April 2010 - 4th 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 (CTN), 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, Tony Movshon, Larry Barsalou, John Hopfield, Jesse Prinz, and David Sheinberg.

Date: Tues April 6, 2010
Place: Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology building (PAS), room 2083, University of Waterloo

Speakers:
Mel Goodale (University of Western Ontario (UWO) - Psychology
Jack Gallant (University of California, Berkeley) - Neuroscience
Ken Miller (Columbia University) - Computational Neuroscience
Carl Craver (Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) - Philosophy

Schedule:
8:30 Refreshments
9:00 Welcome
9:15 Mel Goodale, University of Western Ontario
       Title: Two Visual Streams with One Goal in Sight
10:30 Refreshments provided
10:45 Carl Craver, Washington University in St. Louis
       Title: Episodic Thought and Moral Agency
12:00 Lunch (not provided)
1:30 Ken Miller, Columbia University
       Title: Why the Brain is Normally Non-normal: Excitation, Inhibition,
       and Amplification in Brain Circuits
2:45 Refreshments provided
3:00 Jack Gallant, University of California, Berkeley
       Title: Visual Processing of Natural Scenes: Encoding, Decoding and
       Applications to "Brain Reading"
4:15 Reception (PAS Lounge) - Cash Bar

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