Computational Cognitive Neuroscience -- Spring 2012
Instructor:
Peggy Seriès
Lectures : Monday/Thursday 11:10 - 12.00,7GS s.1 , beg Jan 19th 2012
Labs : Fridays 1 pm - 4 pm, AT 5.08, starting Jan 27th then Feb 10th, Feb 17th, March 2nd, March 16th (i.e. approximately every other week except for Feb 17th).
Tutor: David Acunzo .
This is a course for MSc level students. There are no prerequisites but
some background in statistics, calculus, linear algebra will help, as a
well as some knowledge of matlab.
Computational Cognitive Neuroscience is a growing research field.
The aim of this course is to learn the tools and concepts that can be
used to model cognitive processes.
This course differs from / complements NC and NIP in focussing on
'higher level' processes and phenomena (e.g. decision making) and more
conceptual models (even if we'll try to stay as close as possible to
neurophysiology).
see last year's webpage. Also, short course in Buenos Aires.
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Resources
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Assignments
- Two assignments (50%) and one report (50%) (no exam).
- Matlab assignment 1: TBA. Deadline : TBA.
The report should look like a scientific report, with description and discussion of the results (not a presentation of the code). The quality of the presentation will be taken into account in the final mark. See an example of a good paper from past years.
- Report: You will have to write a paper based on one or two
papers of your choice. The paper(s) should be related to the themes of
cognitive neuroscience and have a significant computational component.
Please contact me if you're not sure of your choice or want
suggestions. You should explore the context, critically evaluate it,
and discuss questions raised by these papers and maybe suggest further
experimental or theoretical work.
Your report should be around 3000 words (4000 words MAX)
all included (references, captions etc..). You should write for the
interested, but non-specialist reader. You can look at the journal
Trends in Neuroscience (TINS) for how to construct such papers. The aim
of the paper is that you should demonstrate that you can read a paper
in computational cognitive neuroscience, understand its methods,
evaluate its claims and place it in perspective.
deadline for submitting choice of paper: TBA.
deadline for report: TBA. please submit both pdf via submit and paper copy to ITO.
Tips for choosing a paper.
Examples of 2 good papers from last years: paper1 (attention), paper2 (hallucinations in migraines).
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Labs
The labs will consist mainly of implementation in
matlab of simple models of population codes, perception, learning and
plasticity and decision making. Attendance and work on this material
will help for the assignments.
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** Slides of last year -- Subject to changes **
Other
- You may be interested in some of the talks in the DTC Neuroinformatics course
which I am organizing.The DTC
students in the course attend these talks already, but other CCN
students are very welcome.
- UK students (or EU having lived here for more than 3 years) are encouraged to apply to the DTC
for PhD study. Of course, MSc students taking CCN will often have taken
some courses that are part of the DTC MSc year, but we can be flexible
in such cases.
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