James M. Bower - Böcker

This volume includes papers presented at the Fifth Annual Computational Neurosci­ ence meeting (CNS*96) held in Boston, Massachusetts, July 14 - 17, 1996. This collection includes 148 of the 234 papers presented at the meeting. Acceptance for mceting presenta­ tion was based on the peer review of preliminary papers originally submitted in May of 1996. The papers in this volume represent final versions of this work submitted in January of 1997. As represented by this volume, computational neuroscience continues to expand in quality, size and breadth of focus as increasing numbers of neuroscientists are taking a computational approach to understanding nervous system function. Defining computa­ tional neuroscience as the exploration of how brains compute, it is clear that there is al­ most no subject or area of modern neuroscience research that is not appropriate for computational studies. The CNS meetings as well as this volume reflect this scope and di­ versity.

Computational neuroscience is best defined by its focus on understanding the nervous system as a computational device rather than by a particular experimental technique. Accordingly, while the majority of the papers in this book describe analysis and modelling efforts, other papers describe the results of new biological experiments explicitly placed in the context of computational issues. The distribution of subjects in the book reflects the current state of the field. In addition to the scientific results presented here, numerous papers also describe the ongoing technical developments that are critical for the continued growth of computational neuroscience. The volume includes papers presented at the First Annual Computation and Neural Systems meeting held in San Francisco, California, July 26-29, 1992.

These are the proceedings of the Third Annual Computation and Neural Systems Conference, and contain the collected papers of the Conference on Computational Neuroscience, July 21-23, 1994, Monterey, California. These papers represent a cross-section of current research in computational neuroscience. While the majority of papers describe analysis and modelling efforts, other papers describe the results of new biological experiments explicitly placed in the context of computational theories and ideas. Subjects range from an analysis of subcellular processes, to single neurons, networks, behaviour and cognition. In addition, several papers describe new technical developments of use to computational neuroscientists.

This is the second edition of a step-by -step tutorial for professionals, researchers and students working in the area of neuroscience in general, and computational neuroscience in particular. It can also be used as an interactive self-study guide to understanding biological neuronal and network structure for those working in the area of artificial neural networks and the cognitive sciences. The tutorials are based upon the GENESIS neural simulation system, which is now being used for teaching and research in at least 26 countries. The following chapters consist of a combination of edited contributions from researchers in computational neuroscience and current users of the system, as well as several chapters that we have written ourselves. This book, and the tutorial simulations on which it is based, grew out of a simulation laboratory accompanying the annual Methods in Computational Neuroscience course taught at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA from 1988 to 1992. Since that time, the tutorials have been further developed and refined while being used in courses taught at Caltech and several other institutions, including the Crete course in Computational Neuroscience. For this second edition, we have made many revisions and additions based on comments, suggestions and corrections from members of the GENESIS Users Group, BABEL, and from students and teachers who have used this book.

This volume includes papers presented at the Third Annual Computation and Neural Systems meeting (CNS*94) held in Monterey California, July 21 - July 26, 1994. This collection includes 71 of the more than 100 papers presented at this year's meeting. Acceptance for meeting presentation was based on the peer review of preliminary papers by at least two referees. The papers in this volume were submitted in final form after the meeting. As represented by this volume, CNS meetings continue to expand in quality, size and breadth of focus as increasing numbers of neuroscientists are taking a computational approach to understanding nervous system function. The CNS meetings are intended to showcase the best of current research in computational neuroscience. As such the meeting is fundamentally focused on understanding the relationship between the structure of neIVOUS systems and their function. What is clear from the continued expansion of the CNS meetings is that computational approaches are increasingly being applied at all levels of neurobiological analysis. in an ever growing number of experimental preparations. and neural subsystems. Thus. experimental subjects range from crickets to primates; sensory systems range from vision to electroreception; experimental approaches range from realistic models of ion channels to the analysis of the information content of spike trains. For this reason, the eNS meetings represent an opportunity for computational neurobiologists to consider their research results in a much broader context than is usually possible.

Computational neuroscience is best defined by its focus on understanding the nervous systems as a computational device rather than by a particular experimental technique. Accordinlgy, while the majority of the papers in this book describe analysis and modeling efforts, other papers describe the results of new biological experiments explicitly placed in the context of computational issues. The distribution of subjects in Computation and Neural Systems reflects the current state of the field. In addition to the scientific results presented here, numerous papers also describe the ongoing technical developments that are critical for the continued growth of computational neuroscience.Computation and Neural Systems includes papers presented at the First Annual Computation and Neural Systems meeting held in San Francisco, CA, July 26--29, 1992.

This volume includes papers presented at the Sixth Annual Computational Neurosci­ ence meeting (CNS*97) held in Big Sky, Montana, July 6-10, 1997. This collection includes 103 of the 196 papers presented at the meeting. Acceptance for meeting presentation was based on the peer review of preliminary papers originally submitted in January of 1997. The papers in this volume represent final versions of this work submitted in January of 1998. Taken together they provide a cross section of computational neuroscience and represent well the continued vitality and growth of this field. The meeting in Montana was unusual in several respects. First, to our knowledge it was the first international scientific meeting with opening ceremonies on horseback. Second, after five days of rigorous scientific discussion and debate, meeting participants were able to resolve all remaining conflicts in barrel race competitions. Otherwise the magnificence of Montana and the Big Sky Ski Resort assured that the meeting will not soon be forgotten. Scientifically, this volume once again represents the remarkable breadth of subjects that can be approached with computational tools. This volume and the continuing CNS meet­ ings make it clear that there is almost no subject or area of modem neuroscience research that is not appropriate for computational studies.

When funding agencies and policy organizations consider the role of modeling and simulation in modern biology, the question is often posed, what has been accomplished ?This book will be organized around a symposium on the 20 year history of the CNS meetings, to be held as part of CNS 2010 in San Antonio Texas in July 2010. The book, like the symposium is intended to summarize progress made in Computational Neuroscience over the last 20 years while also considering current challenges in the field. As described in the table of contents, the chapter’s authors have been selected to provide wide coverage of the applications of computational techniques to a broad range of questions and model systems in neuroscience. The proposed book will include several features that establish the history of the field. For each article, its author will select an article originally appearing in a CNS conference proceedings from 15 – 20 years ago. These short (less than 6 page) articles will provide illustrations of the state of the field 20 years ago. The new articles will describe what has been learned about the subject in the following 20 years, and pose specific challenges for the next 20 years. The second historical mechanism will be the reproduction of the first 12 years of posters from the CNS meeting. These posters in and of themselves have become famous in the field (they hang in the halls of the NIH in Bethesda Maryland) and were constructed as allegories for the state and development of computational neuroscience. The posters were designed by the book’s editor, who will, for the first time, provide a written description of each poster.

This volume includes papers presented at the Fifth Annual Computational Neurosci­ ence meeting (CNS*96) held in Boston, Massachusetts, July 14 - 17, 1996. This collection includes 148 of the 234 papers presented at the meeting. Acceptance for mceting presenta­ tion was based on the peer review of preliminary papers originally submitted in May of 1996. The papers in this volume represent final versions of this work submitted in January of 1997. As represented by this volume, computational neuroscience continues to expand in quality, size and breadth of focus as increasing numbers of neuroscientists are taking a computational approach to understanding nervous system function. Defining computa­ tional neuroscience as the exploration of how brains compute, it is clear that there is al­ most no subject or area of modern neuroscience research that is not appropriate for computational studies. The CNS meetings as well as this volume reflect this scope and di­ versity.