Computational Neuroscience Journal Club at Princeton

We read and discuss the latest papers in computational neuroscience. The hope is to generate new ideas, foster new collaborations, and keep up-to-date with the literature.

For the fall 2024 semester, all meetings will be in person. We will not connect to Zoom unless requested. The papers for each presentation have been selected through a collaborative process between the speakers and organizers in order to match PNI's interests. The papers reflect authors from a diverse set of backgrounds and from outside of PNI in order to encourage a breadth of perspective.

We encourage participants to spend at least 20 minutes with each paper before coming to club.

Join

If you’d like to be added to the email list, visit our google group, or contact Bichan (bichanw [at] princeton.edu) or Lin (yuzhenglin [at] princeton.edu). If you'd like to present, please also contact Bichan and Lin.

Presentation tips

Let’s make our journal club the envy of PNI! Please read the paper before choosing, plan for 35 minutes of presenting (expect plenty of questions!), and follow these tips: presentation_checklist.pdf

Location

We currently meet in PNI 230. If you need to join through Zoom, please contact Bichan or Lin at least 30 min in advance of the meeting.

Current Meetings (Spring 2024)

January

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Jan 30	3-4pm	Jonathan Pillow	A power law describes the magnitude of adaptation in neural populations of primary visual cortex Tring et al. (Nat Commun 2023)

Feburary

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Feb 20	3-4pm	Victor Geadah	Mice exhibit stochastic and efficient action switching during probabilistic decision making Beron et al. (PNAS 2022)
Feb 27	3-4pm	Lindsey Brown	Tonic dopamine and biases in value learning linked through a biologically inspired reinforcement learning model Pinto and Uchida (bioRxiv 2023)

March

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Mar 12	3-4pm	David Allen	Tuned geometries of hippocampal representations meet the computational demands of social memory Boyle et al. (Neuron 2024)
Mar 22*	11:30am-12:30pm	Bichan Wu	Distinct streams for supervised and unsupervised learning in the visual cortex Zhong et al. (bioRxiv 2024)
Mar 26	3-4pm	Jiayi Zhang	The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies Gal et al. (PNAS 2022)

*Note this is a special club for PNI Recruitment and is scheduled outside of the normal day/time.

April

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Apr 16	3-4pm	Kevin Chen	Prediction of neural activity in connectome-constrained recurrent networks Beiran and Litwin-Kumar (bioRxiv 2024)
Apr 23	3-4pm	Conor McGrory	TBD
Apr 30	3-4pm	Sabrina Reguyal	TBD

May

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
May 7	3-4pm	Anushri Arora	TBD
May 14	3-4pm	Alex Riordan	TBD
May 21	3-4pm	Matt Creamer	TBD

Past Meetings (Fall 2023)

October

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Oct 10	3-4pm	Seohyun Moon	Brain-like representational straightening of natural movies in robust feedforward neural networks Toosi and Issa (ICLR 2023)
Oct 24	3-4pm	Conor McGrory	A map of object space in primate inferotemporal cortex Bao et al. (Nature 2023)
Oct 31	3-4pm	Aditi Jha	A Unified, Scalable Framework for Neural Population Decoding Azabou et al. (NeurIPS 2023)

November

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Nov 7	3-4pm	Yuzheng Lin	Neural Wave Machines: Learning Spatiotemporally Structured Representations with Locally Coupled Oscillatory Recurrent Neural Networks Keller and Welling (ICML 2023)
Nov 21	3-4pm	Yazhou Zhao	Emergence of foveal image sampling from learning to attend in visual scenes Cheung et al. (ICLR 2017)
Nov 28	3-4pm	Dexter Tsin	Representational dissimilarity metric spaces for stochastic neural networks Duong et al. (ICLR 2023)

Past Meetings (Spring 2023)

January

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Jan 31	3-4pm	Lindsey Brown	A unified theory for the computational and mechanistic origins of grid cells Sorscher et al (Neuron 2023)

February

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Feb 14	3-4pm	Yanliang Shi	Nonnegative spatial factorization applied to spatial genomics Townes and Engelhardt (Nature Methods 2022)
Feb 21	3-4pm	Jesse Kaminsky	Residual dynamics resolves recurrent contributions to neural computation Galgali, Sahani, and Mante (Nat Neurosci 2023)
Feb 28	3-4pm	Thomas Luo	Learning shapes cortical dynamics to enhance integration of relevant sensory input Chadwick et al (Neuron 2023)

March

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Mar 21	3-4pm	Eric Hammerschmith	Global inhibition in head-direction neural circuits: a systematic comparison between connectome-based spiking neural circuit models Chang, Huang, and Lo (J Comp Physiol A 2023)
Mar 28	3-4pm	Nadav Amir	Neural representational geometry underlies few-shot concept learning Sorscher, Ganguli, Sompolinsky (PNAS 2022)

