Monday, July 14, 2014

Gary Marcus - The Trouble with Brain Science (On an Open Letter to the European Commission about the Human Brain Project)

http://press.princeton.edu/images/k10306.gif

Last week, more than 600 of the world's leading brain scientists, neuroscientists, and other brain researchers crafted and signed an open letter to the European Commission asking for changes in their funding agenda for the Human Brain Project, the European version of our own "Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies" project funded by the Obama administration. They pledge not to apply for or accept funding if the changes are not made (see the open letter below).

In the New York Times, neuroscientist Gary Marcus offered his comments on, and support for, this effort to change the research model away from a computational paradigm centered on creating a computer simulation of the human brain.

Among the 600+ signees are Chris Frith (UCL, London) and Giacomo Rizzolatti (Università di Parma, Italy).

The Trouble With Brain Science

By GARY MARCUS
JULY 11, 2014

Credit Tim Lahan

ARE WE EVER going to figure out how the brain works?

After decades of research, diseases like schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s still resist treatment. Despite countless investigations into serotonin and other neurotransmitters, there is still no method to cure clinical depression. And for all the excitement about brain-imaging techniques, the limitations of fMRI studies are, as evidenced by popular books like “Brainwashed” and “Neuromania,” by now well known. In spite of the many remarkable advances in neuroscience, you might get the sinking feeling that we are not always going about brain science in the best possible way.

This feeling was given prominent public expression on Monday, when hundreds of neuroscientists from all over the world issued an indignant open letter to the European Commission, which is funding the Human Brain Project, an approximately $1.6 billion effort that aims to build a complete computer simulation of the human brain. The letter charges that the project is “overly narrow” in approach and not “well conceived.” While no neuroscientist doubts that a faithful-to-life brain simulation would ultimately be tremendously useful, some have called the project “radically premature.” The controversy serves as a reminder that we scientists are not only far from a comprehensive explanation of how the brain works; we’re also not even in agreement about the best way to study it, or what questions we should be asking.

The European Commission, like the Obama administration, which is promoting a large-scale research enterprise called the Brain Initiative, is investing heavily in neuroscience, and rightly so. (A set of new tools such as optogenetics, which allows neuroscientists to control the activity of individual neurons, gives considerable reason for optimism.) But neither project has grappled sufficiently with a critical question that is too often ignored in the field: What would a good theory of the brain actually look like?

Different kinds of sciences call for different kinds of theories. Physicists, for example, are searching for a “grand unified theory” that integrates gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces into a neat package of equations. Whether or not they will get there, they have made considerable progress, in part because they know what they are looking for.

Biologists — neuroscientists included — can’t hope for that kind of theory. Biology isn’t elegant the way physics appears to be. The living world is bursting with variety and unpredictable complexity, because biology is the product of historical accidents, with species solving problems based on happenstance that leads them down one evolutionary road rather than another. No overarching theory of neuroscience could predict, for example, that the cerebellum (which is involved in timing and motor control) would have vastly more neurons than the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain most associated with our advanced intelligence).

But biological complexity is only part of the challenge in figuring out what kind of theory of the brain we’re seeking. What we are really looking for is a bridge, some way of connecting two separate scientific languages — those of neuroscience and psychology.

Such bridges don’t come easily or often, maybe once in a generation, but when they do arrive, they can change everything. An example is the discovery of DNA, which allowed us to understand how genetic information could be represented and replicated in a physical structure. In one stroke, this bridge transformed biology from a mystery — in which the physical basis of life was almost entirely unknown — into a tractable if challenging set of problems, such as sequencing genes, working out the proteins that they encode and discerning the circumstances that govern their distribution in the body.

Neuroscience awaits a similar breakthrough. We know that there must be some lawful relation between assemblies of neurons and the elements of thought, but we are currently at a loss to describe those laws. We don’t know, for example, whether our memories for individual words inhere in individual neurons or in sets of neurons, or in what way sets of neurons might underwrite our memories for words, if in fact they do.

The problem with both of the big brain projects is that too few of the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent are devoted to spanning this conceptual chasm. Both projects are making important contributions: the European effort is helping build infrastructure for data integration; the American project is emphasizing the development of state-of-the-art tools for collecting new kinds of data. But as anyone in a field richer in data than theory (like weather forecasting) can tell you, amassing data is only a start.

The success of both the Human Brain Project and the Brain Initiative will ultimately rest not just on the data to be collected but also on what can be done with those data once they are collected. On that, too little has been said.

