[SydPhil] Fwd: Macquarie Uni cog science seminar this Friday 15th - Information transfer and storage in neural systems

[John Sutton]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anne Jager <anne.jager at mq.edu.au>
Date: Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 2:53 PM
Subject: CCD seminar THIS FRIDAY the 15th in the Australian Hearing Hub,
Room 3.610!

Hi all,
I would like to call your attention to another upcoming talk THIS week by
Professor Michael Wibral from Frankfurt University!
Please be aware that it will take place on FRIDAY from 12.30 - 1.30 pm! I
hope you all take the time to come and listen.

Who:* **Professor Michael Wibral **(Brain Imaging Center, Frankfurt
University)*
 When: *FRIDAY (15th of March 2013), 12.30 - 1.30pm*
Where: The Australian Hearing Hub Meeting, *Room  3.610*,  South Wing,
Macquarie University
What: *"Information transfer and storage in neural systems"*

Novel information theoretic quantities measure key elements of distributed
computation in neural systems, such as the storage and transfer of
information. This way, they help to better understand the computational
algorithm implemented in the network under investigation. Information
theoretic approaches have raised great interest in neuroscience recently,
especially because they do not require modeling of the neural system. This
is important, as our current knowledge about neural systems is often still
too limited to rely on modeling alone. Examples of model-free, information
theoretic analyses of information transfer and storage in real-world neural
data from magnetoencephalography (MEG) and invasive local field potential
recordings will form the first part of the talk, demonstrating their
applicability to experimental data. In contrast, the second part will try
to answer the question what role information theoretic methods will play
when, one day, our knowledge will suffice for detailed modeling of large
neural systems like the human brain. In this second part, I will turn to
the classic tri-level hypothesis of David Marr to explain how duplicating
the dynamics of a neural system via detailed modeling amounts to the
possibility of perfect measurements at the level of the biophysical
implementation of the system but does not entail an understanding of the
information processing algorithms implemented in the system's dynamics. The
missing link between the dynamics simulated at the biophysical level and
the computational algorithms implemented by these dynamics can be provided
by information theoretic methods.

-- 
Anne Jaeger
PhD candidate
Department of Cognitive Science
ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders
The Australian Hearing Hub
16 University Avenue
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY NSW 2109
Email: anne.jager at mq.edu.au
Phone: +61 (0) 2 9850 4440
http://www.ccd.edu.au


-- 
Professor John Sutton
Deputy & Acting Head, Department of Cognitive Science
Macquarie University, Sydney,
NSW 2109, Australia
Phone: +61 (0)2 9850 4132
Email: john.sutton at mq.edu.au
URL: http://www.johnsutton.net/
http://www.maccs.mq.edu.au/
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