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SS 2018 (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 15.05.2018 (really May!).
Tutorial (2 SWS, 4 credit points): Tuesdays 10:30-12:00 o'clock in the large INI seminar room NB 3/57. First time 29.05.2018 (really May!).
The lecture will continue into the semester break, tentatively 31.07., 03.08., 07.08., and 10.08.


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. The students therefore have the opportunity to meet already at 9:00 to work on the exercises on their own.

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, ...).

Hidden web page: This hidden web page will be removed something like 2 months after the last lecture. Make sure you download all material you need in time.

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


Lecture and Tutorial

# date topic
1 2018-05-15 Neural Networks - Introduction
2 2018-05-29 Hebbian Learning
3 2018-06-05 Visual Receptive Fields 1 (physiology, simple cell models)
4 2018-06-12 Visual Receptive Fields 2 (SFA)
5 2018-06-19 Neural Fields
6 2018-06-26 Neural Map Formation (physiology, models)
7 2018-07-03 Optimization - Analytical Methods
8 2018-07-10 Neural Dynamics and Constrained Optimization 1
9 2018-07-17 Neural Dynamics and Constrained Optimization 2
10 2018-07-31 Hippocampus 1 (navigation)
11 2018-08-03 Hippocampus 2 (navigation)
12 2017-08-07 Hopfield Networks

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