~ Gary Marcus, a professor of psychology at New York University, is an editor of the forthcoming book “The Future of the Brain: Essays by the World’s Leading Neuroscientists.”
* * * * *

Here is the open letter to the EU concerning the Human Brain Project:

Open message to the European Commissionconcerning the Human Brain Project

July 7, 2014

We the undersigned members of the European neuroscience community are writing to express our concern with the course of the Human Brain Project (HBP). The HBP, and its cousin the U.S. BRAIN Initiative, have the noble goal of making major advances in our understanding of both normal and pathological brain function. Given the potentially enormous benefits to society that would be gained from achieving this goal, it deserves a significant collective investment of our societies’ resources.
However, the HBP has been controversial and divisive within the European neuroscience community from the beginning. Many laboratories refused to join the project when it was first submitted because of its focus on an overly narrow approach, leading to a significant risk that it would fail to meet its goals. Further attrition of members during the ramp-up phase added to this narrowing.

In June, a Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) for the second round of funding for the HBP was submitted. This, unfortunately, reflected an even further narrowing of goals and funding allocation, including the removal of an entire neuroscience subproject and the consequent deletion of 18 additional laboratories, as well as further withdrawals and the resignation of one member of the internal scientific advisory board.

A formal review of the HBP is now scheduled to evaluate the success of the project’s ramp-up phase and the plan for the next phase. At stake is funding on the order of 50M€ per year European Commission for the “core project” and 50M€ in “partnering projects” provided largely by the European member states’ funding bodies.

In this context, we wish to express the view that the HBP is not on course and that the European Commission must take a very careful look at both the science and the management of the HBP before it is renewed. We strongly question whether the goals and implementation of the HBP are adequate to form the nucleus of the collaborative effort in Europe that will further our understanding of the brain.
It is stated that the review must address the excellence, impact as well as the quality and efficiency of implementation. We believe that a review will show that there are substantial failures to meet these criteria, especially concerning the quality of the governance demonstrated and the lack of flexibility and openness of the consortium.

In order to carry out the upcoming review in the most transparent and accountable manner possible, we hold that it should meet the following criteria:
  • The panel should be composed of highly regarded members of the scientific community whose views reflect the diversity of approaches within neuroscience.
  • The review process should be transparent: review panel members identities should be disclosed and the goals, procedures and output of the review process should be public.
  • The panel should be independent: the members of the panel should not be involved in the development of, advocacy for, or governance of the HBP; they should provide a signed disclosure of any significant funding or scientific relationships to the HBP.
  • The EC must by regulation evaluate if the HBP is meeting the core criteria of the FET Flagship Project, including scientific excellence, impact and quality of implementation. We call attention to concerns raised by the sparse community support and systematic loss of HBP partners that appear highly relevant to the FET criteria of:
    • Extent to which the consortium enables fostering complementarities, exploiting synergies, and enhancing the overall outcome of regional, national, European and international research programmes.
    • Quality of the proposed governance and management structure.
    • Openness and flexibility of the consortium.
  • Based on this review, the panel should make binding recommendations concerning the continuation of the HBP as a whole as well as continuation of individual subprojects, including the allocation of resources across subprojects and the possible creation of new subprojects.
  • The panel should be tasked and empowered to create a transparent process for the formulation of the calls for partnering projects and the review of applications for those calls, such that these reflect community input, are coordinated with the core but are independent of the core administration.
  • One or more members of the panel should continue to serve as the core of an external steering committee for the period of the funding under review. These continuing members would need to be fully independent of the project (i.e. receiving no funding).
In the case that the review is not able to secure these objectives, we call for the European Commission and Member States to reallocate the funding currently allocated to the HBP core and partnering projects to broad neuroscience-directed funding to meet the original goals of the HBP—understanding brain function and its effect on society. We strongly support the mechanism of individual investigator-driven grants as a means to provide a much needed investment in European neuroscience research. The European Research Council would provide a well-proven mechanism for allocating such funds.

