Fall Semester 2010-2011

For Fall Semester 2010-2011, the Behavioral, Computational, and Systems Neuroscience (BCS) Journal Club will meet on Tuesdays from 11:45 to 1:00 pm in Uris Hall 205. 

Papers and notes from previous semesters can be found in the BCS meeting archive.

The overarching theme this semester is Systems of neuronal representation and learning.  Adhering to this theme is not required, but is strongly recommended.  Please interpret it broadly. It is intended to include such diverse topics as:  the systematic regulation of synaptic plasticity, Bayesian representations (including sensory representations as probability estimates), Bayesian and/or energetic optimality in neural encoding or transmission, perceptual learning, decision-making (including reward harvesting), temporal difference learning/dopamine (Schultz model), synaptic rules that give rise to systems-level learning properties. 

To add yourself to the BCS-L mailing list, send a plain-text email to bcs-L-request@cornell.edu with the body of the message saying simply join.  The subject line doesn't matter.  Sending the message leave instead will unsubscribe you from the list.  See Cornell's Lyris HowTo page for further details. 

Please contact Thomas Cleland or David Smith with any questions.

31 August 2010:  Organizational Meeting

• No readings. Please come prepared to choose a day to present from the many opportunities below.

7 September 2010: Thom Cleland

• The topic of the day is "structure learning."  Thom will present the PLoS One computational paper below with reference to the Behavioral Brain Research review of the overall topic (also below).  Please read at least one of the two (your choice).
• Braun, Waldert, Aertsen, Wolpert, Mehring (2010).  Structure learning in a sensorimotor association task.  PLoS One 5(1):e8973.
• Braun, Mehring, Wolpert (2010).  Structure learning in action.  Behavioural Brain Research 206:157-165.

14 September 2010: David Smith

• Kuhl, B., Dudukovic, N., Kahn, I. & Wagner, A.(2007). Decreased demands on cognitive control reveal the neural processing benefits of forgetting. Nature Neuroscience 10(7), 908-914.
• Wimber, M., Rutschmann, R., Greenlee, M. and Bauml, K. (2009). Retrieval from Episodic Memory: Neural Mechanisms of Interference Resolution. J Cog Neurosci 21(3) 538-549.

21 September 2010:  Laura Darnieder

• Ohms VR, Gill A, Van Heijninge CAA, Beckers GJL, ten Cate C (2009). Zebra finches exhibit speaker-independent phonetic perception of human speech.  Proc. Royal Society B.  
• Gauthier B, Shi R, Xu Y (2007).  SImulating the acquisition of lexical tones from continuous dynamic input.  J. Acoustical Society of America 121(5), May 2007. 

28 September 2010:  Michelle Tong

• "A well-written review with bias" -- just the thing...
• Hickok G (2009).  Eight problems for the mirror neuron theory of action understanding in monkeys and humans.  Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 21(7):1229-1243.  (PubMed Central version)

5 October 2010:  Matt Lewis

• Nir Y, Tononi G (2009) Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences 14(2):88-100.
• Schredl M et al (2009)  Information processing during sleep: the effect of olfactory stimuli on dream content and dream emotions.  Journal of Sleep Research 18:285-290. 

• [OPTIONAL]  [Issa EB, Wang X (2008)|^J Neurosci 2008 Issa.pdf] Sensory responses during sleep in primate primary and secondary auditory cortex.  Journal of Neuroscience 28(53):14467-14480. 

12 October 2010: Anuttama Sheela Mohan

• Pfister J-P, Dayan P, Lengyel M (2010) Synapses with short-term plasticity are optimal estimators of presynaptic membrane potentials.  Nature Neuroscience 13(10):1271-1275. 

19 October 2010:  Guoshi Li

• These papers concern unified models of synaptic plasticity, attempting to understand the underlying general rule(s) regulating synaptic weights and the diversity of conditions under which they may be altered. 

• [Shouval HZ, Wang SS-H, Wittenberg GM (2010)|^STDP-A consequence of more fundamental rule.pdf] Spike timing dependent plasticity: a consequence of more fundamental learning rules  Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience 4:19.  [This is a review article]

• Shouval HZ, Bear MF, Cooper LN (2002) A unified model of NMDA receptor-dependent bidirectional synaptic plasticity.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99(16): 10831-10836.

26 October 2010:  Sasha Devore

• Jazayeri M, Movshon JA (2006)  Optimal representation of sensory information by neuronal populations.  Nature Neuroscience 9(5):690-696 plus corrigendum.
• Supplementary materials for Jazayeri & Movshon (2006).  Includes corrected equations as noted in corrigendum. 

2 November 2010:  Tanya Nauvel

• Smith AC, Shah SA, Hudson AE, Purpura KP, Victor JD, Brown EN, Schiff ND (2009).  A Bayesian statistical analysis of behavioral facilitation associated with deep brain stimulation.  Journal of Neuroscience Methods 183(2):267-276.  PMC Version. 

9 November 2010:  Adam Miller

• Yin HH, Prasad Mulcare S, Hilario MRF, Clouse E, Holloway T, Davis MI, Hansson AC, Lovinger DM, Costa RM (2009).  Dynamic reorganization of striatal circuits during the acquisition and consolidation of a skill.  Nature Neuroscience 12(3):333-341. 

16 November 2010:  NO MEETING (Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting)

23 November 2010:  Shane Peace

• Long MA, Jin DZ, Fee MS (2010).  Support for a synaptic chain model of neuronal sequence generation. Nature 468(7322): 394-399.

30 November 2010: SiWei Luo

• Bromberg-Martin ES, Matsumoto M, Hikosaka O (2010).  Distinct tonic and phasic anticipatory activity in lateral habenula and dopamine neurons.  Neuron 67: 144-155.

• [OPTIONAL - BACKGROUND]  [Hikosaka O, Sesack SR, Lecourtier L, Shepard PD (2008)|^Habenula crossroad between the basal ganglia and the limbic system.pdf].  Habenula: crossroad between the basal ganglia and the limbic system.  Journal of Neuroscience 28(46): 11825-11829. 

THEME PROPOSALS FOR SPRING 2011:

• Cell assemblies and functional connectivity.
• Attention.
• Decision making: how do brains/neurons make up their minds... could be broad like sensorimotor or small like anything dealing with synaptic integration/action potential generation.
• More oscillations.  i know we did it last spring but it seems like it's still a recurring a nightmare for most people. i feel like we could just have an oscillations reading group (they had one back east... maybe we should do it!!!)