9th International Neural Coding Workshop, NC2010
Limassol, Cyprus, 29 October - 3 November 2010

  - P r e l i m i n a r y  A n n o u n c e m e n t -

Dear

The ninth International Neural Coding Workshop will be held in Limassol, Cyprus from 29 October to 3 November 2010.

As in the previous workshops in Prague (1995), Versailles (1997), Osaka (1999), Plymouth (2001), Aulla (2003), Marburg (2005), Montevideo (2007) and Tainan (2009), this will be a single track multi-disciplinary event bringing together experimental and computational neuroscientists with ample time for informal discussions in a convivial atmosphere, which would continue during the various social events that will be integrated into the workshop. Attendees of the workshop should thus be prepared to cross the borders of their own disciplines.

Contributions on all aspects of Neural Coding are welcome.
  Possible questions/topics are:
  - How is a neuronal code specific to a given sensory system?
  - How is a code transformed from sensors to higher brain areas, and to behaviour or motor output?
  - How does the code depend on the current information processing task?
  - How is the neural code affected by learning?
  - Cortical spike train irregularity at high rates and computational mechanisms for achieving it
  - Statistical metrics of spike train irregularity
  - Rate vs. temporal coding
  - Information Theory and Neural Coding
  - Single neuron and network approaches to the neural code

Let us know your comments or suggestions for additional topics.

Please let us know if you would be interested in participating, by returning the form below.

We are looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Chris Christodoulou
(on behalf of the International Organising Committee)


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Further information would be posted in time on the workshop website (http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/nc2010) which is currently in preparation.


ADDITIONAL DETAILS:

INERNATIONAL NEURAL CODING WORKSHOP NC'2010
(preliminary announcement)

DATES: Friday 29 October to Wednesday 3 November 2010

LOCATION: Limassol, Cyprus

INTERNATIONAL ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Chris Christodoulou (Chairman, Nicosia, Cyprus)
Petr Lansky (Prague, Czech Republic)
Jean-Pierre Rospars (Versailles, France)


LOCAL ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Christos Schizas, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

Constantinos Pattichis, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

Costas Neocleous, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

(not complete) 

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Roman Borisyuk (Plymouth, UK & Moscow, Russia)

Hans Braun (Marburg, Germany)

Ruben Budelli (Montevideo, Uruguay)

Guido Bugmann (Plymouth, UK)

Reinhard Eckhorn (Marburg, Germany)

Paul Poon (Tainan, Taiwan)

Barry Richmond (Bethesda, MD, USA)

John Rinzel (New York, NY, USA)

Laura Sacerdote (Torino, Italy)

Jose Segundo (Los Angeles, USA; Montevideo, Uruguay)

Shigeru Shinomoto (Kyoto, Japan)

Alessandro Villa (Grenoble, France; Lausanne, Switzerland)

SCOPE/TOPICS:

Studying the neural code is one of many routes into understanding the operation of the brain. More specifically a solution to the neural code problem would provide the basis for the analytical evaluation of the brain's information processing capability and would give us a further insight as to those problems which are essential to its functional organisation. This has many applications in medicine, human- machine interaction and computing. Over the years, the neural code has emerged as a complex and multifaceted problem:
First, there is no single neural code.  The neural code varies along and across sensory information processing streams.  It is also different for various elements in local microcircuits and it may vary with tasks.

Secondly,   this variety reflects a number of constraints including energy consumption, speed of processing, commonality of representation in areas of convergence and need for divergent top-down control.
Thirdly, experimental data sparsely sample along the dimension of levels of understanding. Models also shy away from bridging the levels, or miss a whole field of experiments. Progress in neural code understanding will require a progressive integration of multilevel constraints in models and corresponding new experimental data.
Therefore a proposed aim for this workshop is to stimulate a more integrated approach to neural coding.  Indeed, participants present what they feel is the most relevant on the day.  Therefore, there is an exciting element of surprise in Neural Coding Workshops.

PARTICIPANTS:

All participants are invited by name. It is expected that approximately 80+ participants (with maximum 100 including students) will take part. This preliminary call is issued to a mailing list of people who have already participated in previous workshops. Additional calls to extended audience which would include participants recommended by invited participants maybe issued later.

FORMAT:

Sessions include 30 min. oral presentations, brief 3 min oral presentations of posters, and poster presentations. There will be approximately 40 oral and 40 poster presentations.

SITE:

The workshop will take place in the sunny seaside resort of Limassol, Cyprus and more specifically in the Amathus touristic area located approx. 9Km east of Limassol by the ruins of the ancient city-kingdom of Amathus.

ACCOMMODATION:

A number of single and double rooms have tentatively been reserved in hotels in the area ranging from 3* to 5* and special delegate rates are expected with tentative prices for 3* hotels starting from just over 40 EUR (single), approaching 50 EUR (double) and 4* starting form approx 80 EUR (single) to just over 90 EUR (double); all quoted prices are for inland view rather than sea view rooms. Cheaper options are expected. Further information will be provided in time.

ACCESS:

Air Travel: Cyprus (Larnaca and Paphos airports) can be reached by several major international airlines from European gateway cities. From North America, travellers can break up the journey in the European city of their choice or elect to keep connection time to a minimum. Popular gateways include London, Paris, Amsterdam, Athens, Frankfurt, Zurich, Helsinki, Rome, Dubai etc. In addition, Cyprus Airways provides regular daily flights from many major European and Middle Eastern gateways. Legal Points of Entry: Larnaca Airport is the most popular point of entry in Cyprus and is located closer to the workshop. Paphos Airport is located slightly further away. Other legal points of entry into the Republic of Cyprus are the ports of Larnaca, Limassol, Latsi and Pafos, which are situated in the area under the effective control of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus. Entry into the territory of the Republic of Cyprus via any other airport or port on which the Government of the Republic does not exercise effective control (Turkish occupied areas) is illegal. More details including possible airport transfer arrangements will be provided on the workshop website in time. Cyprus Tourism Organization: http://www.cyprustourism.org


REGISTRATION:

The full registration details will be mailed to the participants later and posted on the workshop website. The registration fee is tentatively expected to be in the region of 350 EUR for early registration, with an additional penalty of 80 EUR for late registration. This will include the participant pack including the abstract book, welcome reception, coffee breaks, 4 lunches, 2 dinners, 1 banquet and 2 excursions and a possible optional excursion/tour at the last day.

GRANTS:

We will not be able to cover the travel costs of participants. Reduced registration fees will be offered to students.

PROCEEDINGS:

An abstract book will be distributed to the participants. The full papers will be refereed and published as a Special Issue of a relevant journal which will be announced at a later stage. We are currently negotiating with some journals in the field. Submission of a paper for the proceedings is not a prerequisite for participation to the Workshop.

ABSTRACTS:

Participants will provide a camera-ready abstract of up to 2 pages in A4 size. More details on the format will be given in time.

IMPORTANT DATES:

January 2010: Preliminary call for participation (this email).
April 2010: Call for contributions (tentative title of presentations requested).
30 May 2010: Early Registration
15 July 2010: Submission of Abstracts and late Registration.


CONFERENCE WEB-SITE:  (in preparation)
http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/nc2010

CONFERENCE EMAIL CONTACT:
nc2010@cs.ucy.ac.cy
nc2010@ucy.ac.cy