In the event that the European Commission is unable to adopt these recommendations, we, the undersigned, pledge not to apply for HBP partnering projects and will urge our colleagues to join us in this commitment.
  1. Moshe Abeles. Bar-Ilan University. Israel.
  2. Ad Aertsen. University of Freiburg. Germany.
  3. Silvia Arber. FMI. Switzerland.
  4. Philippe Ascher. University of Paris. France.
  5. Francesco Battaglia. Radboud Universiteit. Netherlands.
  6. Daphne Bavelier, University of Geneva. Switzerland.
  7. Heinz Beck. University of Bonn. Germany.
  8. James Bednar. University of Edinburgh. UK.
  9. Tim Behrens. Oxford University. UK.
  10. Suliann Ben Hamed. ISC Lyon. France.
  11. Benedikt Berninger. University Medical Center Mainz. Germany.
  12. Hugues Berry. INRIA. France.
  13. Matthias Bethge. University of Tuebingen. Germany.
  14. Timothy Bliss. MRC. UK.
  15. Vincent Bonin. NERF. Belgium.
  16. Jan Born. University of Tübingen. Germany.
  17. Axel Borst. MPI. Germany.
  18. Gerard Borst. Erasmus MC Rotterdam. Netherlands.
  19. Michael Brecht. BCCN.Germany.
  20. Nils Brose. MPI. Germany.
  21. Jo Bury. VIB. Belgium.
  22. Matteo Carandini. UCL. UK.
  23. Alan Carleton. University of Geneva. Switzerland.
  24. Pico Caroni. FMI. Switzerland. 
  25. Frederic Chavane. CNRS Marseille. France.
  26. Leonardo Chelazzi. University of Verona. Italy.
  27. Eugenia Chiappe. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  28. Albert Compte. IDIBAPS Barcelona. Spain.
  29. Rui Costa. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  30. Peter Dayan. University College of London. UK.
  31. Alexandre Dayer. University of Geneva. Switzerland.
  32. Gonzalo de Polavieja. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  33. Chris de Zeeuw. Erasmus MC, Rotterdam. Netherlands.
  34. Sophie Deneve. ENS. France.
  35. Winfried Denk. MPIMR Heidelberg. Germany.
  36. Mathew Diamond. SISSA. Italy.
  37. David DiGregorio. Institut Pasteur. France.
  38. Ray Dolan. UCL. UK. 
  39. Rodney Douglas. ETH. Switzerland.
  40. Andreas Draguhn. University of Heidelberg. Germany.
  41. Jean Rene Duhamel. ISC Lyon. France
  42. Thomas Euler. University of Tubingen. Germany.
  43. Karl Farrow. NERF. Belgium.
  44. Julia Fischer. Leibniz Institut fur Primatentforschung. Germany.
  45. Jozsef Fiser. CEU. Hungary.
  46. Tamar Flash. Weizmann Institute. Israel.
  47. Eckhard Friauf. University of Kaiserslautern. Germany.
  48. Rainer Friedrich. FMI. Switzerland.
  49. Pascal Fries. ESI and MPI. Germany.
  50. Chris Frith. UCL. London.
  51. Vittorio Gallese. University of Parma. Italy.
  52. Theo Geisel. MPI. Germany.
  53. Martin Giese. University of Tübingen. Germany.
  54. David Golomb, Ben-Gurion University, Israel.
  55. Lyle Graham. CNRS, U Paris Descartes. France.
  56. Boris Gutkin. ENS. France.
  57. Helmut Haas. University of Dusseldorf. Germany.
  58. Sebastian Haesler. NERF. Belgium.
  59. Richard Hahnloser. ETH. Switzerland.
  60. David Hansel. University of Paris. France.
  61. Riitta Hari. Aalto University. Finland.
  62. Ken Harris. UCL. UK.
  63. Michael Hausser. UCL. UK.
  64. Fritjof Helmchen. University of Zurich. Switzerland.
  65. Moritz Helmstaedter. MPI. Germany.
  66. Matthias Hennig. University of Edinburgh. UK.
  67. Sonja Hofer. University of Basel. Switzerland.
  68. Klaus-Peter Hoffmann. Ruhr University Bochum. Germany.
  69. Daniel Huber. University of Geneva. Switzerland.
  70. Denis Jabaudon. University of Geneva. Switzerland.
  71. Reinhard Jahn. MPIMR. Germany.
  72. Peter Janssen. KU Leuven. Belgium.
  73. Sebastian Jessberger. University of Zurich. Switzerland.
  74. Adam Kampff. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  75. Jason Kerr. Caesar. Germany.
  76. Jozsef Kiss. University of Geneva. Switzerland.
  77. Fabian Kloosterman. NERF. Belgium.
  78. Etienne Koechlin. ENS. France.
  79. Arvind Kumar. University of Freiburg. Germany.
