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DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260422T153000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260422T175900
URL:https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/events/ctn-sem
 inar-wilten-nicola-dc-1304
LOCATION:DC - William G. Davis Computer Research Centre Room 1304 200 Unive
 rsity Avenue West Waterloo ON N2L 3G1 Canada
SUMMARY:CTN Seminar Wilten Nicola\, DC 1304
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:On Wednesday\, April 22\, 3:30 p.m. in DC 1304\n\nWilten Nicola
 \,  Hotchkiss Brain Institute\, U Calgary\n(https://www.nicolacomputation
 alneurosciencelab.com/) will speak on\n\nTitle:  Subthreshold Asynchronou
 s States and Pattern Generation in\nBiophysically Detailed Populations of 
 Neurons\n\nAbstract: Learning with spikes is difficult.  Spikes are\nmeta
 bolically costly and difficult to stabilize for computation. \nHere\, we 
 demonstrate that excitatory/inhibitory asynchronous states\ncan exist with
 out firing spikes through self-sustaining subthreshold\nvoltage fluctuatio
 ns in networks of biophysically detailed\nHodgkin-Huxley neurons.  This n
 ovel subthreshold asynchronous state\,\nwhich we call voltage chaos\, can 
 be controlled for useful computation\nand pattern generation also without 
 firing spikes.  Our work here\nprovides computational evidence for the ex
 istence of neural circuits\nthat compute exclusively with subthreshold dy
 namics.  
DTSTAMP:20260408T103455Z
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:69d62f4eed54c
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260310T153000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260310T170000
URL:https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/events/ctn-sem
 inar-chris-sims-rensselaer-polytechnic
LOCATION:DC - William G. Davis Computer Research Centre 200 University Aven
 ue West Waterloo ON N2L 3G1 Canada
SUMMARY:CTN Seminar: Chris Sims Rensselaer Polytechnic
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Room: DC1304\n\nTitle: Why Simplicity Enables Intelligence: Ef
 ficient Coding in Human\nLearning and Generalization\n\nAbstract:\n\nHuman
  intelligence depends critically on the ability to learn\nrepresentations 
 that generalize beyond past experience. While\nreinforcement learning theo
 ry formalizes how agents should act to\nmaximize reward\, it provides litt
 le guidance on how internal\nrepresentations should be structured to suppo
 rt generalization. In\nthis talk\, I propose that efficient coding provide
 s a unifying\nrepresentational principle. When agents are constrained to u
 se the\nsimplest representations compatible with reward maximization\, the
 y are\nforced to discover abstract structure in the environment and to\nse
 lectively encode features that matter for behaviour. I present a\ncomputat
 ional framework in which efficient coding augments the\nclassical reinforc
 ement learning objective\, leading to compact\ninternal state spaces that 
 support robust generalization. Behavioural\nexperiments show that this fra
 mework accounts for human generalization\npatterns that standard models s
 truggle to explain. I further\ndemonstrate that the same principle explain
 s long-standing\nregularities in perceptual generalization\, including the
  universal law\nof generalization. These results suggest that abstraction\
 ,\ngeneralization\, and perceptual similarity arise from a common\nnormati
 ve pressure to efficiently encode information under resource\nconstraints.
DTSTAMP:20260408T103455Z
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:69d62f4eee375
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260407T083000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260407T093000
URL:https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/events/brain-d
 ay-2026
SUMMARY:Brain Day 2026
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Four internationally renowned speakers join us to present lectu
 res\nfrom each of the perspectives of neuroscience\, computational\nneuros
 cience\, psychology\, and philosophy on the ideas of mind\, brain\,\ntheor
 ies\, and models.\n\nThis is a free event\, and we have a marvellous lineu
 p of speakers. The\nCTN looks forward to greeting you all on April 7\, 202
 6
DTSTAMP:20260408T103455Z
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:69d62f4eeed42
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251021T153000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251021T163000
URL:https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/events/ctn-sem
 inar-patrick-shofer-dc-1304
LOCATION:DC - William G. Davis Computer Research Centre Room 1304 200 Unive
 rsity Avenue West Waterloo ON N2L 3G1 Canada
SUMMARY:CTN Seminar Patrick Shöfer DC 1304
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Patrick Schöfer\,\n\nDepartment of Neuromorphic Infor
 mation Processing\n\nUniversity of Leipzig\n\nTitle: Boredom as Homeostasi
 s of Cognitive Resource Utilization using\nSpiking Neural Networks\n\nAbst
 ract: In this talk\, I will present our approach to modelling\nboredom as 
 a homeostatic mechanism that maintains an optimal level of\ncognitive enga
 gement. When engagement deviates from this “Goldilocks\nzone” due to u
 nder- or overstimulation\, the system dynamically\nadjusts neural activity
  to restore balance. Implemented as a control\nloop in a spiking neural ne
 twork\, the model monitors and regulates\nsimulated cognitive resource uti
 lization through excitation and\ninhibition.
