2018 McGovern Institute Spring Symposium
Organized by Michael Halassa, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT

FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2018

8:30 am CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST IN ATRIUM

8:50 am MICHAEL HALASSA, McGovern Institute | Welcoming remarks

SESSION I Chair: Kay Tye, Picower Institute

9:00 am STEFANO FUSI, Columbia University | Encoding multiple abstract cognitive variables in prefrontal cortex and hippocampus

9:40 am TATIANA ENGEL, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | Dynamic cortical states and selective attention

10:20 am BREAK

10:40 am CARLOS BRODY, HHMI, Princeton University | Neural mechanisms of decision-making in the rat

11:20 am XIAO-JING WANG, New York University | Cognitive control in a large-scale multi-regional brain

12:00 pm CHRIS ELIASMITH, University of Waterloo | Cognitive flexibility in a large-scale brain model

12:40 pm LUNCH IN ATRIUM

SESSION II Chair: Mehrdad Jazayeri, McGovern Institute

1:20 pm ANNA MITCHELL, University of Oxford | Mediodorsal thalamus and frontal interactions optimize higher cognitive functioning 

2:00 pm EARL MILLER, Picower Institute | Working memory 2.0 

2:40 pm BREAK 

3:00 pm BRUNO AVERBECK, National Institute of Mental Health | Neural systems underlying reinforcement learning 

3:40 pm MARK STOKES, University of Oxford | Stable and dynamic neural states for working memory

4:20 pm PANEL DISCUSSION

4:50 pm ROBERT DESIMONE, McGovern Institute | Closing remarks

5:00 pm RECEPTION