  80. Peter Latham. UCL. UK.
  81. Gilles Laurent. MPI Frankfurt. Germany.
  82. Mate Lengyel. Cambridge University. UK.
  83. Juan Lerma Gomez. Instituto de Neurociencias Alicante. Spain.
  84. Susana Lima. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  85. Nikos Logothetis. MPI Tübingen. Germany.
  86. Matthieu Louis. CRG. Spain.
  87. Heiko Luhmann. University Medical Center Mainz. Germany.
  88. Giuseppe Luppino. University of Parma. Italy.
  89. Andreas Luthi. FMI. Switzerland.
  90. Christian Machens. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  91. Zachary Mainen. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  92. Rafael Malach. Weizmann Institute. Israel.
  93. Miguel Maravall. Instituto de Neurociencias Alicante. Spain.
  94. Troy Margrie. NIMR. UK.
  95. Kevan Martin. ETH. Switzerland.
  96. Guillaume Masson. CNRS Marseille. France.
  97. Gero Miesenboeck. Oxford. UK.
  98. Marta Moita. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  99. Edvard Moser. Kavli Institute. Norway.
  100. May-Britt Moser. Kavli Institute. Norway.
  101. Tom Mrsic-Flogel. University of Basel. Switzerland.
  102. Andreas Neef. MPIMR. Germany.
  103. Israel Nelken. Hebrew University. Israel.
  104. Stephan Neuhauss. University of Zurich. Switzerland.
  105. Andreas Nieder. University of Tübingen. Germany.
  106. Hendrikje Nienborg. University of Tübingen. Germany.
  107. Zoltan Nusser. Institute of Experimental Medicine. Hungary.
  108. Guy Orban. University of Parma. Italy.
  109. Christophe Pallier, CNRS-INSERM, Paris-Saclay, France
  110. Stefano Panzeri. Italian Institute of Technology. Italy.
  111. Rony Paz. Weizmann Institute. Israel.
  112. Barak Pearlmutter. NUI Maynooth. Ireland.
  113. Mathias Pessiglione. ICM. France.
  114. Chris Petkov. Newcastle University. UK.
  115. Leopoldo Petreanu. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  116. Alexandre Pouget. University of Geneva. Switzerland.
  117. Martin Raff. UCL. UK.
  118. Alfonso Renart. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  119. Giacomo Rizzolatti. Università di Parma. Italy.
  120. David Robbe. INMED. France.
  121. Botond Roska. FMI. Switzerland.
  122. Stefan Rotter. University of Freiburg. Germany.
  123. Nava Rubin. ICREA and DTIC, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Spain.
  124. Simon Rumpel. IMP. Austria.
  125. Matthew Rushworth. University of Oxford. UK.
  126. Stefan Schaal. MPI. Germany.
  127. Andreas Schaefer. NIMR UCL. UK
  128. Peter Scheiffele. University of Basel. Switzerland.
  129. Elad Schneidman. Weizmann Institute. Israel.
  130. Jan Schnupp. University of Oxford. UK.
  131. Bernhard Scholkopf. MPI Tübingen. Germany.
  132. Erin Schuman. MPI Frankfurt. Germany.
  133. Martin Schwab. University of Zurich. Switzerland.
  134. Cornelius Schwarz. University of Tuebingen. Germany.
  135. Sophie Schwartz. University of Geneva.Switzerland.
  136. Peggy Series. University of Edinburgh. UK.
  137. Noam Shemesh. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal.
  138. Oren Shriki. Ben Gurion University. Israel.
  139. Angus Silver. UCL. UK.
  140. Angela Sirigu. ISC Lyon. France.
  141. Haim Sompolinsky. Hebrew University. Israel. 
  142. Walter Stuhmer. MPI. Germany.
  143. German Sumbre. ENS, France.
  144. Alexandre Thiele. Newcastle University. UK.
  145. Peter Thier. University of Tübingen. Germany.
  146. Simon Thorpe. CNRS Toulouse. France.
  147. Alessandro Treves. SISSA. Italy.
  148. Nachum Ulanovsky. Weizmann Institute. Israel.
  149. Wim Vanduffel. KU Leuven. Belgium.
  150. Rufin Vogels. KU Leuven. Belgium.
  151. Patrik Vuilleumier. University of Geneva. Switzerland. 
  152. Felix Wichmann. University of Tuebingen. Germany.
  153. David Willshaw. University of Edinburgh.UK.
  154. Fred Wolf. MPI Göttingen. Germany. 
  155. Daniel Wolpert. Cambridge University. UK.
  156. Emre Yaksi. NERF. Belgium.

