(Utorok 29.09.2015 o 0:00)
prof. Ing. Igor Farkaš, Dr. (Katedra aplikovanej informatiky FMFI UK v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
I will introduce the paradigms of supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning in case of artificial neural networks. Their purpose will be illustrated in the domain of cognitive robotics that represents a constructivist (synthetic) approach to understanding cognitive functions. The ideas will be presented via selected tasks of motor learning or learning the body representations in a simulated humanoid robot. I will conclude the talk by outlining potential topics for research projects.
(Utorok 06.10.2015 o 0:00)
RNDr. Martin Takáč, PhD. (Katedra aplikovanej informatiky FMFI UK v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
In this talk I will briefly introduce some of the computational models I have been working on for the past 15 years: (1) autonomous sense making / meaning construction and their formalization in terms of distinguishing criteria, (2) language acquisition - phonology, lexicon, morphology and syntax, (3) working memory. In the end of my talk I will describe possible topics for diploma thesis projects I offer.
(Utorok 13.10.2015 o 0:00)
PaedDr. Vladimíra Kurincová Čavojová, PhD. (Ústav exper. psychológie SAV v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
Our research is focused on the role of intuition in (rational) decision-making. Intuition can be conceptualised as automatic processing of information. Its positive aspects are manifested when our automatic responses are based on extensive experience (intuition as expertise, intuition as somatic markers); on the other hand, it can be manifested in superficial processing (relying on the first thing that comes to our mind) or be expressed as belief in supernatural and it can lead to suboptimal decisions. Our research revolves around three main topics, which I will introduce together with our preliminary findings and future directions. 1. How irrational beliefs relate to cognitive abilities, thinking dispositions and cognitive biases. 2. How political/religious affiliation influences our reasoning about controversial topics. 3. How optimistic bias and overconfidence relate to irrationality.
(Utorok 20.10.2015 o 0:00)
prof. PhDr. Silvia Gáliková, CSc. (Filoz. ústav SAV a Filoz. fakulta Trnavskej univerzity) , domovská stránka
In contemporary science and theory the nature of human mind has been considered as one of the most difficult and complex problems. In my talk I intend to point out selected experiments and research strategies which contribute significantly to a better understanding of the working mechanisms of states of mind (out-of-body experience, depersonalisation, self-image, self-deception etc.). From the number of recent theoretical approaches I will be concerned with Metzinger's hypothesis on the „myth of the I“, Wegner's conception of the „illusion of conscious will“, Damasio's theory of „the self“. My claim about the existence of a profound asymmetry between introspectively experienced inner states and a theoretically plausible explanation of underlying causal processes will be demonstrated by novel data and findings from neurocognitive research and clinical cases of mind impairments (schizofrenia).
(Utorok 27.10.2015 o 0:00)
Mgr. Jana Bašnáková, MSc (Ústav exper. psychológie SAV v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
Even though language allows us to say exactly what we mean, we often use it to say things indirectly, in a way that depends on the specific communicative context. For example, we can use an apparently straightforward sentence like “It is hard to give a good presentation” to convey deeper meanings, like “Your talk was a mess!” One of the big puzzles in language science is how listeners work out what speakers really mean, which is a skill absolutely central to communication. However, most neuroimaging studies of language comprehension have focused on the arguably much simpler, context-independent process of understanding direct utterances. In this talk, I will present three fMRI studies that investigate how listeners process indirect replies in various contexts. I will also speak about the newly emerging field of neuropragmatics and what are its main topics and challenges.
(Utorok 03.11.2015 o 0:00)
Mgr. Ing. Roman Rosipal, PhD. (Ústav merania SAV v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
In this talk I will discuss novel neurorehabilitation training paradigm, including the electroencephalogram (EEG) biofeedback (neurofeedback) and mirror-neurons based training, aiming to less strictly and more unintentionally modulate sensory-motor-related brain oscillatory rhythms prior to the brain–computer interface (BCI) training procedure itself. In the context of testing the validity of mirror-neurons training and the neurofeedback training protocol improvement, I will discuss advanced multi-way EEG data analysis approaches allowing decomposing multichannel EEG into elementary components or “atoms” defining spatial, spectral and temporal sub-elements of EEG. Finally, I will report of experimental and analytical results obtained so far and I will discuss some further research directions.