April

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Apr 4	3-4pm	Alex Riordan	Neural learning rules for generating flexible predictions and computing the successor representation Fang, Aronov, Abbott, Mackevicius (eLife 2023)
Apr 18	3-4pm	Bichan Wu	Disentangling Mixed Classes of Covariability in Large-Scale Neural Data Pellegrino, Stein, Cayco-Gajic (bioRxiv 2023)
Apr 25	3-4pm	Kevin Chen	Learning the Architectural Features That Predict Functional Similarity of Neural Networks Haber and Schneidman (Phys Rev X 2022)

May

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
May 2	3-4pm	Arseny Finkelstein	Mechanisms of cortical communication during decision-making ()
May 16	3-4pm	Iris Stone	Unsupervised discovery of family specific vocal usage in the Mongolian gerbil Peterson et al(bioRxiv 2023)
May 23	3-4pm	David Allen	Mental navigation and telekinesis with a hippocampal map-based brain-machine interface Lai et al(bioRxiv 2023)

June

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
June 6	3-4pm	Ali Hummos	Thalamus: a brain-inspired algorithm for biologically-plausible continual learning and disentangled representations Hummos (ICLR 2023)
June 13	3-4pm	Srdjan Ostojic	Parametric control of flexible timing through low-dimensional neural manifolds Beiran et al (Neuron 2023)
June 20	3-4pm	Luca Mazzucato	Research Talk

Past Meetings (Fall 2022)

October

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Oct 4	3-4pm	Aditi Jha	(RD) Self-healing codes: How stable neural populations can track continually reconfiguring neural representations Rule and O'Leary (PNAS 2022)
Oct 11	3-4pm	Srdjan Ostojic	Low-rank recurrent networks: intro and overview See: Linking Connectivity, Dynamics, and Computations in Low-Rank Recurrent Neural Networks Mastrogiuseppe and Ostojic (Neuron 2018) Shaping Dynamics With Multiple Populations in Low-Rank Recurrent Networks Beiran et al (Neural Computation 2021) Probing the Relationship Between Latent Linear Dynamical Systems and Low-Rank Recurrent Neural Network Models Valente, Ostojic, and Pillow (Neural Computation 2022)
Oct 18	3-4pm	Rich Pang	Predictive Coding of Dynamical Variables in Balanced Spiking Networks Boerlin, Machens, Deneve (PLoS Comput Biol 2013)
Oct 25	3-4pm	Lea Duncker	Research Talk

November

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Nov 1	3-4pm	Kevin Chen	(TBD) Metastable attractors explain the variable timing of stable behavioral action sequences Recanatesi et al (Neuron 2022)
Nov 8	3-4pm	Alex Riordan	(RD) Variation in sequence dynamics improves maintenanceof stereotyped behavior in an example from bird song Duffy et al (PNAS 2019)
Nov 15	3-4pm	Victor Geadah	(TBD) Optimal information loading into working memory in prefrontal cortex explains dynamic coding Stroud et al (bioRxiv 2022)
Nov 22	3-4pm	Adel Ardalan	(TBD) Symmetry-Based Representations for Artificial and Biological General Intelligence Higgins, Racaniere, and Rezende (Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience 2022)
Nov 29	3-4pm	Wynne Stagnaro	(TBD) Deep neural network models reveal interplay of peripheral coding and stimulus statistics in pitch perception Saddler, Gonzalez, McDermott (Nat Commun 2021)

December

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Dec 13	3-4pm	Matt Creamer	(TBD) Git/GitHub tutorial

Past Meetings (Spring 2022)

Themes:

(RNN): Recurrent networks and dynamics

(RLD): Reinforcement learning and decision-making

(NAV): Navigation

(MEM): Memory

February

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Feb 15	3-4pm	Zoe Ashwood	(RLD) Adversarial vulnerabilities of human decision-making Dezfouli, Nock, Dayan (PNAS 2020)
Feb 22	3-4pm	Aditi Jha	(RLD) Planning in the brain Mattar, Lengyel (Neuron 2022)

March

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Mar 1	3-4pm	Rachel Lee	(RLD) Bayesian inference with incomplete knowledge explains perceptual confidence and its deviations from accuracy Khalvati, Kiani, Rao (Nat Comm 2021)
Mar 8	3-4pm	Julia Steinberg	(MEM) Context-modular memory networks support high-capacity, flexible, and robust associative memories Podlaski, Agnes, Vogels (bioRxiv 2020)
Mar 25*	11-12pm	Ben Cowley	(NAV) Building an allocentric travelling direction signal via vector computation Lyu, Abbott, Maimon (Nature 2021)
Mar 29	3-4pm	Diksha Gupta	(MEM) Geometry of sequence working memory in macaque prefrontal cortex Xie, Hu et al (Science 2022)

*Note this is a special club for PNI Recruitment and is scheduled outside of the normal day/time.