The open letter was sent to the EC at 07/07/2014, 00:00. All signatures listed above were received prior to that time and so were included in the letter. The signatures below are listed by time of registration. 
  1. Hugues Berry. INRIA. France
  2. Aldo Faisal. Imperial College London. United Kingdom
  3. Simon Schultz. Imperial College London. United Kingdom
  4. Sofie Valk. MPI. Germany
  5. Nick Franks. Imperial College. United Kingdom
  6. Alex Gomez-Marin. Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. Portugal
  7. Michael Orger. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  8. Jean-Marc Fritschy. University of Zurich. Switzerland
  9. Daniele Marinazzo. University of Gent. Belgium
  10. Cyrille Rossant. UCL. United Kingdom
  11. Jon Simons. University of Cambridge. United Kingdom
  12. Srdjan Ostojic. ENS Paris. France
  13. Wouter De Baene. Ghent University. Belgium
  14. Maria Luisa Vasconcelos. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  15. Paul Chadderton. Imperial College London. United Kingdom
  16. Bernd Sutor. University of Munich. Germany
  17. Carlos Ribeiro. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  18. Konrad Kording. Northwestern University. United States
  19. Jochen Staiger. University Medicine Goettinge. Germany
  20. Jan Zimmermann. Maastricht University. Netherlands
  21. Martina Wicklein. Imperial College London. United Kingdom
  22. John van Opstal. Radboud University Nijmegen. Netherlands
  23. Marc van Wanrooij. Radboud University Nijmegen. Netherlands
  24. Tomas Ros. University of Geneva. Switzerland
  25. Pierre-Alexandre Klein. Université catholique de Louvain. Belgium
  26. Stefano Ferraina. Sapienza University . Italy
  27. Robert Dickinson. Imperial College London. United Kingdom
  28. Davide Zoccolan. SISSA. Italy
  29. Georg Keller. Friedrich Miescher Institute. Switzerland
  30. David Poeppel. Max-Planck-Institute, NYU. Germany
  31. Claudio Luzzatti. Università di Milano-Bicocca. Italy
  32. Natalie Sebanz. Central European University. Hungary
  33. Federica Bianca Rosselli. SISSA. Italy
  34. George Dimitriadis. Radboud University. Netherlands
  35. Guenther Knoblich. Central European University. Hungary
  36. Douglas Steele. University of Dundee. United Kingdom
  37. Giorgio Gilestro. Imperial College London. United Kingdom
  38. Sina Tafazoli. SISSA. Italy
  39. Mark Humphries. University of Manchester. United Kingdom
  40. Rainer Engelken. MPI DS. Germany
  41. Roger Carpenter. University of Cambridge, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience. United Kingdom
  42. Ahmed El Hady. Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. Germany
  43. Richard van Wezel. Radboud University Nijmegen. Netherlands
  44. Stefan Treue. German Primate Center. Germany
  45. Ivan Raikov. Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Japan
  46. Carl van Vreeswijk. CNRS. France
  47. Dirk Kamin. MPI. Germany
  48. Job van den Hurk. KU Leuven. Belgium
  49. Christian Schnell. Cardiff University. United Kingdom
  50. Yves Trotter. CNRS. France
  51. Arnaud Delorme. CNRS. France
  52. Megan Carey. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  53. Joseph Paton. Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. Portugal
  54. Benoît Girard. CNRS & UPMC. France
  55. Egemen Konu. University of Nottingham. United Kingdom
  56. Ronald Garduno. University of New Mexico. United States
  57. Detlev Schild. Univ Göttingen. Germany
  58. Henry Kennedy. INSERM. France
  59. Umberto Castiello. University of Padova. Italy
  60. Miguel Coelho. Movimento ao Serviço da Vida. Portugal
  61. Raul Gainetdinov. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. Italy
  62. Gagan Sidhu. N/A. Canada
  63. Loren Looger. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus. United States
  64. Marco Guenza. Università degli Studi di Torino. Italy
  65. Hilary King. Retired ENAIP. United Kingdom
  66. Thomas Kreuz. CNR. Italy
  67. David Attwell. UCL. United Kingdom
  68. Anna Kuppuswamy. UCL. United Kingdom
  69. Chiara Begliomini. Dept. General Psychology, University of Padova. Italy
  70. Vahid Esmaeili. SISSA. Italy
  71. Alessandro Di Filippo. SISSA. Italy
  72. Charles Capaday. Paris V. France
  73. Laszlo Negyessy. Wigner RCP, Hungarian Academy of Sciences . Hungary
  74. Timothy O'Leary. Brandeis University. United States
  75. Sofia Soares. Champalimaud Centre for the Unkown. Portugal
  76. Ana Vasconcelos. HSM-CHLN. Portugal
  77. Rosa Garcia-Verdugo. MPI. Germany
  78. Irini Skaliora. Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens. Greece
  79. Gil Costa. Champalimaud Foundation. Portugal
  80. Francois Genoud. University of Vienna. Austria
  81. Aman Saleem. UCL. United Kingdom
  82. Pascal Belin. Aix-Marseille University. France
  83. Sara A Solla. Northwestern University. United States
  84. Catherine Tallon-Baudry. Ecole Normale Supérieure. France
  85. Catarina Seabra. University of Porto. Portugal
  86. Jens Kremkow. State University of New York College of Optometry . United States
  87. Hans-Peter Frey. Columbia University. United States
  88. Michael Gutnick. The Hebrew University. Israel
  89. Andras Lakatos. University of Cambridge. United Kingdom