DTSTAMP:20260408T103455Z
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:69d62f4eefb35
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251202T153000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251202T163000
URL:https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/events/ctn-sem
 inar-jonathan-michaels
LOCATION:DC - William G. Davis Computer Research Centre 200 University Aven
 ue West Waterloo ON N2L 3G1 Canada
SUMMARY:CTN Seminar Jonathan A. Michaels
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Location: DC 1304 \n\nTitle: Sensory expectations shape neural
  population dynamics in motor\ncircuits\n\nAbstract: The neural basis of m
 ovement preparation has been\nextensively studied during self-initiated ac
 tions where motor cortical\nactivity during preparation shows a lawful rel
 ationship to the\nparameters of the subsequent action. However\, movements
  are regularly\ntriggered or corrected based on sensory inputs caused by d
 isturbances\nto the body. Since such disturbances are often predictable an
 d since\npreparing for disturbances would make movements better\, we\nhypo
 thesized that expectations about sensory inputs also influence\npreparator
 y activity in motor circuits. Here we show that when humans\nand monkeys a
 re probabilistically cued about the direction of future\nmechanical pertur
 bations\, they incorporate sensory expectations into\ntheir movement prepa
 ration and improve their corrective responses.\nUsing high-density neural 
 recordings\, we establish that sensory\nexpectations are widespread across
  the brain\, including the motor\ncortical areas involved in preparing sel
 f-initiated actions. The\ngeometry of these preparatory signals in the neu
 ral population state\nis simple\, directly scaling with the probability of
  each perturbation\ndirection. After perturbation onset\, a condition-inde
 pendent signal\nshifts the neural state leading to rapid responses that in
 itially\nreflect sensory expectations. Based on neural networks coupled to
  a\nbiomechanical model of the arm\, we show that this neural geometry\nem
 erges only when sensory inputs signal that a perturbation has\noccurred be
 fore resolving the direction of the perturbation. Thus\,\njust as preparat
 ory activity sets the stage for self-initiated\nmovement\, it also config
 ures motor circuits to respond efficiently to\nsensory inputs.
DTSTAMP:20260408T103455Z
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:69d62f4ef09ca
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250610T093000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250610T103000
URL:https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/events/william
 -lytton-suny-downstate-applied-math-seminar
LOCATION:MC - Mathematics & Computer Building 200 University Avenue West Ro
 om 5501 (look for Colloquium Rooms) Waterloo ON N2L 3G1 Canada
SUMMARY:William Lytton SUNY Downstate (Applied Math Seminar)
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Prof. William Lytton\, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences\
 nUniversity\n\nTitle: Neurons and synapses working together happily in bra
 in health\;\nnot so happily in brain disease\n\nAbstract: At first approxi
 mation\, we currently think of the brain as a\nset of neurons as nodes con
 nected by directed edges\, akin to the\nmathematical description of an Erd
 ős–Rényi graph model. It is now\ntime to redirect attention on the ind
 ividual neurons\, the massive\ncomplex entities that are often a locus of 
 disease progression and may\nalso be an additional locus of computation. 
  I will focus on the\nrole of the cortical corticospinal cell in Parkinso
 n's disease (PD)\nand in migraine/ischemia. In both cases a class of neur
 on becomes\ndamaged as an effect of disease: the effect becomes a site for
  the\nburgeoning disorder.\n\nMore generally\, I wish to refocus on cell p
 hysiology as a basis of\nbrain function. This will help us to better expla
 in how cell pathology\nproduces dysfunction in neurodegenerative disorders
  such as\nAlzheimer's\, Parkinson's\, and mild cognitive impairment. The r
 oles\nplayed by particular neuron types in performing the computations tha
 t\nunderlie brain function will provide a new Neuron-based Computational\n
 Theory (NCT) to complement and augment the current dominant\nSynapse-based
  Computational Theory (SCT)\, which gave us\nHebbian/Hopfieldian cell asse
 mblies reified in modern\nlarge-language models (LLMs).
