing quantitative skills and preparing to be a top notch PI. The course attracts 20 leading faculty from across the country to teach our 15-20 students in a 3 week intensive immersion experience dedicated to creating and sustaining an outstanding diverse workforce in neuroscience. Travel, room, and board at �� are covered.

Related Information

Applications to SPINES are also accepted through applying to the Neuroscience Scholars Program. The Neuroscience Scholars Program (NSP) is a two-year, online, professional development program aimed at underrepresented neuroscience researchers who are currently enrolled in graduate school or postdoctoral fellowship. The NSP provides monthly webinars and live chats on varying professional development and scientific topics hosted by leaders in neuroscience. Fellows will also have access to a mentoring team and enrichment funds for professional development activities. For more information and to apply, please visit the NSP website. Check the SPINES box on that application to indicate your interest in the SPINES program and to be considered for both programs at the same time without penalizing your chances of being accepted to either complimentary, sister program. Applications will be accepted January 15 - February 16, 2022.

Neurobiology: Mechanisms & Advanced Approaches

sandstormer — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 20:25:38 +0000

Neurobiology: Mechanisms & Advanced Approaches sandstormer Mon, 11/22/2021 - 15:25

Directors: Ricardo Araneda, University of Maryland, Mike Hoppa, Dartmouth College; and Rebecca Piskorowski, INSERM FR

Course Description

The goal of the Neurobiology: Mechanisms and Advanced Approaches course at �� in Woods Hole, MA is to provide intensive and immersive training in neurobiology with a particular focus on cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern nervous system function in health and neurological disorders. The program is designed to provide an on-ramp for entry into neuroscience for scientists from other fields, as well as to augment conventional training by providing educational approaches that are not typically available to graduate students or postdoctoral fellows. This program is a comprehensive, research-oriented course that runs for six weeks, from the early-June to mid-July. A hallmark of this course is the opportunity to work side-by-side with internationally recognized experts using state-of-the-art technologies. Our goal is to empower participants to approach neuroscientific inquiry using the most advanced and appropriate technologies available.

The Neurobiology course teaches concepts and methodology at the forefront of modern cellular and molecular neuroscience. The advanced technologies and equipment that are assembled each year are truly remarkable. In addition to teaching fundamental concepts and technical skills, participants and faculty pursue cutting-edge research that is designed and implemented within the course. By carrying out real research projects, participants are empowered to formulate rigorous experiments, to address scientific questions that push the boundaries of modern neuroscience, and to build an international network of peers and colleagues. To our knowledge, no other training program offers a similarly intense, comprehensive, and cutting-edge educational experience in cellular and molecular neuroscience.

Neural Systems & Behavior

sandstormer — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 20:22:50 +0000

Neural Systems & Behavior sandstormer Mon, 11/22/2021 - 15:22

Directors: Alberto Pereda, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and Stephanie White, UCLA

Course Description

This is an intensive eight-week laboratory and lecture course focusing on the neural basis of behavior. The course is intended for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and independent investigators. Limited to 20 participants.

This course provides broad training in modern approaches to the study of neural mechanisms underlying behavior, perception, and cognition. Through a combination of lectures, exercises, and projects, students investigate neural systems at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels using state-of-the-art techniques. The eight weeks are divided into two-week cycles, providing participants with an in-depth familiarity with several different experimental model systems. In the first cycle, students study a simple invertebrate model system to develop general experimental skills in electrophysiology, neuroanatomy, and quantitative analysis of physiological and behavioral data. In subsequent cycles, students work on a series of different preparations, providing them with a breadth of knowledge in the field. The list of experimental model systems is updated year-to-year, but always includes a diverse array of vertebrate and invertebrate preparations, chosen to illustrate key concepts and novel techniques in the field. The goal of the course is to expose students to diverse approaches to the investigation of the neural basis of behavior.

The students in this course learn by doing real science. Research conducted by students and faculty during the course are sometimes sufficiently novel to merit publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Examples from recent summers include:

Each experimental preparation is taught by a team of leading experts, and topics include: the cellular basis of pattern generation, the development and neuromodulatory control of cell and circuit specificity, learning and plasticity, sensory processing and feature detection, sensory-motor integration, spatial memory, and social communication. The laboratory provides access to many complementary methods including intracellular recording; single-cell dye-injection; patch-clamp; whole-cell voltage and current clamp; analysis of synaptic transmission and plasticity; neural genetics; quantitative behavioral methods; and computational analysis. Although students will use and be exposed to many different techniques, this is not a course for learning particular techniques. Students spend a portion of each cycle designing, performing, and analyzing the results of their own project. These projects offer an exceptional opportunity to combine newly learned skills in a creative manner.

In addition to the daily course lecture, the course sponsors a weekly seminar, given by invited lecturers and distinguished Visiting Scholars.