Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Reverse engineering a brain system through large scale computer simulation

Michael D. Mauk, Professor & Chair, Center for Learning and Memory, Department of Neuroscience, UT Austin

Abstract

I will describe studies using large scale simulations to understand the cerebellum. This is a brain system that generates feedforward predictions, mostly in the service of making movements accurate. The cerebellum implements a specialized form of learning to update these predictions based on experience. I will describe the rationale for using simulations for these particular questions, briefly describe how we connect them to experimental data and the general sorts of things we learn from them. I will then describe computational studies addressing two topics: how the cerebellum generate temporal codes to mediate the precise timing of predictions and a newly discovered computational mechanism that improves cerebellar performance in the face of noisy inputs. Bio: Mike Mauk is a Professor in the Center for Learning and Memory and the Chair of the Department of Neuroscience. He received his PhD in 1985 from Stanford University based on work identifying brain pathways involved in learning. After postdoctoral training at Stanford Medical School, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1988. He was promoted to associate professor in 1996, to full professor in 2001 and in 2004 was named the William M. Wheless III Professor of Biomedical Sciences. He came to UT-Austin in 2007. Dr. Mauk is internationally known for his work on the brain mechanisms of learning and computation and particularly for pioneering use of computer simulations to study the cerebellum.