QLS Seminar - Thursday, 26 September

[Quantitative Life Sciences]

QLS Seminar - Thursday, 26 September at 11h00

Speaker: Tatyana Sharpee - Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La 
Jolla, CA USA https://www.salk.edu/scientist/tatyana-sharpee/

Title: Reading neural responses to avoid information loss

Abstract:
Classic studies show that in many species – from leech and cricket to 
primate – responses of neural populations can be quite successfully read 
out using a measure neural population activity termed the population 
vector. However, despite its successes, detailed analyses have shown 
that the standard population vector discards substantial amounts of 
information contained in the responses of a neural population, and so is 
unlikely to accurately describe how signal communication between parts 
of the nervous system. I will describe recent theoretical results 
showing how to modify the population vector expression in order to read 
out neural responses without information loss, ideally. These results 
make it possible to quantify the contribution of weakly tuned neurons to 
perception. I will also discuss numerical methods that can be used to 
minimize information loss when reading out responses of large neural 
populations.

Indico: http://indico.ictp.it/event/9137


Everyone interested is most welcome to attend!


-- 
Erica Sarnataro
Group Secretary
Quantitative Life Sciences
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
Trieste,  Italy
Tel. +39-040-2240623
www.ictp.it/research/qls.aspx
e-mail: qls at ictp.it