PAD Seminar, Dr. Grace Lindsay
How and Why to Use Deep Neural Networks as Models in (Cognitive) Neuroscience
Abstract
Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have a long history of interaction with---and use as models in---neuroscience and cognitive science. Currently they are being used in many different corners of neuroscience work, from sensory processing to motor control. I will cover the nuts and bolts of what ANNs are and how they were inspired by the basics of neural functioning. I will also explain how training these networks gives them the unique ability to be neural models that can actually perform complex perceptual and cognitive tasks. I will then cover ways to evaluate these models and compare them to data, including the caveats and limitations we need to keep in mind when using ANNs as models.
About the speaker
Grace Lindsay is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre and Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at University College London. She received her PhD from the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia University. She is the author of the book Models of the Mind: How Physics, Engineering, and Mathematics Have Shaped Our Understanding of the Brain (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2021).
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