April

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Apr 12	3-4pm	Adel Ardalan	(RNN) Rotational dynamics in motor cortex are consistent with a feedback controller Kalidindi, Cross et al (eLife 2021)
Apr 19	3-4pm	Iris Stone	(NAV) Sniff-synchronized, gradient-guided olfactory search by freely moving mice Findley, Wyrick et al (eLife 2021)
Apr 26	3-4pm	Edna Normand	(TBD) Behavioral and Neural Variability of Naturalistic Arm Movements Peterson, Steven et al (eNeuro 2021)

May

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
May 10	3-4pm	Adrian Bondy	(NAV) Toroidal topology of population activity in grid cells Gardner et al (Nature 2022)
May 17	3-4pm	Kevin Chen	(RNN) Towards a theory of cortical columns: From spiking neurons to interacting neural populations of finite size Schwalger, Deger, Gerstner (PLOS Comp Bio 2017)

Past Meetings (Fall 2021)

Theme 1: Computation Over Multiple Time Scales

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Oct 5	3-4pm	Orren Karniol-Tambour	Unsupervised discovery of demixed, low-dimensional neural dynamics across multiple timescales through tensor component analysis Williams, Kim, Wang ... Schnitzer, Kolda, Ganguli (Neuron 2018)
Oct 12	3-4pm	Dean Pospisil	Cell assemblies at multiple time scales with arbitrary lag constellations Russo, Durstewitz (eLife 2017)
Oct 19	3-4pm	Ben Cowley	Learning and attention reveal a general relationship between population activity and behavior Ni, Ruff, Alberts, Symmonds, Cohen (Science 2018)

Theme 2: Recurrent Networks and Dynamics

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Nov 2	3-4pm	Zeinab Mohammadi	Neural network dynamics Vogels, Rajan, Abbott (Annu Rev Neurosci 2005)
Nov 9	3-4pm	Sade Abiodun	Title (TBD) Authors (Journal Year)
Nov 23	3-4pm	Kevin Chen	Generating coherent patterns of activity from chaotic neural networks Sussillo, Abbott (Neuron 2009)

Theme 3: Reinforcement Learning

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Nov 30	3-4pm	Lindsey Brown	Reinforcement learning in depression: A review of computational research Chen, Takahashi, Nakagawa, Inoue, Kusumi (Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2015)
Dec 7	3-4pm	Isabel Berwian	Title (TBD) Authors (Journal Year)
Dec 14	3-4pm	Yotam Sagiv	Reward-predictive representations generalize across tasks in reinforcement learning Lehnert, Littman, Frank (PLOS Comp Bio 2020)

Past Meetings (Spring 2021)

Special club for PNI Recruitment

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Feb 19	11:30am-12:30pm	David Zoltowski	Decoding and perturbing decision states in real time. Peixoto, Verhein, Kiani, ..., Ryu, Shenoy, Newsome (Nature 2021)

Theme 1: Understanding multi-area interactions

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Mar 3	3-4pm	Ben Cowley	Principles of Corticocortical Communication: Proposed Schemes and Design Considerations. Kohn, Jasper, Semedo, Gokcen, Machens, Yu (Trends in Neuro 2020) Statistical methods for dissecting interactions between brain areas. Semedo, Gokcen, Machens, Kohn, Yu (Current Op in Neuro 2020)
Mar 10	3-4pm	Rich Pang	Inferring brain-wide interactions using data-constrained recurrent neural network models. Perich, Arlt, Soares, ..., Rudebeck, Harvey, Rajan (bioRxiv 2020)
Mar 17	3-4pm	Orren Karniol-Tambour	Brain-wide electrical spatiotemporal dynamics encode depression vulnerability. Hultman, Ulrich, Sachs, ..., Nestler, Carin, Dzirasa (Cell 2018)

Theme 2: Neuroethology: Understanding computation through behavior

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
Apr 6	3-4pm	Jess Breda	Computational neuroethology: a call to action. Datta, Anderson, Branson, Perona, Leifer (Neuron 2019)
Apr 13	3-4pm	Jorge Yanar	Continuous Whole-Body 3D Kinematic recordings across the rodent behavioral repertoire. Marshall, Aldarondo, Dunn, Wang, Berman, Olveczky (Neuron 2020)
Apr 20	3-4pm	Iris Stone	A cortical-hypothalamic circuit decodes social rank and promotes dominance behavior. Padilla-Coreano, Batra, Patarino, ..., Fiete, Lu, Tye (ResearchSquare 2020) AlphaTracker: A multi-animal tracking and behavioral analysis tool. Chen, Zhang, Zhang, ..., Tye, Lu (bioRxiv 2020)