DTSTAMP:20260408T103455Z
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:69d62f4ef17df
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250331T110000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250331T120000
URL:https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/events/mark-re
 imers-centre-theoretical-neuroscience-seminar
LOCATION:E5 - Engineering 5 200 University Avenue West Room 2004 Waterloo O
 N N2L 3G1 Canada
SUMMARY:Mark Reimers Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience Seminar
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Mark Reimers\, Michigan State (https://iq.msu.edu/mark-reimers/
 )\n\nLocation: E5 2004\n\nTitle: A new and inexpensive method for high-re
 solution imaging of\nneural activity across the cortex of small animals\n\
 nAbstract: In this talk I will introduce a new system for imaging the\nac
 tivity of several thousand labelled neurons distributed sparsely\nacross t
 he dorsal cortex of a mouse at high speed. The key is to use\nextensive co
 mputation to make up for the deficits of simple imaging\nsystems. I will d
 escribe the ideas behind our system and the\ntechnology that we're using t
 o implement these ideas\, at a cost of\nunder $50\,000. I will describe so
 me of the technical issues we've\naddressed\, and issues that we’re stil
 l working on. A natural\nquestion to ask is how much of the complex cortic
 al activity can be\ninferred by recording from a small fraction of neurons
  in each area. I\nwill present evidence from large-scale Zebrafish and mou
 se brain\nrecordings to suggest that a surprisingly small fraction of labe
 lled\nneurons may be sufficient to represent most of the population activi
 ty\nin the upper layers of cortex.
DTSTAMP:20260408T103455Z
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:69d62f4ef2491
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250306T153000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250306T170000
URL:https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/events/ctn-sem
 inar-eva-dyer
LOCATION:E5 - Engineering 5 200 University Avenue West Waterloo ON N2L 3G1 
 Canada
SUMMARY:CTN Seminar Eva Dyer
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Eva Dyer (home page\n[https://bme.gatech.edu/bme/faculty/
 Eva-Dyer]) will present on her\nwork on Thursday\, March 6\, 3:30 p.m. in 
 E5 2004.\n\nScaling Up Neural Data Pretraining to Uncover Shared Structure
  in\nBrain Function\n\nThe brain is incredibly complex\, with diverse func
 tions that emerge\nfrom the coordinated activity of billions of neurons. T
 hese functions\nvary across brain regions and adapt dynamically as we enga
 ge in\ndifferent tasks\, process sensory information\, or generate behavio
 r.\nYet\, each neural recording captures only a small glimpse of this\nimm
 ense complexity\, offering a limited view of the broader system.\nThis mot
 ivates the need for an algorithmic approach to stitch together\ndiverse da
 tasets\, integrating neural activity across brain regions\,\ncell types\, 
 and individuals. In this talk\, I will present our work on\nbuilding scala
 ble models pretrained on a broad corpus of neural\nrecordings. Our finding
 s demonstrate positive transfer across tasks\,\ncell types\, and individua
 ls\, effectively bridging gaps between\nisolated studies. This unified fra
 mework opens new possibilities for\nneural decoding\, brain-machine interf
 aces\, and cross-species\nneuroscience\, offering a path toward more gener
 alizable models of\nbrain function.
DTSTAMP:20260408T103455Z
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:69d62f4ef30db
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20240319T153000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20240319T153000
URL:https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/events/ctn-sem
 inar-megan-peters-be-online-links-follow
SUMMARY:CTN Seminar Megan Peters (to be online - links to follow)
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Megan Peters\, UC Irvine (will be online - links will be posted
  here)\n\nTITLE: Theory-informed methods for studying metacognition and\nc
 onsciousness
DTSTAMP:20260408T103455Z
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:69d62f4ef3af6
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20240312T153000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20240312T153000
URL:https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/events/ctn-sem
 inar-memming-park-room-e7-7363
SUMMARY:CTN Seminar Memming Park (Room E7-7363)
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Memming Park\, Champalimaud Centre\n\nTITLE: Persistent learnin
 g signals and working memory without\ncontinuous attractors
DTSTAMP:20260408T103455Z
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