The workshop Statistical Analysis of Neuronal Data (SAND5) is planned for May 20-22, 2010. SAND5 will bring together neurophysiologists, statisticians, physicists, and computer scientists who are interested in quantitative analysis of neuronal data. There will be 5 scientific sessions, at which 8 keynote investigators and 16 junior investigators will speak. There will also be a poster session. Selected papers will be published in the Journal of Computational Neuroscience.
Statistical Analysis of Neuronal Data is the fifth workshop in a series that began in 2002. The workshops are held in even years at Carnegie Mellon University during the Spring. The primary objectives of the workshop are to define important problems in neuronal data analysis and useful strategies for attacking them; foster communication between experimental neuroscientists and those trained in statistical and computational methods; and provide further dissemination of the findings presented at the workshop via a set of peer-reviewed articles. Secondary objectives are to encourage young researchers, including graduate students, to present their work; expose young researchers to important challenges and opportunities in this interdisciplinary domain, while providing a small meeting atmosphere to facilitate the interaction of young researchers with senior colleagues; and include as participants women, under-represented minorities and persons with disabilities who might benefit from the small workshop environment.
Studies of the neural basis of behavior typically use time-varying stimuli and produce time-varying neuronal responses. Statistically, the setting involves both continuous multiple time series and inhomogeneous point processes, sometimes dozens or hundreds of them observed simultaneously. There are many challenging analytical issues, including that of combining information obtained from multiple modalities (EEG, fMRI, MEG, and extracellular recordings). The Statistical Analysis of Neural Data (SAND) workshop series aims to define important problems in neuronal data analysis and useful strategies for attacking them; foster communication between experimental neuroscientists and those trained in statistical and computational methods; encourage young researchers, including graduate students, to present their work; and expose young researchers to important challenges and opportunities in this interdisciplinary domain, while providing a small meeting atmosphere to facilitate the interaction of young researchers with senior colleagues. SAND5 took place May 20-22, 2010 at the University of Pittsburgh. There were 160 registrants. There were 5 research sessions, including a final panel discussion. Research sessions included two special lectures from senior investigators and several additional, shorter lectures from junior investigators (students or within 5 years of Ph.D.). The latter were selected following an open competition, based on abstracts. In addition, a poster session included 42 posters. The workshop was organized by Robert E. Kass, Emery N. Brown, Elizabeth Buffalo, Liam Paninski and Jonathan Victor. Additional details may be found on the website at http://sand.stat.cmu.edu/SAND5/.