Theme 3: The curious computations of dopamine

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
May 6	4-5pm	Rachel Lee	Neural circuitry of reward prediction error. Watabe-Uchida, Eshel, Uchida (Ann. Review of Neuro. 2017)
May 13	4-5pm	Sreejan Kumar	Evidence for a neural law of effect. Athalye, Santos, Carmena, Costa (Science 2018)
May 20	4-5pm	Yoel Sanchez Araujo	Dopamine enhances signal-to-noise ratio in cortical-brainstem encoding of aversive stimuli. Vander Weele, Siciliano, Gillian, ..., Wichmann, Wildes, Tye (Nature 2018)

Theme 4: Recording from more neurons than we know what to do with

Date	Time	Presenter	Reading
June 9	3-4pm	Aditi Jha	Towards the neural population doctrine. Saxena and Cunningham (Current Opinion in Neuro. 2019)
June 16	3-4pm	Daniel Greenidge	A large-scale standardized physiological survey reveals functional organization of the mouse visual cortex. de Vries, Lecoq, Buice, ..., Phillips, Reid, Koch (Nat Neuro 2020)
June 23	3-4pm	Eleni Papadoyannis	Distributed coding of choice, action and engagement across the mouse brain. Steinmetz, Zatka-Haas, Carandini, Harris (Nature 2019)

Past Meetings (Fall 2020)

Date	Time/Room	Presenter	Reading
Jan 30	4-5pm, PNI 230	David Zoltowski	Stimulus-choice (mis)alignment in primate MT cortex. Zhao, Yates, Levi, Huk, Park (bioRxiv 2019)
Feb 6	3-4pm, PNI 130	Zoë Ashwood	Computational noise in reward-guided learning drives behavioral variability in volatile environments. Findling, Skvortsova, Dromnelle, Palminteri, Wyart. (Nat Neuro 2019)
Feb 13	3-4pm, PNI 130	Daniel Greenidge	Structure in neural population recordings: an expected byproduct of simpler phenomena? Elsayed and Cunningham. (Nat Neuro 2017)
Feb 20	11am-12pm, Psych 404	Brian DePasquale	Engineering recurrent neural networks from task-relevant manifolds and dynamics. Pollock and Jazayeri. (bioRxiv 2019)
Feb 27		No club -- COSYNE
Mar 5		No club -- Unfilled slot
Mar 12	Virtual	Lindsay Willmore	Deep neuroethology of a virtual rodent. Merel, Aldarondo, Marshall, Tassa, Wayne, Olveczky. (arXiv 2019)

Past Meetings (Fall 2019)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Oct 24	Ben Cowley	High-dimensional geometry of population responses in visual cortex. Stringer, Pachitariu, Steinmetz, Carandini, Harris. (Nature 2019)
Oct 31	(not meeting)	A spooky paper Fox (Ann. Reviews 1975)
Nov 7	Ben Cowley	What makes a good scientific figure?
Nov 14	Matt Creamer	Hierarchical recurrent state space models reveal discrete and continuous dynamics of neural activity in C. elegans Linderman, Nichols, Blei, Zimmer, Paninski. (bioRxiv 2019)
Nov 21	Sean Bittner (visitor)	Interrogating theoretical models of neural computation with deep inference Bittner, Agostina Palmigiano, Piet, Duan, Brody, Miller, Cunningham. (bioRxiv, 2019)
Dec 5	Matt Panichello	Bayesian computation through cortical latent dynamics Sohn, Narain, Meirhaeghe, Jazayeri (Neuron 2019)
Dec 12	No journal club (PNI holiday party)
Dec 19	Kevin Chen	A quantitative model of conserved macroscopic dynamics predicts future motor commands Brennan, Proekt. (eLife, 2019)

