Wolfgang-Pauli Lectures 2008

Podcasts and Streams

The lectures are open for the public and they will take place in the main building of the ETH Zurich (Rämistrasse 101)

contact: Sinikka Kyburz

Prof. Terrence J. Sejnowski

Salk Institute and University of California at San Diego

Computing with Neurons

Monday, March 17, 20:15 h, Auditorium Maximum

Brains evolved to enhance survival and humans have more neurons than there are stars in our galaxy. Working together these neurons can see, hear, plan, and reach decisions that digital computers are unable to duplicate. Learning changes the properties of neurons and the way that they interact with each other. As we discover the basic principles of neural computation we beginning to build computing devices
that also learn from experience.

How We See

Tuesday, March 18, 20:15 h, Auditorium Maximum

The best understood part of our brain is the visual system. The patterns of light on the photoreceptors in the retina are first transformed into electrical signals and then analyzed into component features and their surrounding context in a hierarchy of visual processing areas. However, there is much more to vision than meets the eye and this lecture will conclude with a critique of pure vision.

Google Brain

Thursday, March 20, 20:15 h, Auditorium Maximum

The brain is not just a computing device: It is also a powerful communication network, with the total bandwidth of signaling between neurons comparable to that of the entire World Wide Web. How is all the traffic between brain areas regulated? How does the brain "google" itself? The answers to these questions are being sought in the temporal coherence of brain signals on a global scale. Curiously, brain states with the highest coherence are found during sleep.