(Utorok 10.11.2015 o 0:00)
prof. RNDr. Peter Sýkora, PhD. (Filozofická fakulta UCM v Trnave) , domovská stránka
Cognitive enhancement of man using neurochips, chemical substances or genetic manipulations are today the topics of important discussions on ethics. This year Chinese scientists published experiments, in which they, using a break-through novel method CRISPR/Cas 9 for the first time in history manipuled in a controlled way the DNA of the human embryo, which evoked a vigorous reaction in the scientific community. Are we standing at an onset of the new revolution when the human takes his biological evolution in his own hands? Have we stepped out toward a creation of a new, posthuman biological species?
(Utorok 24.11.2015 o 0:00)
MUDr. Igor Riečanský, PhD. (Ústav normálnej a patologickej fyziológie SAV v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
Cognitive processes are mediated by fast neuronal processes. Electrophysiological methods allow non-invasive monitoring of fast neural events at millisecond resolution. They provide a method to monitor spatio-temporal neural activation during information processing in the brain. In this presentation, I will discuss general principles, advantages and disadvantages of electroencephalogram (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERP) methodology with those of other neuroimaging techniques for studying cognitive brain processing. I will demonstrate selected examples of applying EEG/ERP methods in cognitive brain research.
(Utorok 01.12.2015 o 0:00)
prof. PaedDr. Zsolt Cséfalvay, PhD. (Katedra logopédie, PdF UK v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
Dementia is often manifested by language deficits, but this area has been largely unexplored in case of Slovak speaking patients. In the talk I will present our own battery of language tests, that we have used in case of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), and will briefly present preliminary results. Performance comparison of patients with various levels of AD and healthy subjects has shown that all compared groups significantly differed in sentence comprehension, whereas on the word level the performance differed significantly from normal only in case of the most severe level of AD, but in comprehension of isolated words we did not find significant differences between AD patients and healthy subjects. Results also point to the observation that even patients with a mild level of dementia perform significantly worse than healthy respondents in tasks involving on higher-level linguistic processing (grammatical processes).
(Utorok 08.12.2015 o 0:00)
prof. MUDr. Daniela Ostatníková, PhD. (Fyziologický ústav, LF UK v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
The talk will outline the processes of neural development of human central nervous system and its functional units during prenatal and postnatal life. The hierarchy of central regulatory systems and processing in relation to emotions and social cognition will be introduced. I will deal with the hormonal influence, particularly testosterone, on particular anatomical structures involved in cognition and its consequences on brain development and nervous functions resulting in communication deficits and disturbances in social behaviour. The results of our own research in healthy human individuals and in patients with autism will be discussed.
(Utorok 08.03.2016 o 0:00)
prof. RNDr. Ľubica Beňušková, PhD. (Centrum pre kognitívnu vedu KAI FMFI UK v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
Our previous modelling effort regarding the heterosynaptic plasticity was using the simple spiking model of neuron introduced by Izhikevich. We have achieved a good match with experimental data. However, we asked ourselves: Will our plasticity equations work also with a more realistic model of a neuron that includes the dendrites and variety of ion channels? It turns out that yes, they work and in addition, a more realistic model of a neuron allows us to relax some unrealistic assumptions from the previous models.
(Utorok 15.03.2016 o 0:00)
Mgr. Tomáš Kuzma (Centrum pre kognitívnu vedu KAI FMFI UK v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
In recent years, a great deal of the machine learning achievements involved deep neural networks, from excelling at visual recognition tasks to beating an expert player at Go. What is this phenomenon of “Deep Learning” and how does it relate to the artificial neural networks of the late 80s? In this talk, we will examine why deep neural networks are both powerful and challenging, and review some of the techniques that made them possible at first and impressive at last.