Past Meetings (Spring 2019)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Jan 17	David Zoltowski	Distributed correlates of visually-guided behavior across the mouse brain Steinmetz et al. (2018)
Feb 5	Brian Depasquale	The population dynamics of a canonical cognitive circuit Chaudhuri et al. (2019)
Feb 12	Robert Yang	Task representations in neural networks trained to perform many cognitive tasks Yang et al. (2019)
Feb 22nd, 11AM	Nick Roy	A diverse range of factors affect the nature of neural representations underlying short-term memory Orhan and Ma. (2019)
Feb 26	No Meeting	COSYNE
Mar 5	No Meeting	COSYNE
Mar 12	Zoe Ashwood	Linking Connectivity, Dynamics, and Computations in Low-Rank Recurrent Neural Networks Mastrogiuseppe and Ostojic. (2018)
Mar 19	Manuel Schottdorf	Classification and Geometry of General Perceptual Manifolds Chung et al. (2018)
Mar 26	Anqi Wu	Revealing neural correlates of behavior without behavioral measurements Rubin et al. (2019)
Apr 2	Kevin Chen	The Dynamical Regime of Sensory Cortex: Stable Dynamics around a Single Stimulus-Tuned Attractor Account for Patterns of Noise Variability Hennequin et al. (2018)
Apr 9	Diksha Gupta	Adaptive coding for dynamic sensory inference Mlyarski and Hermundstad (2018)
Apr 16	Ben Cowley	Reversible Inactivation of Different Millimeter-Scale Regions of Primate IT Results in Different Patterns of Core Object Recognition Deficits Rajalingman and DiCarlo (2019)
Apr 23	Lindsay Willmore	Memory without Feedback in a Neural Network Mark Goldman (2009)
Apr 30	Tyler Boyd-Meredith	Computing by Robust Transience: How the Fronto-Parietal Network Performs Sequential, Category-Based Decision Chaisangmongkon et al. (2017)
May 21	Adam Calhoun and Ben Cowley	Evolving Images for Visual Neurons Using a Deep Generative Network Reveals Coding Principles and Neuronal Preferences Ponce et al. (2019), Bashivan et al. 2019

Past Meetings (Fall 2018)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Oct 25th, 3PM	Jonathan Pillow	Efficient coding explains the universal law of generalization in human perception Chris R. Sims (2018)
Nov 1st	Anqi Wu	Uncovering hidden brain state dynamics that regulate performance and decision-making during cognition Taghia et al. (2018)
Nov 8th		No Meeting, SFN
Nov 15th	Manuel Schottdorf	Distributed network interactions and their emergence in developing neocortex Smith et al. (2018)
Nov 22nd		No Meeting, Thanksgiving
Nov 29th	Sue Ann Koay	Shaping Neural Circuits by High Order Synaptic Interactions Tannenbaum et al. (2018)
Dec 6th		No Meeting, NIPS

Past Meetings (Spring 2018)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Jan 16	Thomas Luo	Mixed selectivity morphs population codes in prefrontal cortex Parthasarathy et al. (2017)
Jan 23	Ashok Litwin-Kumar	Optimal degrees of synaptic connectivity Litwin-Kumar et al. (2017)
Jan 30	David Zoltowski	A Switching Observer for Human Perceptual Estimation Laquitaine & Gardner (2017)
Feb 7	Jonathan Pillow	Unified theory of efficient, predictive, and sparse coding Chalk et al. (2017)
Feb 14	Stephen Keeley	Eigen-Distortions of Hierarchical Representations Berardino et al. (2017)
Feb 23 (Fri, 11AM in room 130!)	Adrian Bondy	Perceptual decision-making as probabilistic inference by neural sampling. Haefner, Berkes, & Fiser. (2016)
Feb 28	Diksha Gupta	Optimal compensation for neuron loss Barrett, Deneve and Machens (2016)
Mar 7	NO MEETING: COSYNE	---
Mar 14	Nick Roy	Evidence for a neural law of effect Athalye, Santos, Carmena, and Costa.(2017)
Mar 21	No meeting - Snow Day
Mar 28	Morgan Gustison	Modular Deconstruction Reveals the Dynamical and Physical Building Blocks of a Locomotion Motor Program Bruno, Frost, and Humphries. (2015)
Apr 4	Adam Charles	Unsupervised discovery of temporal sequences in high-dimensional datasets, with applications to neuroscience. Mackevicius et al.
Apr 11	Camille Rullan	Computational Account of Spontaneous Activity as a Signature of Predictive Coding Koren and Daneve(2017)
Apr 18	Mikio Aoi	Flexible timing by temporal scaling of cortical responses Wang, Narain, Hosseini, Jazayeri (2018)
Apr 25	Mike Morais	Optimal Control of Transient Dynamics in Balanced Networks Supports Generation of Complex Movements Hennequin, Vogels, Gerstner (2014)
May 2	Brain DePasquale	Choice History Biases Subsequent Evidence Accumulation Urai et al. (2018)
May 9	Adam Calhoun	Spontaneous behaviors drive multidimensional, brain-wide population activity Carsen Stringer, Marius Pachitariu, Nicholas Steinmetz, Charu Bai Reddy, Matteo Carandini, Kenneth D. Harris (2018)

