Working Memory in Jerusalem

September 18-19, 2008

Working Memory is the ability to hold information for processing purposes. It plays a crucial role in a wide range of higher cognitive functions such as thinking, planning, reasoning and decision making. Information held in working memory can include recently processed sensory stimuli, items retrieved from long-term memory or be the result of recent internal processing. A neuronal correlate of working memory is the sustained activity found in several cortical areas during delayed response tasks devised to investigate the physiology and the psychophysics of working memory. For example neurons in the prefrontal cortex have been found to fire consistently during the delay period, when the sensory cue is no longer present and the animal is waiting for the response cue. This firing is selective to the features of the stimulus to be remembered, e.g. the spatial location of a visual cue, the frequency of a vibration or the identity of an item. Theoretical and modeling studies have investigated in the last years the possible network and cellular mechanisms which could underlie the initiation, maintenance, selectivity and extinction of sustained delay activity in working memory. The goal of this workshop is to confront these theories with the most recent experimental data from electrophysiological, imaging and psychophysics experiments.

Organisers

David Hansel (CNRS, Paris; ICNC, Jerusalem) and Misha Tsodyks (WIS, Rehovot)

Invited speakers

N. Brunel (Paris), A. Compte (Barcelona), D. Durstewitz (Plymouth), E. Fransen (Stockholm), S. Funahashi (Kyoto), S. Fusi (New York), J. Haynes (Berlin), Y. Loewenstein (Jerusalem), C. Machens (Paris), G. Mongillo (Paris), R. Romo (Mexico), D. Sagi (Rehovot), C. van Vreeswijk (Paris), A. Treves (Trieste), Y. Triesch (Frankfurt).

Preliminary Program

Thursday, September 18:

8:30 : Registration

9:00 : Welcome

9:15-10:45 : S. Funahashi

10:45-11:15 : Coffee break

11:15-13:15 :

            C. van Vreeswijk
            A. Compte
            D. Hansel
            G. Mongillo
            

            

13:15-15:00 : Lunch break

15:00-16:30 : R. Romo

16:30-17:00 : Coffee break

17:00-19:00 :

            C. Machens
            D. Durstewitz
            E. Fransen
            Y. Loewenstein
            

20:00- : Dinner at Darna Restaurant (invited speakers only)

Friday, September 19:

9:00-10:30 : D. Sagi

10:30-11:00 : Coffee Break

11:00-13:00 :

            N. Brunel
            Y. Trisch
            S. Fusi 
            A. Treves
                

13:00-14:30 : Lunch break

14:30-16:00 : J. Haynes