April 2009 - Waterloo Brain Day

Why a Brain Day?

The brain is a horrendously complex and poorly understood system that poses both an immense challenge -- and possibly rich rewards -- to neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, and computer scientists. To celebrate Waterloo's recent establishment of the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience, which integrates these approaches to the brain, and to highlight the already established Cognitive Science Program, we have invited four internationally renowned speakers to present generally accessible lectures from each of these perspectives.

Past brain day lecturers include David van Essen, Patricia Churchland, William Bechtel, Geoff Hinton, Terry Sejnowski, Keith Holyoak, Jay McLelland, and Tony Movshon.

Date: Monday April 6, 2009
Place: Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology building (PAS), room 2083, University of Waterloo

Speakers:
Larry Barsalou (Emory) - Psychology
John Hopfield (Princeton) - Computation
Jesse Prinz (North Carolina) - Philosophy
David Sheinberg (Brown) - Neuroscience

Schedule:
8:30 Refreshments
9:00 Welcome
9:15 Lawrence Barsalou, Emory University
       Title: Grounding Knowledge in the Brain's Modal Systems
10:30 Refreshments provided
10:45 Jesse Prinz, University of North Carolina
        Title: Consciousness, Attention, and the Brain
12:00 Lunch (not provided)
1:30 John Hopfield, Princeton University
       Title: Spike Timing, Rhythms, and the Effective Use of Neural 
       Hardware  
2:45 Refreshments provided
3:00 David Sheinberg, Brown University (slides of Sheinberg lecture PDF)
       Title: How the Brain Knows What's Out There: Exploring the Role of
       Temporal Cortex in Recognition
4:15 Reception (PAS Lounge) - Cash Bar

Sponsored by:
University of Waterloo Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience
Cognitive Science Program
Faculty of Arts