(Utorok 22.03.2016 o 0:00)
doc. RNDr. Mária Markošová, CSc. (Katedra aplikovanej informatiky FMFI UK v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
Complex networks research pursued at our department will be reviewed, together with very recent investigations of functional brain networks. Several studies such as network model of human language, hierarchy on the growing networks and connecting nearest neighbors model and its properties will be reviewed. Several models of functional brain networks and their correspondence to the real data will be presented.
(Utorok 05.04.2016 o 0:00)
Assoc. Prof. Marijan Palmovic, PhD. (Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Science, University of Zagreb) , domovská stránka
The method based on measuring event-related potentials (ERP) in the electrical activity of the brain will be discussed in studying language processing. The emphasis will be put on the experimental design. The limits of the most common design – the violation design – in language processing studies will be discussed and alternatives will be suggested and commented. Examples from the recent studies carried out in the Laboratory for Psycholinguistic Research in Zagreb will be illustrated.
(Utorok 12.04.2016 o 0:00)
Mgr. Ivor Uhliarik (Katedra aplikovanej informatiky FMFI UK v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
In this talk we will define the problem of extracting information from unstructured text and review the methods involved in the pipeline. In particular, we will introduce the topics of named entity recognition and relation extraction, discuss their purpose in the effort to construct ontologies, and give an overview of several approaches commonly used in the respective fields. Throughout the talk, we will identify the tasks required from both computer scientists and linguists.
(Utorok 19.04.2016 o 0:00)
MUDr. Mgr. Tomáš Hromádka, PhD. (Neuroimunologický ústav SAV, Bratislava)
Understanding the function of mammalian brain requires not only detailed observational methods, but also techniques that enable us to perturb brain activity. Given the complexity and heterogeneity of mammalian brain, however, the tools that would manipulate neuronal activity with the speed and precision matched to neural activity of living brains were not available. Relatively recent advances in molecular biology led to development of optogenetic tools, i.e. light-sensitive proteins that can control activity of single neurons. These tools can be targeted to defined subpopulations of neurons embedded in the complex and heterogeneous nervous tissue and function on spatial and temporal scales required for precise control of neuronal activity. I will introduce the field of optogenetics and demonstrate advantages and caveats of using optogenetic tools in control of neuronal activity, dissection of neuronal circuits in vivo, as well as controlling behavior of experimental animals.
(Utorok 26.04.2016 o 0:00)
RNDr. Barbora Cimrová, PhD. (Centrum pre kognitívnu vedu FMFI UK v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
Hemiparesis affects about 80 percent of stroke survivors, causing weakness or the inability to move one side of the body. The robot-assisted brain-computer interface (BCI) is a promising tool for stroke patients neurorehabilitation. One of the basic principle is to create the feedback loop based on motor imagery evoked brain signal used for controlling the device exercising patient’s own limb. Pre-training with EEG neuro-feedback and/or mirror-box training might help modulate sensory-motor-related brain oscillatory rhythms more easily and unintentionally. The talk will focus on practical aspects of these efforts observed during a longitudinal study with a paretic patient.
(Utorok 03.05.2016 o 0:00)
RNDr. Elena Šikudová, PhD. (Katedra aplikovanej informatiky FMFI UK v Bratislave) , domovská stránka
The understanding where people look is essential for many computer graphics and vision applications. Eye-tracking device can track the human gaze to identify salient areas in the scene. Without an eye-tracker, computational models of saliency can be used. These models are based on the biological bottom-up process of human visual system. In the talk, we will introduce these topics and present an overview of our projects.
(Utorok 17.05.2016 o 0:00)
prof. PhDr. Andrej Démuth, PhD. (Filozofická fakulta, Trnavská univerzita v Trnave) , domovská stránka
In my lecture I will focus on three types of cognitive research of beauty. The first one is to analyse the pleasure feelings (individual and subjective aspects vs. scientific research of the processes of feeling) and to show the main aspects of neuroaesthetics. The second line is to analyse the beauty via study of attractiveness of human body, faces and eyes. The last topic is focused on mathematical algorithm of aesthetical norms and possibility of using the eye-tracking for this kind of research.