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SS 2015 (310504/310514)

Computational Neuroscience: Vision and Memory

Lecture and Tutorial
Prof. Dr. Laurenz Wiskott
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Lecture (2 SWS, 2 credit points): Tuesdays 12:15-13:45 o'clock in the large INI seminar room NB 3/57. First time 07.04.2015.
Tutorial (2 SWS, 4 credit points): Tuesdays 10:30-12:00 o'clock in the large INI seminar room NB 3/57. First time 14.04.2015.


Language: This course is given in English.

Goal: (i) The students should get to know a number of models and methods in computational neuroscience. (ii) They should understand the mathematics of these methods.

Content: This lecture covers models of selforganization in neural systems, in particular addressing vision (receptive fields, neural maps, invariances) and associative memory (Hopfield network).

Format: There is a lecture, which provides the content, and a tutorial, where you solve exercises and can deepen your understanding of the content. The exercises are solved in the tutorial in a group effort, not at home, which is the reason why it takes 3 hours rather than the usual 1.5 hours.

Requirements: The mathematical level of the course is mixed but generally high. The tutorial is almost entirely mathematical. Mathematics required include calculus (functions, derivatives, integrals, differential equations, ...), linear algebra (vectors, matrices, inner product, orthogonal vectors, basis systems, ...), and a bit of probability theory (probabilities, probability densities, Bayes' theorem, ...).

Exam: This course will be concluded with an oral exam.


Lecture and Tutorial

# date Topic (course material)
1 2015-04-07 Introduction
2 2015-04-14 Optimization - Analytical Methods
3 2015-04-21 Visual Receptive Fields 1 (physiology, simple cell models)
4 2015-04-28 Visual Receptive Fields 1/2 (simple/complex cell models, SFA)
5 2015-05-05 Visual Receptive Fields 2 (complex cell models, SFA)
6 2015-05-12 Neural Fields
7 2015-05-19 Neural Map Formation (physiology, models)
8 2015-06-02 Neural Map Formation (physiology, models)
9 2015-06-09 Hopfield Networks 1
10 2015-06-16 Hopfield Networks 1/2
11 2015-06-23 Hopfield Networks 2
12 2015-06-30 Hippocampus
SFA Theory of Grid Cell Formation 1
13 2015-07-07 SFA Theory of Grid Cell Formation 2
14 2015-07-14 SFA Theory of Grid Cell Formation 3
Summary and Review of the Course

Laurenz Wiskott, http://www.ini.rub.de/PEOPLE/wiskott/