15-883: Computational Models of Neural Systems
Fall 2011

General Class Information

Date/Time/Place: Mondays/Wednesdays, 4:30 to 5:50 PM, starting August 29, 2011, in GHC 4101 (Gates Hillman Center).

Instructor: Dave Touretzky, 9013 GHC (drop by any time, or email for an appointment)

email: dst@cs.cmu.edu, phone: 412-268-7561

Credits: 12 units (CMU), 4 credits (Pitt), 1 core unit (CS or Robotics)

Materials: selected journal articles and book chapters. Copies are available online in the readings archive.

Evaluation: problem sets, small programming project, and midterm and final exams.

Prerequisite:

Prior familiarity with either computer science or neuroscience. Computer science students should have passed an AI course. Neuroscience students should have at least some prior experience with computation, such as an undergraduate programming class.

Description:

This course is an in-depth study of information processing in real neural systems from a computer science perspective. We will examine several brain areas, such as the hippocampus and cerebellum, where processing is sufficiently well understood that it can be discussed in terms of specific representations and algorithms. We will focus primarily on computer models of these systems, after establishing the necessary anatomical, physiological, and psychophysical context. There will be some neuroscience tutorial lectures for those with no prior background in this area.

Recommended Resources on Computational Neuroscience:

• P.S. Churchland and T.J. Sejnowski (1992) The Computational Brain. MIT Press.
• P. Dayan and L.F. Abbott (2001) Theoretical Neuroscience. MIT Press.
• T. Trappenberg (2002) Fundamentals of Computational Neuroscience. Oxford University Press.
• P.S. Churchland (2002) Brain-Wise: Studies in Neural Philosphy. MIT Press.
• Nature Neuroscience special issue on computational modeling, November 2000.

Online Resources:

MATLAB Function Reference, Getting Started with MATLAB

Anatomy: BrainInfo, The Digital Anatomist, The Whole Brain Atlas