  90. Michael P. I. Becker. University of Muenster. Germany
  91. Ulrich Leischner. Leibniz-Institute of Photonic Technologies. Germany
  92. Dante Chialvo. CONICET. Argentina
  93. Shervin Safavi. MPI Tübingen. Germany
  94. Catarina Carona. I3S. Portugal
  95. Bence Ölveczky. Harvard University. United States
  96. Andrew Straw. IMP. Austria
  97. Lyle Long. Penn State Univ.. United States
  98. Simion Pruna. Institute "Prof. N. Paulescu". Romania
  99. Tod Thiele. Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology. Germany
  100. Tomas Hromadka. Slovak Academy of Sciences. Slovakia
  101. Stephen Eglen. University of Cambridge. United Kingdom
  102. Tansu Celikel. Radboud University Nijmegan. Netherlands
  103. Curtis Moshay. SynergyED™.org. United States
  104. Igor Kagan. German Primate Center. Germany
  105. Daniel Bendor. UCL. United Kingdom
  106. Richard Born. Harvard Medical School. United States
  107. Gasper Tkacik. IST Austria. Austria
  108. Maneesh Sahani. UCL. United Kingdom
  109. Vikram Chib. Johns Hopkins University. United States
  110. Rava Azeredo da Silveira. Ecole Normale Supérieure. France
  111. Hakwan Lau. UCLA. United States
  112. Taha Yasseri. University of Oxford. United Kingdom
  113. David Brito. University of Coimbra. Portugal
  114. Duda Kvitsiani. Cold Spring Harbor Labs. United States
  115. Zoltan Toroczkai. University of Notre Dame. United States
  116. Laurence Hunt. UCL. United Kingdom
  117. Emmanuel Procyk. CNRS. France
  118. John Huguenard. Stanford University. United States
  119. Stephen Coombes. University of Nottingham. United Kingdom
  120. Leon Lagnado. University of Sussex. United Kingdom
  121. Claudia Freire. Universidad A Coruna . Spain
  122. Duje Tadin. University of Rochester. United States
  123. Jean-Pierre Nadal. CNRS & EHESS. France
  124. Masahito Yamagata. Harvard University. United States
  125. Nathaniel Daw. New York University. United States
  126. Mir-Shahram Safari. Brain Science Institute, RIKEN. Japan
  127. Philippe Millet. University of Geneva. Switzerland
  128. Michael Bale. Instituto de Neurociencias Alicante UMH-CSIC. Spain
  129. Andreas Roepstorff. Aarhus University. Denmark
  130. André Mouraux. Université catholique de Louvain. Belgium
  131. Herc Neves. Uppsala University. Sweden
  132. ROBERTO COLOM. UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID. Spain
  133. Louis-Marie PLUMEL. Idiap Research Institute. Switzerland
  134. Walter Paulus. Herr. Germany
  135. Ryota Kanai. University of Sussex. United Kingdom
  136. Kanchana Pandian. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. India
  137. Hugo Cook. DePaul University. United States
  138. Boris Chagnaud. LMU Munich. Germany
  139. laurent cohen. ICM. France
  140. Roberto Livi. University of Florence. Italy
  141. Annycke xavier. in vivo brain. France
  142. Alessandro Villa. University of Lausanne. Switzerland
  143. Alessandro Torcini. Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Italy
  144. Leszek Kaczmarek . Nencki Institute. Poland
  145. Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo. Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Spain
  146. yehezkel ben-ari. iNSERM. France
  147. Oliver Schlüter. European Neuroscience Institute. Germany
  148. Oscar Marin. King's College London. United Kingdom
  149. Bert Kappen. Radboud University. Netherlands
  150. Robert Hickman. Institute of Molecular Biology. Austria
  151. Mark Hübener. MPI. Germany
  152. Marcus Kaiser. Newcastle University. United Kingdom
  153. Giovanni Galizia. Universität Konstanz. Germany
  154. Antony Morland. University of York. United Kingdom
  155. Flor Kusnir. University of Glasgow. United Kingdom
  156. Fabian Sinz. University Tuebingen. Germany
  157. Tim Gollisch. University Medical Center Göttingen. Germany
  158. Dori Derdikman. Technion. Israel
  159. Alexander Attinger. FMI. Switzerland
  160. Alex Wade. University of York. United Kingdom
  161. Rosalina Fonseca. Gulbenkian Institute of Science. Portugal
  162. Wim Melis. University of Greenwich. United Kingdom
  163. Thomas Wiecki. Brown University. Germany
  164. Brent Doiron. University of Pittsburgh. United States
  165. Bernd Porr. University of Glasgow. United Kingdom
  166. Dave Langers. University of Nottingham. United Kingdom
  167. Marco Manca. SCImPULSE Foundation. Switzerland
  168. Rob Campbell. University of Basel. Switzerland
  169. vincent torre. SISSA. Italy
  170. Stijn Michielse. Maastricht University. Netherlands
  171. maysam oladazimi. center of integrative neuroscience . Germany
  172. Daniele Zullino. University Geneva. Switzerland
  173. Joost Dessing. Queen's University Belfast. United Kingdom
  174. Izumi Fukunaga. NIMR. United Kingdom
  175. Theofanis Panagiotaropoulos. Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. Germany
  176. Boris B. Quednow. University of Zurich. Switzerland
  177. Peter Smittenaar. UCL. United Kingdom
  178. Robert van Beers. VU University Amsterdam. Netherlands
  179. Ho Ko. University College London, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong
  180. Miloud Hadj Achour. IUSTI. France
  181. Molly Crockett. University of Oxford. United Kingdom
