Learning is a key part of our human experience, and our ability to learn allows us to acquire understanding, knowledge, values, and preferences, as well as gain new skills, behaviors, and attitudes. Learning starts in our amazing brains, and our guest scientist this month, Dr. Vivek Athalye, researches how brain neurons behave as one learns, especially in relation to physical movement. Join Dr. Athalye, and Steinway Artist, Guggenheim Fellow, and the Zuckerman Institute’s inaugural Jazz Artist-in-Residence, pianist Helen Sung, to “learn about learning” and perhaps learn a tune or two along the way too!

Vivek Athalye is interested in how the brain generates action and learns new actions from reinforcement. His experiments study the neurobiology of how the brain learns to directly control prosthetics through a brain-machine interface, which has applications for restoring movement and learning. His findings reveal how the connectivity and dynamics of populations of neurons drive action and learning.

Vivek Athalye received a BS with distinction from Stanford University in 2011 in electrical engineering. He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science in 2017 from UC Berkeley in the lab of Dr. Jose Carmena. He is now a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at Columbia University in the lab of Dr. Rui Costa.
 

This event is designed for people with dementia and their care partners. Please register in advance through the Arts & Minds web page. 
 

Rhythm and Reason is a collaboration between Arts & Minds, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute.

Learn more about Arts & Minds programs here.