Scientific Calendar Event



Description The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, is organizing a Winter School on Quantitative Systems Biology from 1 to 12 December 2014. It will be directed by V. Balasubramanian (Univ. of Pennsylvania, USA and CUNY Graduate Center, USA) and A. Treves (SISSA, Italy).

The School is part of the Programme in Biology between ICTP and the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) in Bangalore, India. New experimental techniques are opening windows on biological mechanisms inside the cell and in the brain, making these systems accessible to quantitative investigation. These advances have shown the importance of the concerted interaction of many agents in producing overall behaviors, and call for an understanding of biological functions at the systemic level. The series of Winter Schools in Quantitative Systems Biology, initiated in 2012, responds to the need to provide physicists with a broad exposure to quantitative problems in the study of living systems. The school is particularly targeted to young researchers, especially at the Ph.D and postdoc level who either work in this area or hope to do so.

The 2014 School will focus on Systems Neuroscience and cover different aspects of this rapidly developing field, such as:
• Neural coding and dynamics
• Connectomics
• Statistical inference in large neural datasets
• Optogenetics and gene expression in the brain
• Sensory systems: vision, olfaction, audition
• Computational neuroscience
• Synaptic plasticity, learning and memory
• Neuroscience of reward and decision making
• Spatial cognition
• Higher order cognitive processes

Series of lectures in these topics will be given by an array of distinguished speakers. Research seminars associated with the school will also provide a venue for scientific exchange at the cutting edge. 

Directors 
 
V. BALASUBRAMANIAN 
Univ. of Pennsylvania, USA and 
CUNY Graduate Center, USA 
A. TREVES SISSA, Italy 
 
 
Scientific Committee 
 
A. Celani (ICTP, Italy) 
N. Chandra (IISc, India) 
S. Jain (Univ. of Delhi, India) 
M. Marsili* (ICTP, Italy) 
A. Sengupta (Rutgers State Univ., USA) 
M. Thattai (NCBS, India) 
M. Vendruscolo (Univ. Cambridge, UK) 
 
* local organizer 
 
 
Invited Lecturers: 
 
Stefano Fusi (Columbia, USA) 
Kate Jeffery (UCL, UK) 
Etienne Koechlin (ENS Paris, France) 
Venkatesh Murthy (Harvard, USA) 
Maria Neimark Geffen (Univ. of Pennsylvania, USA) 
Botond Roska (FMI, Switzerland) 
Wolfram Schultz (Univ. Cambridge, UK) 
Tatyana Sharpee (Salk Institute, USA) 
Misha Tsodyks (Weizmann Institute, Israel) 
Fred Wolf (Univ. Göttingen, Germany) 
 
 
Invited Speakers include: 
 
