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Monday, November 2
| Time: |
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM |
| Location: |
Seminar room 2204, 149 13th St., Charlestown Navy Yard |
| Summary: |
Paul Yushkevich - Structure-Specific Techniques for Neuroimaging Analysis |
| Description: |
Paul Yushkevich, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology,
University of Pennsylvania, PA
Title:
Structure-Specific Techniques for Neuroimaging Analysis
Abstract:
In multi-subject structural, functional or diffusion-weighted MRI
studies, it is common to analyze the imaging data using whole-brain
approaches, such as voxel-based or deformation-based morphometry.
Whole-brain analysis is a powerful tool for exploratory research, but
in studies where we start with a priori hypotheses about individual
anatomical structures, a more structure-centric approach to image
analysis may be appropriate. This is especially true for complex
structures such as the hippocampus, which tend to not be adequately normalized by whole-brain techniques. My talk will focus on recent work at Penn that uses deformable geometrical models as a framework for shape-based normalization, smoothing and analysis of individual anatomical structures. I will discuss two main applications that fall into this general structure-specific framework. The first is our work on the segmentation and analysis of hippocampal subfields, which leverages a detailed anatomical atlas derived from postmortem imaging.
The second is our work on tract-specific analysis of diffusion-weighed
MRI, which offers a parametric surface-based model for analyzing sheet-like white matter tracts.
Brainmap Website:
http://nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/martinos/training/brainMap_2009-2010.php
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| Time: |
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM |
| Location: |
Center for Brain Science, Northwest Building 243, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge |
| Summary: |
Ann Graybiel |
| Description: |
Ann Graybiel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
http://www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/neuroscience/seminar.html
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| Time: |
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM |
| Location: |
Room B02, Auditorium (lower level), 677 Beacon Street, Boston |
| Summary: |
Martina Poletti - Contributions of miniature eye movements to visual perception |
| Description: |
Announcement of Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Boston University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Candidate:
Martina Poletti
Department:
Cognitive and Neural Systems
Dissertation Title:
Contributions of miniature eye movements to visual perception
Exam Committee:
1st reader: Prof. Michele Rucci
2nd reader: Prof. Daniel Bullock
3rd reader: Prof. Eric Schwartz
Reviewer: Prof. Takeo Watanabe
Reviewer: Prof. Arash Yazdanbakhsh (Exam Chair)
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/boston-neurotalks/message/5859 |
| Time: |
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM |
| Location: |
Yenching Auditorium, 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA |
| Summary: |
The Translational Implications of Cognitive Neuroscience |
| Description: |
Albert Galaburda
Charles Nelson
Alvaro Pascual-Leone
Join us as Harvard Medical School Professors Albert Galaburda, Charles Nelson, and Alavaro Pascual-Leone discuss how theories and evidence in cognitive neuroscience have led to important translational findings. Hosted by Professors Alfonso Caramazza and Marc Hauser, co-directors of MBB. |
| Time: |
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM |
| Location: |
Cannon Room, Building C, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 |
| Summary: |
Hongjun Song |
| Description: |
CHB - HMS Neurobiology Seminar Series: Robert Burgess
Dr. Hongjun Song
Associate Professor of Neurology/Institute for Cell Engineering, Department of Neuroscience, The John Hopkins University
Tentative Host: Zhigang He, CHB
http://neuro.med.harvard.edu/events/ |
Tuesday, November 3
| Time: |
All day event |
| Summary: |
Election Day |
| Description: |
Tuesday after 1st Monday in November |
| Time: |
12:15 PM - 1:45 PM |
| Location: |
Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Goldenson Building Room 122, Boston |
| Summary: |
Peter Gillespie - Proteins that Make Up the Sensory Hair Bundle of Inner Ear Hair Cells |
| Description: |
Peter G. Gillespie
Oregon Hearing Research Center & Vollum Institute
http://www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/neuroscience/seminar.html |
| Time: |
2:30 PM - 4:00 PM |
| Location: |
Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Goldenson Building Room 122, Boston |
| Summary: |
Stephanie Courchesne - Spatial Aspects of Neuronal Survival Signaling in Sensory Neurons: A Role for Mef2D and Bcl-w |
| Description: |
Harvard Medical School Program in Neuroscience, Dissertation Defense Seminar
Stephanie Courchesne
http://www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/neuroscience/seminar.html
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| Time: |
5:15 PM - 6:30 PM |
| Location: |
Singleton Auditorium, MIT Bldg 46, Room 3002, Cambridge |
| Summary: |
Shimon Ullman - Classification and Beyond |
| Description: |
Series: Brains and Machines Seminar Series 2009
Speaker: Prof. Shimon Ullman, Weizmann Institute
Host: Prof. Tomaso A. Poggio, The McGovern Institute, BCS Dept., CSAIL
Contact: Kathleen D. Sullivan, 617-253-0551, kdsulliv@mit.edu
Relevant URL: http://cbcl.mit.edu/
The first two talks will be on 'classification', the next two on 'beyond'. The first part will examine visual recognition at different levels: natural classes, individual objects, as well as their parts and sub-parts at multiple levels. Related issues will include object segmentation, and the integration of bottom-up with top-down processing in recognition. The second part will discuss the use of vision to understand the world beyond the recognition of single objects, for example, people's actions and goals. Current methods for object classification are insufficient for dealing with broader aspects of visual interpretations. These limitations will be examined, and some extensions and future directions will be outlined.
