Brain Day

The 16th Annual Waterloo Brain Day - April 9, 2024


Brain Day Live and In-person April 9, 2024

brain and text brain day, green background, red text

The University of Waterloo's Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience supports the development of robust explanatory theories of mind and brain through education and research. In pursuit of that goal the CTN has invited four internationally renowned speakers to present generally accessible lectures from each of the perspectives of neuroscience, computational neuroscience, psychology and philosophy on the ideas of mind, brain, theories and models.

This is a free event, and we have a marvellous line up of speakers. The CTN looks forward to greeting you all on April 9, 2024


Schedule and Speakers:

08:30 Contenential Breakfast Served
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09:00 Welcoming Remarks
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09:15 Kalanit Grill-Spector (Stanford): Psychology
Understanding the functional neuroanatomy of the visual system using topographic deep neural networks and spatiotemporal receptive fields 
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10:30 Coffee Provided
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10:45 Maithilee Kunda (Vanderbilt): Computation
Reasoning with visual imagery: Research at the intersection of autism, AI, and visual thinking
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12:00 Break for Lunch (bring your lunch or enjoy the many options nearby)

13:30 Michael Anderson (Western): Philosophy
Neural reuse, dynamics, and constraints: Getting beyond the componential mechanistic explanation of neural function
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14:45 Break
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15:00 Katalin Gothard (Arizona): Neuroscience
 A context-dependent switch from sensing to feeling in the primate amygdala
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16:15 Reception 
canape platters are served and drink tickets are available
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Past Brain Day lecturers include:

Rafal Bogacz, Dora Angelaki, Nartascha Rajah,Serife Tekin, Jacqueline Gottlieb, Viktor Jirsa, Frances Egan, Lila Davachi, John Maunsell, Michael Arbib, Vinod Menon, William Seager, Marisa Carrasco, Konrad Kording, James DiCarlo, Daniel Dennett, Daniel Schacter, Paul Glimcher, David van Essen, Patricia Churchland, William Bechtel, Geoff Hinton, Jack Gallant, Ned Block, Carl Craver, Terry Sejnowski, Keith Holyoak, Peter Strick, Jay McLelland, Tony Movshon, Jonathan Cohen, Larry Barsalou, Sebastien Seung, Mel Goodale, John Hopfield, Jesse Prinz, David Sheinberg, Gyorgy Buzsaki, Ian Gold, Michael Tarr, and Michael Hasselmo.

Sponsored by: University of Waterloo Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience (CTN), and Office of Research, University of Waterloo.

 Past Waterloo Brain Days