Mohammad Herzallah (Al Quds, Palestine) 
Emilio Kropf (Leloir Institute, Argentina) 
Gabriel Mindlin (Univ.Buenos Aires, Argentina) 
Remi Monasson (ENS Paris, France) 
Yasser Roudi (NTNU, Norway) 
Gasper Tkacik (IST, Austria) 
Go to day
  • Monday, 1 December 2014
    • 08:00 - 17:30
      Location: Adriatico Guest House - Kastler Lecture Hall
      • 08:00 Registration and Administration 1h0' ( Adriatico Guest House - Kastler Lecture Hall Area (Lower Level 1) )
      • 09:00 Introduction to the course 1h30'
        Speaker: Vijay Balasubramanian (Univ. of Pennsylvania and CUNY Graduate Center, USA)
        Material: Exercise Slides Video
      • 10:30 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:00 Information maximization in irregular arrays and with noise correlations 1h30'
        Speaker: Tatyana Sharpee (Salk Institute, USA)
        Material: Video
      • 12:30 Lunch break 1h30'
      • 14:00 Physics and Neuroscience I 1h30'
        Speaker: Fred Wolf (Univ. Goettingen, Germany)
        Material: Video
      • 15:30 Maximally informative foraging by C. elegans 1h30'
        Speaker: Tatyana Sharpee (Salk Institute, USA)
        Material: Video
  • Tuesday, 2 December 2014
    • 09:00 - 20:00
      Location: Adriatico Guest House - Kastler Lecture Hall
      • 09:00 From Short-term Plasticity to Cognition I 1h30'
        Speaker: Misha Tsodyks (Weizmann Institute, Israel)
        Material: Video
      • 10:30 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:00 Physics and Neuroscience II 1h30'
        Speaker: Fred Wolf (Univ. Goettingen, Germany)
        Material: Video
      • 12:30 Lunch break 1h30'
      • 14:00 Information theory and efficient coding in neural and genetic regulatory networks 1h30'
        Speaker: Gasper Tkacik (IST, Austria)
        Material: Video
      • 15:30 Coffee Break 30'
      • 16:00 Network Inference 1h30'
        Speaker: Yasser Roudi (NTNU, Norway)
        Material: Video
      • 17:30 Poster Session 1h30'
        1. How delay modifies the aftereffects of the STDP
          by Mojtaba Madadi Asl and Alireza Valizadeh
        2. A model for the song system in Serinus canaria
          by Rodrigo Alonso, Marcos Trevisan, Ana Amador and Gabriel Mindlin
        3. Ide-field photoactivation of in vitro neuronal networks
          by Rocco Pulizzi, Gabriele Musumeci, Chris Van Den Haute, Veerle Baekelandt, 
          and Michele Giugliano
        4. Signal-to-noise ratio affects performance on a novel auditory stimulus selection task for 
        rodents
          by S. J. Katarina Slama, Melissa L. Newton, Michael R. DeWeese
        5. Phase synchronization of burstingneural networks with electrical and delayed dynamic chemical couplings
          by Megam Ngouonkadi Elie Bertrand and Fotsin HilaireBertrand
        6. Similarity of the brain and the sandpile model
          by Zarepour, Mahdi; Dehghan Niry, Mohammad; Valizadeh, Alireza
        7. Encoding of multiple kinematic aspects in the temporal lobe
          by Melisa Maidana Capitán, Soledad Gonzalo Cogno, Emilio Kropff and Inés Samengo
        8. Modeling task-specific manifestations of serotonin in Basal Ganglia using risk-based decision making
          by B. Pragathi Priyadharsini, V. Srinivasa Chakravarthy, Balaraman Ravindran, Ahmed A. Moustafa
        9. Energy deposition patterns in hippocampal neurons under exposure to heavy ions
          by M. Batmunkh, O. V, Belov, O. Lhagva
        10. Dynamics of axon zippering and bundling in olfactory epithelium explants
          by D. Smit, C. Fouquet, F. Pincet, A. Trembleau, M. Zapotocky
        11. Computational Aspects of Visual Motion Detection in the Blowfly
          by Suva Roy, Rob de Ruyter van Steveninck
        12. Two-trace model for STDP
          by Rodrigo Echeveste and Claudius Gros
        13. Dynamics of neural networks with transient synaptic plasticity rules
          by Bulcsú Sándor, Claudius Gros
        14. Inferring microRNA functions: regulation beyond direct targets
          by Cesaré Ovando, Roberto Álvarez and Cei Abreu-Goodger
        15. Metastability in cortical networks: a dynamical principle underlying ongoing and 
        evoked activity
          by Luca Mazzucato, Alfredo Fontanini, Giancarlo La Camera
        16. Study of Gamma oscillations in presence of Communication of delay in Neuronal Networks
          by Mina Kheirkhah
        17. Synchronization of Directed Small-World Networks
          by Aida Sheshbolouki, Mina Zarei, Hamid Sarbazi-Azad
        18. Quantifying higher-order correlations in a neuronal pool
          by Lisandro Montangie and Fernando Montani
        19. Inferred model of the prefrontal cortex activity unveils task-related cell assemblies 
        and memory replay
          by Gaia Tavoni, Ulisse Ferrari, Francesco Battaglia, Simona Cocco and Rémi Monasson
        20. Neural network machinery of long-term memory retrieval
          by Stefano Recanatesi, Misha Katkov, Sandro Romani, Misha Tsodyks
        21. Adding New Neurons on the Tail of a Binomial
          by Z. Kaya, E. Cerasti, C. B. Alme, K. Jezek, & A. Treves
        22. Representation of hyperbolic geometry in a self-organized model of grid cells
          by E. Urdapilleta, F. Troiani, F. Stella & A. Treves
        23. The mesencephalic sensorimotor gating of aversive information: 
        implications for fear and anxiety
        by Viviane M. Saito; Marcus L. Brandão
        24. Divisive inhibition prevents abrupt transition from order to chaos in a neural field model
          by Christoforos Papasavvas, Yujiang Wang, Andrew J. Trevelyan, Marcus Kaiser
        25. Investigating the relationship between LFPs and firing rates of individual 
        genetically-identified interneurons
          by Stefano Cavallari,  Stefano Zucca, Tommaso Fellin, Stefano Panzeri
      • 19:00 Welcome reception 1h0' ( Adriatico Cafeteria )
  • Wednesday, 3 December 2014
    • 09:30 - 19:30