Series is sponsored by the Intelligence Initiative (I2) and the Center for Biological & Computational Learning (CBCL).
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/boston-neurotalks/message/5785
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Wednesday, November 4
| Time: |
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM |
| Location: |
Visual Attention Lab, 64 Sidney St., Suite 170, Cambridge |
| Summary: |
Tim Buschman - Visual Search in the (Non-Human) Primate Brain |
| Description: |
Visual Attention Lab Talk Announcement
Speaker: Tim Buschman, MIT
Abstract: Attention regulates the flood of sensory information into a manageable stream, and so understanding how attention is controlled is central to understanding cognition. Previous work has shown attention can be focused volitionally by “top-down” signals derived from task demands and automatically by “bottom-up” signals from salient stimuli. To emphasize these two forms of attention two monkeys were trained to covertly search an array for a target stimulus under visual search (endogenous) and pop-out (exogenous) conditions. While it is known that the frontal and parietal cortices are involved, their neural activity has not been directly compared. Therefore, we recorded from them simultaneously. I will present three key findings from this study. First, we find evidence that volitional control of attention is directed from the frontal cortex while posterior cortex reflects the external grabbing of attention. Second, I will discuss neural evidence for serial, covert shifts of attention during search but not pop-out. Finally, I will discuss the role of synchrony in the control of attention, including evidence that attention shifts were correlated with 18-34 Hz oscillations in the local field potential, suggesting a ‘clocking’ signal.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/boston-neurotalks/message/5853 |
| Time: |
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM |
| Location: |
Boston University School of Medicine, 72 East Concord Street, R-115, Boston |
| Summary: |
Jennifer Luebke - Structural and functional changes in cortical pyramidal neurons during normal and pathological aging |
| Description: |
Jennifer Luebke (Boston University)
http://www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/neuroscience/seminar.html
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| Time: |
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Location: |
Board Room, Mezzanine Level, 7 Cambridge Center, The Broad Institute |
| Summary: |
Scott Small - Hippocampal Dysfunction in Alzheimer's Disease and Schizophrenia: MRI Maps to Molecular Mechanisms |
| Description: |
Scott A. Small, MD,
Assistant Professor of Neurology, Columbia University
Host - Tracey Petryshen, PhD
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/boston-neurotalks/message/5861 |
| Time: |
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Location: |
Feldberg 8th floor Solarium, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, East Campus |
| Summary: |
Dan Dillon - Motivation meets cognition: probing reward processing and emotion regulation |
| Description: |
Center for Sleep and Cognition, Neurophysiology Seminar
Dan Dillon, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral Fellow, Affective Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology,
Harvard University
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/boston-neurotalks/message/5864 |
| Time: |
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM |
| Location: |
MIT Building 46-3002 (auditorium), 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge |
| Summary: |
Laurent Mottron - Perception in autism: Updating what means 'enhanced' |
| Description: |
The Autism and Developmental Disorders Colloquium Series at MIT
Laurent Mottron, MD, Ph.D.
Université de Montréal Autism Center of Excellence
Marcel & Rolande Gosselin Research Chair on Cognitive Neuroscience of Autism
Hosted by Pawan Sinha, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Vision and Computational Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT
Please RSVP to lmavros@mit.edu
The Enhanced Perceptual Functioning model (EPF; Mottron et al. 2001, 2006, 2009) is a description of autistic perceptual phenotype. According to EPF, autistic perception is characterized by enhanced low-level operations; locally-oriented processing as a default setting; greater activation of perceptual areas during a range of visuo-spatial, language, working memory, or reasoning tasks; enhanced role in guiding exploratory behaviours, autonomy towards higher processes; and superior involvement in intelligence. Descriptive principles have been preferred to explanatory deficits because autism is a form of life in itself. Therefore, deficit-oriented comparisons with neuro-typicals cannot account for what is a distributed, multi-level difference between autistic and non autistic humans. The current paper will expose the updated state of knowledge on elementary mechanisms for which a distinction between autistic and non autistic perceptual processing can be evident. It also moves one step forward toward a systematization of these principles. We propose now that the three major components of EPF, a) superior performance in discrimination for information relying on neuraly simple analysers (e.g. Pitch processing), b) superior role of low-level perception in mid-level operations (e.g.: local bias in compound stimuli), and c) superior role of perception in operations requiring coupling of perception and other cognitive systems (e.g.: superior involvement of visual ES areas during problem solving) share a common, formal property.
