ANC Workshop - Robbie Court, Isabel Cornacchia
Tuesday, 26th March 2024
Virtual Fly Brain: A Keystone in Drosophila Neuroscience Research Dissemination - Robbie Court
Abstract: This presentation will highlight the Virtual Fly Brain (VFB) project as a central platform for sharing Drosophila neuroscience research. By implementing FAIR principles, VFB ensures that diverse data types, including 3D images and genomic information, are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. The project facilitates the integration of data across the Drosophila nervous system, supporting the collaborative efforts of researchers worldwide. Through VFB, the presentation aims to demonstrate the project's role in enhancing the accessibility and utility of neuroscientific data, contributing to ongoing research efforts.
An efficient coding theory for cortical connectivity - Isabel Cornacchia
Abstract: Networks in cerebral cortex transform sensory inputs via the interactions of excitatory and inhibitory cells, which exhibit structural properties such as stimulus-specific connectivity and balance of the synaptic inputs. Circuit models endowed with these properties have provided mechanistic explanations for various phenomena observed experimentally. However, a normative, first principles explanation for cortical connectivity and the response properties it generates is currently lacking. Here, I will talk about our work on whether these properties could emerge from an information maximisation objective. We developed a method to adjust the recurrent weights of an E-I network to maximise the Fisher information of the response for a given input ensemble and found that fundamental features of cortical circuit connectivity and dynamics can be accounted for by an efficient coding principle. Thus, our framework enables the integration of normative and mechanistic approaches to neural circuit modelling.
Event type: Workshop
Date: Tuesday, 26th March
Time: 11:00
Location: G.03
Speaker(s): Robbie Court, Isabel Cornacchia
Chair/Host: