This seminar will be held in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center (9th floor lecture hall). Columbia University's Intercampus Shuttle Service is the best way to travel between campuses.

Reinforcement learning is one of the most compelling examples of a theoretical algorithm whose components have been identified with neural correlates. In particular, the firing of dopamine neurons has classically been regarded as conveying reward prediction error. However, mounting evidence shows that dopamine is highly multifunctional. Dr. Fairhall will discuss examples of this and speculate about the implications of these observations.

Adrienne Fairhall is a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington and codirector of the Computational Neuroscience Center and the UW Institute for Neuroengineering. Her lab studies mathematical models of neural processing ranging from single cell biophysics through foraging behavior in mosquitoes to learning in birds and primates.

Those who wish to meet the speaker during their visit should contact Natalie Steinemann, PhD (Shadlen lab). For general inquiries please contact [email protected].

The Columbia Neuroscience Seminar series is a collaborative effort of Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, the Department of Neuroscience, the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, and with support from the Kavli Institute for Brain Science.