Past Meetings (Fall 2017)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Sep 26	Mike Morais	Lawful relation between perceptual bias and discriminability Wei & Stocker (2017)
Oct 3	Alex Hyafil	Attention stabilizes the shared gain of V4 populations Rabinowitz et al. (2015)
Oct 10	Jamal Williams	Brains on Beats Guclu et al. (2016)
Oct 17	Adam Charles	Fundamental bound on the persistence and capacity of short-term memory stored as graded persistent activity Koyluoglu, et al. eLife (2017)
Oct 24	Adam Calhoun	A brain wide circuit model of heat evoked swimming behavior in larval zebrafish Haesemeyer et al. (2017)
Oct 31	Michael Berry	A Theory of Canonical Computations in the Neocortical Microcircuit
Nov 28	Brian DePasquale	Optimal degrees of synaptic connectivity Litwin-Kumar et al. (2017)

Past Meetings (Summer 2017)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Jun 22	Scott Linderman	Using computational theory to constrain statistical models of neural data Linderman & Gershman (2017)

Past Meetings (Spring 2017)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Jan 17	Stephen Keeley	The hippocampus as a predictive map Stachenfeld, Botvinick, and Gershman (2016)
Jan 24	Sam Lewallen	Training recurrent networks to generate hypotheses about how the brain solves hard navigation problems Kanitscheider and Fiete (2016)
Jan 31	Adam Charles	Predictive Ensemble Decoding of Acoustical Features Explains Context-Dependent Receptive Fields Yildiz, Mesgarani and Deneve J. Neuroscience (2016)
Feb 07	Mikio/Jonathan/Adam	Demixed principal component analysis of neural population data Kobak et al. eLife (2016).
Feb 14	Anne Mennen	Unmasking Latent Inhibitory Connections in Human Cortex to Reveal Dormant Cortical Memories Barron et al. Neuron (2016).
Feb 21	Nick Roy	Building Machines That Learn and Think Like People Lake et al. (2016).
Mar 3	Mikio Aoi	Tensor Analysis Reveals Distinct Population Structure that Parallels the Different Computational Roles of Areas M1 and V1 Seeley at al. PLOS Comp. Bio. (2016).
Mar 28	Jonathan Pillow	A probabilistic approach to demixing odors Grabska-Barwinska et al. Nature Neuro. (2017).
Apr 04	Alex Piet	Memory replay in balanced recurrent networks Chenkov, Sprekeler & Kempter PLOS Comp. Bio. (2017).
Apr 11	Brian DePasquale	Building functional networks of spiking model neurons Abbott at al. Nature Neuro. (2016).
Apr 18	Adrianna Loback	STDP installs in winner-take-all circuits an online approximation to hidden markov model learning Kappel, Nessler & Maass PLOS Comp. Bio. (2014).
Apr 25	Diksha Gupta	Dynamic control of response criterion in premotor cortex during perceptual detection under temporal uncertainty Carnevale et al. Neuron (2015).
May 02	Nick Roy	Stable population coding for working memory coexists with heterogeneous neural dynamics in prefrontal cortex Murray et al. PNAS (2017).
May 09	Alex Libby	Information Capacity and Transmission Are Maximized in Balanced Cortical Networks with Neuronal Avalanches Shew et al. J. Neuroscience (2011).

Past Meetings (Fall 2016)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Oct 4	Nicholas Roy	Adaptive optimal training of animal behavior Bak et al. NIPS (2016)
Oct 11	Adam Calhoun	Reading out olfactory receptors: Feedforward circuits detect odors in mixtures without demixing Mathis, Rokni, Kapoor, Bethge, and Murthy Neuron (2016)
Oct 18	Adam Charles	Visual Nonclassical Receptive Field Effects Emerge from Sparse Coding in a Dynamical System Zhu and Rozell PLOS Computational Biology (2013)
Oct 25	Brian DePasquale	Hybrid computing using a neural network with dynamic external memory Graves et al. Nature (2016)
Nov 1	Mingbo Cai	Automatic Construction and Natural-Language Description of Nonparametric Regression Models Lloyd et al.
Nov 29	Hamza Giaffar	Primacy Model of Olfactory Coding
Dec 6	David Zoltowski	Reorganization between preparatory and movement population responses in motor cortex Elsayed, Lara, Kaufman, Churchland and Cunningham Nature Communications (2016)
Dec 13	Mikio Aoi	What must a global theory of cortex explain? Valiant Current Opinion in Neurobiology (2014)