      Location: Adriatico Guest House - Kastler Lecture Hall
      • 09:30 Spatial behaviour and spatial representation 1h30'
        Speaker: Kate Jeffery (UCL, UK)
        Material: Video
      • 11:00 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:30 Coordinated encoding between cell types in the retina: Insights from the theory of phase transitions 1h30'
        Speaker: Tatyana Sharpee (Salk Institute, USA)
        Material: Video
      • 13:00 Lunch break 1h30'
      • 14:30 Physics and Neuroscience III 1h30'
        Speaker: Fred Wolf (Univ. Goettingen, Germany)
        Material: Video
      • 16:00 Coffee Break 30'
      • 16:30 Encoding space during early embryonic development 1h30'
        Speaker: Gasper Tkacik (IST, Austria)
        Material: Video
      • 18:00 Poster session 1h30'
  • Thursday, 4 December 2014
    • 09:30 - 19:30
      Location: Adriatico Guest House - Kastler Lecture Hall
      • 09:30 From Short-term Plasticity to Cognition II 1h30'
        Speaker: Misha Tsodyks (Weizmann Institute, Israel)
        Material: Video
      • 11:00 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:30 Neural encoding of simple spaces 1h30'
        Speaker: Kate Jeffery (UCL, UK)
        Material: Video
      • 13:00 Lunch break 1h30'
      • 14:30 Unveiling Task-Related Cell Assemblies and Memory 1h30'
        Speaker: Remi Monasson (ENS Paris, France)
        Material: Video
      • 16:00 Coffee Break 30'
      • 16:30 From Short-term Plasticity to Cognition III 1h30'
        Speaker: Misha Tsodyks (Weizmann Institute, Israel)
        Material: Video
      • 18:00 Poster Session 1h30'
  • Friday, 5 December 2014
    • 09:00 - 18:30
      Location: Adriatico Guest House - Kastler Lecture Hall
      • 09:00 The Retina and Vision Beyond I 1h30'
        Speaker: Botond Roska (FMI, Switzerland)
      • 10:30 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:00 Neural encoding of complex spaces 1h30'
        Speaker: Kate Jeffery (UCL, UK)
        Material: Video
      • 12:30 Lunch break 1h30'
      • 14:00 The Retina and Vision Beyond II 1h30'
        Speaker: Botond Roska (FMI, Switzerland)
      • 15:30 Coffee Break 30'
      • 16:00 Neural processes in decision-making under uncertainty 1h0'
        Speaker: Special Guest: Zach Mainen (Champalimaud, Lisbon, Portugal)
      • 17:00 Poster Session 1h30'
  • Saturday, 6 December 2014
    • 09:00 - 12:30
      Location: Adriatico Guest House - Kastler Lecture Hall
      • 09:00 Transition between spatial representations in hippocampal place-cell models 1h30'
        Speaker: Remi Monasson (ENS Paris, France)
        Material: Video
      • 10:30 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:00 The Retina and Vision Beyond III 1h30'
        Speaker: Botond Roska (FMI, Switzerland)
  • Monday, 8 December 2014
    • 09:00 - 17:30
      Location: Adriatico Guest House - Kastler Lecture Hall
      • 09:00 Auditory Processing I 1h30'
        Speaker: Maria Geffen (Univ. of Pennsylvania, USA)
        Material: Video
      • 10:30 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:00 Reinforcement Systems and Decision Making I 1h30'
        Speaker: Wolfram Schultz (Univ. Cambridge, UK)
        Material: Video
      • 12:30 Lunch break 1h30'
      • 14:00 Auditory Processing II 1h30'
        Speaker: Maria Geffen (Univ. of Pennsylvania, USA)
        Material: Video
      • 15:30 Coffee Break 30'
      • 16:00 Spatial Codes in the Hippocampal System 1h30'
        Speaker: Emilio Kropff (Leloir Institute, Argentina)
        Material: Video
  • Tuesday, 9 December 2014
    • 09:00 - 17:30
      Location: Adriatico Guest House - Kastler Lecture Hall
      • 09:00 Reinforcement Systems and Decision Making II 1h30'
        Speaker: Wolfram Schultz (Univ. Cambridge, UK)
        Material: Video
      • 10:30 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:00 Auditory Processing III 1h30'
        Speaker: Maria Geffen (Univ. of Pennsylvania, USA)
        Material: Video
      • 12:30 Lunch break 1h30'
      • 14:00 Modeling learning and memory I 1h30'
        Speaker: Stefano Fusi (Columbia Univ., USA)
        Material: Video
      • 15:30 Coffee Break 30'
      • 16:00 Principles of Olfaction I 1h30'
        Speaker: Venkatesh Murthy (Harvard Univ., USA)
        Material: Video
  • Wednesday, 10 December 2014
    • 09:00 - 22:30
      Location: Leonardo Building - Budinich Lecture Hall
      • 09:00 Human Adaptive Behaviour I 1h30'
        Speaker: Etienne Koechlin (ENS Paris, France)
        Material: Video
      • 10:30 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:00 Reinforcement Systems and Decision Making III 1h30'
        Speaker: Wolfram Schultz (Univ. Cambridge, UK)
        Material: Video
      • 12:30 Lunch break 1h30'
      • 14:00 Birdsong Dynamics I 1h30'
        Speaker: Gabriel Mindlin (Univ. Buenos Aires, Argentina)
        Material: Video
      • 15:30 Coffee Break 30'
      • 16:00 Modeling learning and memory II 1h30'
        Speaker: Stefano Fusi (Columbia Univ., USA)
        Material: Video
      • 21:00 Informal discussions 1h30' ( Adriatico Guest House - Giambiagi Lecture Hall )
  • Thursday, 11 December 2014
    • 09:00 - 22:30
      Location: Leonardo Building - Budinich Lecture Hall
      • 09:00 Birdsong Dynamics II 1h30'
        Speaker: Gabriel Mindlin (Univ. Buenos Aires, Argentina)
        Material: Video
      • 10:30 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:00 Human Adaptive Behaviour II 1h30'
        Speaker: Etienne Koechlin (ENS Paris, France)
        Material: Video
      • 12:30 Lunch break 1h30'
      • 14:00 Principles of Olfaction II 1h30'
        Speaker: Venkatesh Murthy (Harvard Univ., USA)
        Material: Video
      • 15:30 Coffee break 30'
      • 16:00 Participants' talks 1h0'
        16:00	Stephane Deny (et al) – A flexible code: the retina dynamically reallocates its resources to code for complex motion
        
