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D-PHYS
Department of Physics
uni
Kolloquium Wednesday, November 8, 16:45 h, HPV G4
The principles of song control: From the physics of the vocal organ
to single-neuron dynamics in the brain
Richard Hahnloser, ETH Zurich
Questions of song production and song learning in the
songbird can appeal to a physicist's mind: Does the vocal
organ of songbirds - the syrinx - function more like a violin
or like a trumpet? Can we understand the organizational
principles of how neurons in higher brain areas generate
the rhythms and notes of a song? How are songs perceived
by the ear and by which mathematical operation does the
juvenile brain compare its own songs to the memorized
songs heard earlier in life? In my talk I will introduce the
neuroinformatics-related questions of neural song control,
highlight experimental methods for answering these
questions, and try to convey our current understanding of
principles of song production and song learning.
October 25, 2006
December 13, 2006
Dominik Zumbühl, Universität Basel
Yannick Mellier, Institut d’Astrophysique, France
November 1, 2006
December 20, 2006
Michael Köhl, ETH Zurich
Dietrich Leibfried, National Institute of Standards and
November 8, 2006
Richard Hahnloser, ETH Zurich
November 15, 2006
Moses Chan, Penn State University, USA
November 22, 2006
Theodor W. Hänsch, Nobelpreisträger 2005,
Max-Planck Institut für Quantenoptik, Deutschland
November 29, 2006
Niko Grigorieff, Brandeis University, USA
December 6, 2006
Ehud Altman, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Technology, USA
January 10, 2007
Sami Solanki, Max-Planck Institut für
Sonnensystemforschung, Deutschland
January 17, 2007
Simon Lilly, ETH Zurich
January 24, 2007
Michelangelo Mangano, CERN
January 31, 2007
Artur Ekert, Cambridge University, UK