Jointly hosted by the Neural Computation Research Hub (Bristol Neuroscience, Elizabeth Blackwell Institute) and The Alan Turing Institute at Bristol (Jean Golding Institute), this workshop will explore the overlap between neuroscience, AI and data. It will look at how data and AI have influenced neuroscience, and the ideas from neuroscience that have had a considerable influence on machine learning.

Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from a range of academics, who will speak about how their cutting edge research explores the intersection between AI, data, machine learning and neuroscience. There will be the chance to network with the speakers and attendees across the neuroscience community within the University of Bristol and beyond, as a well as a free lunch provided.

We are pleased to welcome Jianfeng Feng, Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick as our keynote speaker.

Agenda

09.30: Welcome - Conor Houghton, Associate Professor in Computer Science, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol

09.35: Analysing brain activity and behaviour

• Emma Cahill, Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, University of Bristol: AI for mental health: Rise of ChatGPTherapy?
• Tom Maullin-Sapey, Lecturer in Statistics, School of Mathematics, University of Bristol: Confidence Regions for Conjunction Analysis of fMRI data
• Seán Froudist-Walsh, Lecturer, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol: Circuit and cortex-wide mechanisms of psilocybin on cortical dynamics and perception

10.15 Panel discussion and questions - Chair: Tamara Boto, Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience, School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience

10.35: Disorders

• Qiang Liu, Lecturer in Data Science, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol: AI-based cell screening for Alzheimer’s disease
• Holly Fraser, Senior Research Associate in Immunopsychiatry, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol: Identifying inflammation related subgroups of psychopathology using machine learning
• Raul Santos-Rodrigues, Professor of Data Science and Intelligent Systems, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol and Turing AI Fellow: Perceptual metrics and audio representation learning

11.15: Panel discussion and questions - Chair: Liz Coulthard, Professor of Cognitive Neurology, Bristol Medical School

11.35: Coffee and discussion

12.05: Keynote- Jianfeng Feng, Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick: From multi-omic data to digital twin brain

• Chair: Paul Anastasiades, Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol

12.45: Free and intellectually stimulating lunch

13.40: Modelling Intelligence - part 1

• Laurence Aitchison, Lecturer, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol: Mechanistic interpretability: the computational neuroscience of modern LLMs
• Jeffrey Bowers, Professor, School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol: Similarities between artificial neural networks (ANNs) and humans are greatly exaggerated: A case-study of Brain-Score
• Sophie Baker, PhD student, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol: Degeneracy in Embodied Choice

14.20: New & breaking short talks - 3 minute thesis style

• Alexander Hepburn, Senior Research Associate, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol: Evaluating colour constancy in neural networks
• William Antcliff, PhD Student, Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, University of London: Quantifying Neurodevelopmental Impacts of Urban Particulate Matter in Zebrafish Using Topological Data Analysis
• Tsvetoslav Ivanov, PhD student, Computational Neuroscience Unit, University of Bristol: Dopamine D1 receptor expression in prefrontal parvalbumin neurons influences distractibility across species
• Ben Thewlis, PhD Student, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol: X-CLARITY for 3D Mapping of Bone Marrow-Neuron Fusion in Transplanted Mouse Brains
• Abiola Saka, PhD Student, CDT Digital Health and Care, University of Bristol: The Interplay between Cognitive Deficits and the Risk of Psychosis: The Role of Sleep
• Andrew Shannon, PhD Student, Centre for Doctoral Training in Interactive AI, University of Bristol: Modelling Nonlinear Oscillator Networks with Hybrid Reservoir Computing
• Eva Sevenster,  PhD Student, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol: Learning dopamine release for flexible working memory
• Clair Booth, Research Technician, School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, Bristol University: Automated measurement of rodent exploratory behaviour for neurosciences
• Dabal Pedamonti, Senior Research Associate, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol: Psilocybin enables flexible learning reinstating plasticity in fixed synapses
• Aswathi Thrivikraman, PhD Student, School of Computer Science, University of Bristol: Model-Based Reinforcement Learning as a Computational Framework for Mind Wandering
• Sunil Mamotra, Academic Clinical Fellow in Ophthalmology, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol: Machine Learning Models applied to Slit-Lamp Imaging of the Eye

Chair for Modelling Intelligence Part 1 and ECR talks: Paul Chadderton, Associate Professor in Neurophysiology, School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, University of Bristol

15.10: Break and discussion

15.25: Modelling Intelligence - part 2

• Conor Houghton, Associate Professor in Computer Science, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol: What machine learning might tell us about the evolution of language
• Edwin Dalmaijer, Lecturer, School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol: Bird brains in navigation and (bin) warfare
• Zahraa Abdallah, Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol: Machine Learning Approaches for Early Detection of Neurodegenerative Diseases

16.05: Interactive panel discussion with speakers from Modelling Intelligence Parts 1 & 2 and keynote- Chair: Matt Jones, Professor in Neuroscience, School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, University of Bristol

16.30: Close - Paul Chadderton, Associate Professor in Neurophysiology, School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, University of Bristol

Jianfeng Feng Biography:

Professor Feng completed his under- and postgraduate degrees at Peking University in the People’s Republic of China between 1985 to 1993. From there he spent three years in Europe, first in Germany and then Italy, thanks to support from the A. von Humboldt Foundation and the Italian National Research Council respectively. His first independent research post in the UK was at Cambridge where he was Deputy Head of the Computational Neuroscience Laboratory from 1996 to 2000. From there he took up a post as Reader at Sussex University until 2005; from 2005 to 2008 he was Visiting Professor at the Department of Informatics at Sussex. In 2005 he accepted a Chair in the Centre for Scientific Computing and Computer Science, Warwick University. From 2008 he also holds a position as Dean of Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China and from 2011 a Professorship in the School of Biology at Fudan.

Prof Feng is a computational biologist working in the areas of computational psychiatry, abstract and biophysical models of single neurone and neuronal networks, stochastic and nonlinear dynamics, and data mining and mathematical physics. He has been developing new mathematical, statistical and computational theories and methods to meet the challenges raised in neuroscience and mental health research. Recently, his research foci are on big data analysis and mining for neuroscience and brain diseases.