  182. Evelyne Sernagor. Newcastle university. United Kingdom
  183. Bertram Gerber. Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology. Germany
  184. Claire Wyart. Inserm/ICM. France
  185. Alia Benali. University of Tuebingen. Germany.. Germany
  186. Jaime de la Rocha. IDIBAPS. Spain
  187. Stephen Brickley. Imperial College London. United Kingdom
  188. Eva BONDA. NeuroAIsthesis. France
  189. Marc Toussaint. University of Stuttgart. Germany
  190. Emilio Palomares. ICIQ. Spain
  191. Yael Niv. Princeton university. United States
  192. David Brown. UCL. United Kingdom
  193. Maria-Magdolna Ercsey-Ravasz. Babes-Bolyai University. Romania
  194. Diogo Trigo. King's College London. United Kingdom
  195. Dennis Goldschmidt. ETH/University of Zurich. Switzerland
  196. Alexander Ecker. University of Tübingen. Germany
  197. Rosario Sanchez Pernaute. Inbiomed Foundation. Spain
  198. Kenneth Knoblauch. Inserm U846, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute. France
  199. Michael Nitsche. University Medical Center, Goettingen. Germany
  200. Christian Plewnia. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen. Germany
  201. Garikoitz Azkona. University of Barcelona. Spain
  202. Maria-Rosario Luquin. University of Navarra . Spain
  203. David Omer. MPI. Germany
  204. Simon Baumann. Newcastle University. United Kingdom
  205. Hugo van den Berg. Warwick University. United Kingdom
  206. Matt Smear. University of Oregon. United States
  207. Benoit Scherrer. Harvard Medical School. United States
  208. Lionel Naccache. ICM. France
  209. Claudia Feierstein. Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. Portugal
  210. Raiko Stephan. FMI. Switzerland
  211. Caitlin Johnston. Arizona State University. United States
  212. William Harris. University of Cambridge. United Kingdom
  213. Torsten Fregin. AWI. Germany
  214. Matthias Kaschube. FIAS. Germany
  215. Peter beim Graben. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Germany
  216. Wolfger von der Behrens. University and ETH Zurich. Switzerland
  217. Marco Pelizzone. University of Geneva. Switzerland
  218. Peter Roberts. University of Bristol. United Kingdom
  219. Nouchine Hadjikhani. Harvard University. United States
  220. Marco Lanzilotto. University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Italy
  221. Regina Dahlhaus. FAU. Germany
  222. Leon Fonville. King's College London. United Kingdom
  223. Bernard Scott. Center for Sociocybernetics Research,Bonn. United Kingdom
  224. Michele Guerra. University of Parma. Italy
  225. Peter Bremen. Radboud University. Netherlands
  226. Petko Kiriazov. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Bulgaria
  227. Serafim Rodrigues. Plymouth University. United Kingdom
  228. Menno Witter. Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Norway
  229. Nicolas canil. maison de Lauberiviere. Canada
  230. Carsten Mehring. University of Freiburg. Germany
  231. Stefan Kiebel. TU Dresden. Germany
  232. John Wood. UCL. United Kingdom
  233. Cyril Monier. CNRS. France
  234. Marc Spehr. RWTH Aachen University. Germany
  235. Timothy Verstynen. Carnegie Mellon University. United States
  236. Frank Kirchhoff. University of Saarland. Germany
  237. Georg Nagel. Univ. Wuerzburg. Germany
  238. Alessandra Lintas. University of Lausanne. Switzerland
  239. Gaia Novarino. IST Austria. Austria
  240. Dongsung Huh. Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL. United Kingdom
  241. Emmanuel Klinger. MPI. Germany
  242. Peter Kirsch. University of Heidelberg. Germany
  243. Jan Benda. University Tuebingen. Germany
  244. Klaas Enno Stephan. University of Zurich & ETH Zurich. Switzerland
  245. Luis Miguel Martinez. Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante. Spain
  246. Manuel Berning. MPI. Germany
  247. teresa gimenez barbat. tercera cultura. Spain
  248. Daniela Martínez de la Mora. Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Spain
  249. Judit Makara. IEM. Hungary
  250. Ludovic Righetti. MPI. Germany
  251. Vishal Kapoor. MPI Tübingen. Germany.. Germany
  252. Shawn Mikula. MPI. Germany
  253. naomi middelmann. private citizen. Switzerland
  254. Ines de Vega. Ludwig Maximilian University Munich. Germany
  255. Maria José Rodrigo. University of La laguna. Spain
  256. Julian Anslinger. Freelancer. Austria
  257. Patrick Becker. Humboldt-University, Berlin. Germany
  258. Steven Rose. Open University. United Kingdom
  259. Manuel de Vega. University of La Laguna. Spain
  260. Boris Kotchoubey. University of Tübingen. Germany
  261. Manuela Piazza. Inserm. France
  262. Ahmed Hisham Gardoh. Radboud university Nijmegen. Netherlands
  263. Romain Franconville. Janelia Farm Research Campus (HHMI). United States
  264. Jonny Kohl. Harvard University. United States
  265. Javier Diaz-Nido. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Spain
  266. Robert Hindges. Kings College London. United Kingdom
  267. Urs Köster. UC Berkeley. United States
  268. Antonio Rangel. Caltech. United States
  269. Heliodoro Ruiperez. Retired. Spain
  270. José M. Delgado-García. Universidad Pablo de Olavide. Spain
  271. Helga Müller. Stadtschulrat für Wien. Austria
  272. Wolfram Schultz. University of Cambridge. United Kingdom
