Hi all,

the next tea talk will be given by a guest speaker, Jörn Diedrichsen from UWO.

Same place, same time: March 10, at 13:30-14:30, room AA6214. 

Hope to see many of you there!

Title: The brain’s GPU? In search of the cerebellum’s universal computation

Abstract: The cerebellum exhibits a highly specialized and uniform neuronal circuitry, which likely evolved to solve very specific problems in sensory-motor control. In the human brain, the cerebellar circuitry has dramatically expanded, and it contributes here to virtually every possible cognitive function. But what is this elusive computation that the cerebellum contributes to cortical processing? I will show some insights from our research on motor control and learning, which shows that the cerebellum is critically involved in prediction and fast error-based learning. I will then talk about the first steps that we have recently taken to test computational theories about the function of the cerebellum across different cognitive domains using functional imaging.

Bio: Jörn Diedrichsen is a Wester Research Chair in the Brain and Mind Institute at Western University, and Professor of Statistics and Computer Science. His laboratory studies the cerebellar function and motor control and motor learning in the human brain. He has also developed a number of novel multivariate analysis techniques for functional imaging data.