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SUMMARY:Algorithms for Understanding Motor Cortical Processing and Neural 
 Prosthetic Systems - John Cunningham (Stanford University)
DTSTART:20090331T090000Z
DTEND:20090331T100000Z
UID:TALK17407@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Zoubin Ghahramani
DESCRIPTION:Our seemingly effortless ability to make coordinated movements
  belies the sophisticated computational machinery at work in our nervous s
 ystem. In recent years\, the field of systems neuroscience has been dramat
 ically expanding the complexity of its data acquisition technologies and e
 xperiments. This shift seeks to deliver a much deeper understanding of cor
 tical processing and a much improved ability to control neural prosthetic 
 devices (also called brain-machine interfaces). Paying this off\, however\
 , requires analytical methods that can exploit this changing paradigm. I w
 ill discuss a few examples of our algorithmic developments for understandi
 ng cortical processing and for applied prosthesis work. I will focus parti
 cularly on our efforts to use Gaussian Processes to extract population-lev
 el signatures of neural activity in the brain's motor system.  I will disc
 uss future directions of my algorithmic work\, particularly as it pertains
  to neural prosthetic systems\, and I will also point to the broader impli
 cations this work should have for computer science\, engineering\, and neu
 roscience.
LOCATION:Engineering Department\, CBL Room 438
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