Cosyne 2005 Workshops
March 21-22, 2005
Snowbird, Utah
Workshop Title
What computations can a single neuron perform?
Organizer(s)
Angus Silver, Dan Johnston and Bill Spain
Abstract
An important objective in neuroscience is to understand how information is processed in different brain regions and to establish its mechanistic basis. It is currently thought that the weights and temporal properties of synapses, the intrinsic electrical properties of the neurons and the complex pattern of connections that make up the network all contribute to the computations that a network can perform. However, it is uncertain at what level the various mathematical transformations that underlie the overall computation are performed. For example, can multiplicative and nonlinear transformations be performed at the synaptic or neuronal level or do they emerge only at the network level? The aim of the proposed workshop is to discuss types of processing a single neuron can perform and to examine whether it is useful to consider neurons in isolation as computational units. It is hoped that this will provide new insights that will help bridge the gap in our knowledge between brain function and the synaptic and cellular mechanisms that underlie it. This workshop will bring together a mixture of experimentalists and theoreticians who will present their latest findings on single cell computation.