Past Meetings (Summer 2016)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Jun 14	Athena Akrami & Adam Charles	Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor? Jonas & Koerding. biorxiv (2016)
Jun 23	Ben Machta	Perspective: Sloppiness and Emergent Theories in Physics, Biology, and Beyond Transtrum, Machta, Brown, Daniels, Myers, and Sethna. J. Chem. Phys. (2015)
Jun 30	Ahmed Hl Hady	Cell Types, Network Homeostasis, and Pathological Compensation from a Biologically Plausible Ion Channel Expression Model O’Leary, Williams, Franci, and Marder. Neuron (2014)
Jul 7	Leenoy Meshulam	Sloppiness in Spontaneously Active Neuronal Networks Panas1, Amin, Maccione, Muthmann1, van Rossum, Berdondini, and Hennig. J. Neurosci. (2015)
Jul 21	Adam Charles	Assessing the distinguishability of models and the informativeness of data Navarro et al. Cognitive Psychology (2004)
Aug 23	Ido Kanter	Low-firing rates, cortical oscillations and neuronal ?s precision stem from neuronal plasticity: Experiment and theory
Sep 13	Yonatan Aljadeff	Optimal population coding by mixed-dimensionality neurons

Past Meetings (Fall-Spring 2015-16)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Nov 24	Jonathan Pillow	Inferring learning rules from distributions of firing rates in cortical neurons Lim, McKee, Woloszyn, Amit, Freedman, Sheinberg, & Brunel. Nature Neuroscience (2015). [summary]
Dec 1	Adam Calhoun	Global Brain Dynamics Embed the Motor Command Sequence of Caenorhabditis elegans. Kato, Kaplan, Schrödel, Skora, Lindsay, Yemini, Lockery, & Zimmer. Cell (2015)
Dec 8	Mark Ioffe readers: Alex Piet & DJ Strouse	A thesaurus for a neural population code. Ganmor, Segev, & Schneidman. eLife (2015).
Dec 15	DJ Strouse readers: Mark Ioffe & Mingbo Cai	A Bayesian observer model constrained by efficient coding can explain 'anti-Bayesian' percepts. Wei & Stocker, Nat Neurosci (2015).
Jan 19	Mikio Aoi readers: Adam Calhoun & Jonathan Pillow.	Cortical activity in the null space: permitting preparation without movement. Kaufman, Churchland, Ryu, & Shenoy, Nat Neurosci 2014.
Jan 29 (Friday!)	Sina Tafazoli readers: Adam Charles & Mikio Aoi	A neural network that finds a naturalistic solution for the production of muscle activity. Sussillo, Churchland, Kaufman, & Shenoy, Nat Neurosci 2015
Feb 2	Mingbo Cai readers: Becket Ebitz & Nick Roy	Human representation of visuo-motor uncertainty as mixtures of orthogonal basis distributions. Zhang, Daw, Maloney, Nat Neurosci 2015.
Feb 9	Angela Langdon readers: Jane Keung, Diksha Gupta, Tyler Boyd-Meredith	A neural mechanism for sensing and reproducing a time interval. Jazayeri & Shadlen, Current Biology 2015.
Feb 16		cancelled
Feb 23	Nick Roy reader: Lea Duncker	The nature of shared cortical variability. Lin, Okun, Carandini, & Harris, Neuron 2015.
Mar 1		( cosyne workshops)
Mar 8	Diksha Gupta reader: Tyler Boyd-Meredith	The Inevitability of Probability: Probabilistic Inference in Generic Neural Networks Trained with Non-Probabilistic Feedback A. Emin Orhan & Wei Ji Ma. arxiv 2016.
Mar 15		( spring break )
Mar 22		cancelled
Mar 29	Sam Lewallen reader: Ahmed El Hady	Random Wiring, Ganglion Cell Mosaics, and the Functional Architecture of the Visual Cortex. Schottdorf, Wolfgang Keil, Coppola, White, & Wolf. PloS Comp Bio 2015.
Apr 5	Adam Charles	Neuronal Circuits Underlying Persistent Representations Despite Time Varying Activity. Druckmann & Chklovskii, Current Biol (2012). [blog summary]
Apr 12	Anqi Wu readers: Mikio & Nick	Sensory uncertainty decoded from visual cortex predicts behavior. Bergen, Ma, Pratte, & Jehee, Nat Neurosci (2015).
Apr 19	David Deutsch readers: Diksha & Jonathan	Active sensing in the categorization of visual patterns. Yang, Lengyel, & Wolpert. eLIFE 2016.
Apr 26	Lea Duncker readers: Adam Charles, Matt Panichello	Robust neuronal dynamics in premotor cortex during motor planning. Li, Daie, Svoboda, & Druckmann. Nature (2016).
May 3	Alex Piet readers: Angela Langdon & Sam Lewallen	Robust timing and motor patterns by taming chaos in recurrent neural networks. Rodrigo Laje & Dean V Buonomano, Nature Neurosci (2013).
May 10	Tyler Boyd-Meredith readers: Angela L and Alex P	Orbitofrontal Cortex Is Required for Optimal Waiting Based on Decision Confidence. Lak, Costa, Romberg, Koulakov, Mainen, & Kepecs, Neuron (2014).