Main cognitive operations can be classified as a more (veridical) or less (hierarchical) isomorphic mapping between systems of representations. Within this framework, the relative weighting between hierarchical mapping and veridical mapping characterizing the cognitive architecture of non autistics is displaced toward the latter in autism. More specific alleged mechanisms like increased lateral inhibition, imbalance between parvo- and magno-cellular pathways, increased sensitivity to high spatial frequencies, local bias, and non-strategic parallel learning and problem solving, also functionally independent, can be unified under this common description.
Supported by the Simons Initiative on Autism and the Brain at MIT
(web.mit.edu/autism)
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/boston-neurotalks/message/5828
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Thursday, November 5
| Time: |
All day event |
| Location: |
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston |
| Summary: |
Frye Halloran Symposium - Biomarkers and Genetic Alterations in Systemic Cancers and Brain Tumors |
| Description: |
Frye Halloran Symposium
Biomarkers and Genetic Alterations in Systemic Cancers and Brain Tumors |
| Time: |
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM |
| Location: |
7th floor conference room, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge |
| Summary: |
Justin Halberda - An interface between vision, numerical cognition, and word meanings |
| Description: |
CBB Seminar
Speaker: Justin Halberda
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Johns Hopkins University
Title: An interface between vision, numerical cognition, and word meanings
Abstract: Whereas limits of visual processing are interesting in their own right, these limits take on a deeper meaning where vision integrates with other cognitive systems. It is at this point that limits within vision become limits that can affect the whole of cognition. I present evidence for one such case: an interface between vision, numerical cognition and the semantics of quantifier terms. The goal is to highlight a case where non-visual cognition (lexical meanings) interfaces with vision and visual limits (tracking multiple sets) constrains later cognition.
For the complete schedule, please see:
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/psych/cbb/colloq/CBB_Talk/CBB.html
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| Time: |
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM |
| Location: |
Harvard Institute of Medicine, Bray Room, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston |
| Summary: |
George Bush - Neuroimaging and Intra-Operative Recordings of Cingulate Cortex in Humans |
| Description: |
George Bush (Harvard Medical School)
http://www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/neuroscience/seminar.html
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| Time: |
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM |
| Location: |
MIT 32-141, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge |
| Summary: |
James Eberwine - Molecular biology and functional genomics of single cells |
| Description: |
MIT Biological Engineering Seminar Series
James Eberwine,
Professor, Dept. of Pharmacology,
School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
URL- http://www.med.upenn.edu/ins/faculty/eberwine.htm
Host - Ed Boyden
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/boston-neurotalks/message/5861 |
Friday, November 6
| Time: |
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM |
| Location: |
Room 203, 44 Cummington St, Boston University, Boston |
| Summary: |
Judy Dubno |
| Description: |
Boston University Hearing Research Center Seminar
Dr. Judy Dubno
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/boston-neurotalks/message/5752 |
| Time: |
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM |
| Location: |
Room B02, 677 Beacon St, Boston, MA, 02215 |
| Summary: |
Miguel Nicolelis - Computing with neural ensembles |
| Description: |
**BU Science of Learning Seminar Series**
Miguel A. L. Nicolelis, Duke University |
| Time: |
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM |
| Location: |
Singleton Auditorium, MIT 46-3002, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge |
| Summary: |
Alexandre Pouget - Probabilistic inferences in neural circuits: from insects to humans |
| Description: |
2009 MIT Colloquium on Brain and Cognition
Speaker: Alexandre Pouget
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
University of Rochester
Abstract: A wide range of behaviors can be formalized as instances of probabilistic inferences. This includes odor recognition in insects, navigation in rodents, auditory localization in barn owls, decision making in primates and causal reasoning in humans, to name just a few. In all cases, the probabilistic inferences involve products of distributions and marginalization. We will show that, given the type of variability reported in neural responses, products of distributions can be implemented through linear operations over firing rates, while marginalization over Gaussian random variables requires a particular nonlinearity known as quadratic divisive normalization. Both operations are conspicuous in many neural circuits raising the possibility that seemingly unrelated behaviors could in fact rely on very similar neural mechanisms across different species. In addition, we will present experimental evidence that humans perception is akin to a sampling process, which supports the notion that humans also use sampling to solve complex Bayesian inferences.
http://bcs.mit.edu/newsevents/colloquia.html |
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