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SUMMARY:Energy efficiency and the design of brains -  Professor Simon Laug
 hlin\, Department of Zoology\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20120516T131500Z
DTEND:20120516T141500Z
UID:TALK37843@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Stephen Clark
DESCRIPTION:An understanding of design\, the efficient organization of com
 ponents into purposeful systems\, helps neuroscientists to reverse enginee
 r brains. Systems that sense\, recognise\, predict and control have to con
 sume energy to process information\, and brains are no exception. Energy b
 udgets show that energy consumption limits cerebral signal traffic\, indic
 ating that there is powerful pressure to evolve energy efficient designs. 
 I will review and present a number of design principles. These principles 
 account for some of the distinctive features of neurons\, neural circuits 
 and codes\, such as sparse coding in parallel pathways\, the ability to re
 gulate structure and allocate resources according to demand\, and computin
 g with chemistry. Perhaps these will help us to understand how a 1.5 kg hu
 man brain can computer prodigiously with < 20W of power?
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 1\, Computer Laboratory
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