Past Meetings (Summer 2015)

Date	Presenter	Reading
Topic #1: Information theory and the brain (Adam Calhoun)
June 9	Jonathan Pillow	Possible principles underlying the transformations of sensory messages H.B. Barlow. Sensory Communication217-234 (1961) A simple coding procedure enhances a neuron's information capacity S. B. Laughlin, Naturforsch 36, 910-912. (1981)
June 16	Adam Calhoun	Towards a Theory of Early Visual Processing Neural Computation Atick, J. J. & Redlich, A. N, 1990.
June 23	Chris Baldassano	Responses of neurons in primary and inferior temporal visual cortices to natural scenes Baddeley, Abbott, Booth, SengPiel, Freeman, Wakeman & Rolls. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B (1997). Firing Rate Distributions and Efficiency ofilef Information Transmission of Inferior Temporal Cortex Neurons to Natural Visual Stimuli. Treves, Panzeri, Rolls, Booth, & Wakeman Neural Computation (1998).
June 30	Ida Momennejad	Vision and the Statistics of the Visual Environment E. P. Simoncelli, Current Opion in Neurobiology (2003). Redundancy reduction revisited. H.B. Barlow Network: Computation in Neural Systems (2001).
Topic #2: Neural Codes in Noisy Cortical Circuits (Alex Piet & Ahmed El Hady)
July 14	Leenoy Meshulam	Dynamic Flux Tubes Form Reservoirs of Stability in Neuronal Circuits. Michael Monteforte and Fred Wolf, Physical Review X 2012.
July 21	Alex Piet	Chaos and reliability in balanced spiking networks with temporal drive. Lajoie, Lin, Shea-Brown, Monteforte, & Wolf, Physical Review E 2013.
July 28	Sam Lewallen	Structured chaos shapes spike-response noise entropy in balanced neural networks. Lajoie, Thivierge, & Shea-Brown, Frontiers in Comp. Neuro. 2014.
Aug 4	Athena Akrami	Information-limiting correlations. Moreno-Bote, Beck, Kanitscheider, Pitkow, Latham, & Pouget, Nature Neurosci 2014.
Aug 11	Ahmed El Hady	Slow dynamics and high variability in balanced cortical networks with clustered connections. Litwin-Kumar & Doiron, Nat. Neurosci. 2012.
Aug 18	Sam Lewallen	Emergence of slow-switching assemblies in structured neuronal networks. Schaub, Billeh, Anastassiou, Koch & Barahona. arxiv 2015.

Past Meetings (Spring 2015)

Date	Presenter and readers	Reading
Mar 18	Jonathan Pillow readers: Jason P. & Jamal W.	Partitioning Neuronal Variability. Goris, Movshon & Simoncelli Nature Neurosci (2014).
Apr 01	Michael Berry readers: Angela L. & Sam L.	Predictive coding of dynamical variables in balanced spiking networks. Boerlin, Machens & Deneve, PLoS Comp Biol (2013).
Apr 08	DJ Strouse readers: Jonathan P. & Adam C.	Predictive information in a sensory population. Palmer, Marre, Berry, & Bialek. arXiv:1307.0225
Apr 15	Mikio Aoi readers: Alex P. & Ashley L.	Neural constraints on learning. Sadtler, Quick, Golub, Chase, Ru, Tyler-Kabara, Yu & Batista. Nature (2014).
Apr 22	Adrianna Loback readers: Jonathan P. & DJ S.	A Simple Model of Optimal Population Coding for Sensory Systems. Doi & Lewicki, PLOS Comp. Biol. (2014)
Apr 29	Chris Baldassano readers: Jamal W. & Ida M.	Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning. Mnih et al, Nature (2015).
May 06	Sam Lewallen reader: Stephanie Chan	Performance-optimized hierarchical models predict neural responses in higher visual cortex", Yamins, Hong, Cadieu, Solomon, Seibert, & DiCarlo, PNAS (2014).
May 13	Jane Keung readers: Alex Piet & Mikio Aoi	Signals in inferotemporal and perirhinal cortex suggest an untangling of visual target information. Pagan, Urban, Wohl, & Rust, Nature Neurosci (2013).