Detail ‘purkinje neuron from the human cerebellum’. Ramon y Cajal ca. 1900. Courtesy Cajal Institute/Madrid
SFI News:
SFI Community Lecture, “How the Brain Makes You: Collective Intelligence and Computation by Neural Circuits” with Vijay Balasubramanian University of Pennsylvania will be held at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 23 at Santa Fe Institute (SFI), 1399 Hyde Park Road.
The human brain consists of a 100 billion neurons connected by a 100 trillion synapses. In its computational function, each neuron is a simple electrical device. In this sense it is no different, in its conceptual essence, from a transistor or a diode in a silicon microchip, converting input signals into ephemeral voltage pulses that transmit to other neurons. And yet, the collective effect of these tiny electrical flutterings creates the intelligent mind, with its astonishing capacity for perception and action, memory and imagination, affection and indifference. In the words of Ramon y Cajal (1854-1932), a founding figure of neuroscience, neurons are “the mysterious butterflies of the soul, whose beating of wings may one day reveal to us the secrets of the mind.” In this talk, Balasubramanian will explore current ideas about how this transmutation occurs.
Vijay Balasubramanian is a physicist and computational neuroscientist and is the Cathy and Marc Lasry Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is interested in the principles that govern the organization of neural circuits and studies how complex functions emerge from the interaction of many simple constituents. He has worked on numerous systems in the brain including those that enable vision, audition, olfaction, motor control, navigation, learning, and decision making. He directs the Computational Neuroscience Initiative at Penn and is an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.
Reserve your free tickets through The Lensic Box Office online or call 505.988.1234. Santa Fe residents are encouraged to attend in person. This lecture will be streaming from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and our YouTube page.
This lecture is presented at no cost to the public thanks to generous sponsorship from the McKinnon Family Foundation, with additional support provided by The Lensic Performing Arts Center and the Santa Fe Reporter.
Click here for more information about SFI’s Community Lecture Series.