        16:15	Luca Mazzucato (et al) – Stimuli quench the dimensionality of the neural representation
        
        16:30 	Tiziano D'Albis – On the amplification of spatial grids in a recurrent neural network
        
        16:45	Mojtaba Madadi Asl – How delay modifies the outcome of the Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity (STDP)
      • 17:00 ICTP Colloquium - Building Brains: Establishing Neuroscience Research Infrastructure in the Developing World 1h0'
        An informal reception will follow
        Speaker: Mohammad Herzallah (Al Quds Univ., Palestine)
        Material: Abstract
      • 21:00 Participants' talks 1h30' ( Adriatico Guest House - Giambiagi Lecture Hall )
  • Friday, 12 December 2014
    • 09:00 - 15:30
      Location: Leonardo Building - Budinich Lecture Hall
      • 09:00 High dimensional brains 1h30'
        Speaker: Stefano Fusi (Columbia Univ., USA)
        Material: Video
      • 10:30 Coffee break 30'
      • 11:00 Principles of Olfaction III 1h30'
        Speaker: Venkatesh Murthy (Harvard Univ., USA)
        Material: Video
      • 12:30 Lunch break 1h30'
      • 14:00 Human Adaptive Behaviour III 1h30'
        Speaker: Etienne Koechlin (ENS Paris, France)
        Material: Video