  273. Robert Bauer. Translational Neurosurgery. Germany
  274. Friedrich Johenning. Charité University Medicine Berlin. Germany
  275. Manuel Pastor. Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Spain
  276. Christine Tardif. Max-Planck-Institute for Human Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Germany
  277. Albert Costa. ICREA- Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Spain
  278. Núria Sebastián Gallés. Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Spain
  279. Jonas Obleser. Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Germany
  280. Philipp Kanske. Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Germany
  281. Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz. INSERM. France
  282. Olivier Coulon. CNRS. France
  283. Ernst Fehr. University of Zurich. Switzerland
  284. Christopher Steele. Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Germany
  285. Dierk Reiff. University Freiburg. Germany
  286. Hilke Plassmann. ENS / INSEAD. France
  287. Anton Sirota. Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München. Germany
  288. Alon Korngreen. Bar-Ilan University. Israel
  289. Izhar Bar-Gad. Bar-Ilan University. Israel
  290. dieter swandulla. university of bonn. Germany
  291. Ramon Carbo-Dorca. University of Girona. Spain
  292. Agnès Gruart. Pablo de Olavide University. Spain
  293. Antoni Valero-Cabré. CNRS UMR 7225 - ICM. France
  294. Aishwarya Nair. University of Osnabruck. Germany
  295. Lars Nyberg. Umeå University. Sweden
  296. Tobias Rose. Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology. Germany
  297. Tor Syvertsen. Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Norway
  298. Enrique Sánchez González. Ciber-Seguridad GITS Informática - España. Spain
  299. Joachim Funke. Departm. of Psychology, Heidelberg University. Germany
  300. Jonathan Bradley. INSERM. France
  301. Ricardo Cruz. swissvirtual. Switzerland
  302. Salvatore Fara. Bernstein Center Freiburg. Germany
  303. thierry Pozzo. INSERM. France
  304. Carlos Moreno García. Farmacia de Jauja. Spain
  305. Ursula Pia Jauch. University of Zurich. Switzerland
  306. Veronica Egger. Regensburg University. Germany
  307. Björn Friedrich. Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology. Germany
  308. Sarah Jessen. MPI CBS. Germany
  309. Michael Hörner. European Neuroscience Institute Göttingen. Germany
  310. Laurent Lescaudron . Universty of Nantes. France
  311. Giacomo Indiveri. University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. Switzerland
  312. Mario Gomes-Pereira. INSERM. France
  313. Tonia Rihs. University of Geneva. Switzerland
  314. Bruno Sevennec. CNRS. France
  315. Julien Lefèvre. Aix-Marseille Université. France
  316. Matthew Nelson. INSERM. France
  317. Eberhard von Goldammer. FH Dortmund. Germany
  318. Constanze Lenschow. Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience. Germany
  319. Jyi Han Seng. UCSI University. Malaysia
  320. Roger Traub. IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. United States
  321. Marc Fisher. Tulane University. United States
  322. Fabio Meneghini. SISSA. Italy
  323. Dilek DEMIR. TU Wien . Austria
  324. Jacob Duijnhouwer. Radboud University Nijmegen. United States
  325. Pavel Itskov. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  326. Jacques Bourg. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  327. Carolina Doran. Champalimaud Foundation & University of Bristol. Portugal
  328. Rosa Cossart. INSERM. France
  329. Maria Vicente. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  330. Houman Safaai. Italian Institute of Technology. Italy
  331. Kobi Rosenblum. University of Haifa. Israel
  332. andrea burgalossi. University of Tübingen. Germany
  333. Francisco Romero. Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. Spain
  334. Roberto Medina. Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. Portugal
  335. michel dulcire. CIRAD. France
  336. Uwe Straehle. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology . Germany
  337. Ignacio Ozcariz. Recol. Spain
  338. Vasco Galhardo. Fac Medicina - Universidade do Porto. Portugal
  339. Charles Gray. Montana State University. United States
  340. Tiago Monteiro. Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. Portugal
  341. Jozsef Somogyi. retired. Hungary
  342. Heinrich Betz. Max-Planck Institute. Germany
  343. Jean-Pierre Mothet. CNRS. France
  344. Sara Matias. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  345. Andrew Latto. Latto. United States
  346. Christian H. Uhlig. Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg. Germany
  347. Sebastian Schwaab. FH Köln. Germany
  348. Stephan Bohlhalter. University of Bern. Switzerland
  349. Orly Reiner. Weizmann Institute of Science. Israel
  350. Julien Colomb. Hu berlin. Germany
  351. Manuel Riquelme. UTHSCSA. United States
  352. Steffen Kandler. NERF. Belgium
  353. Nader Nikbakht. SISSA. Italy
  354. Stacy Dalton. JHU. United States
  355. Gabriel McKinsey. University of California San Francisco. United States
  356. José Ribas Fernandes. University of Victoria. Canada
  357. Stephen Jackson. Univerity of Nottinghm. United Kingdom
  358. Bjoern Andres. MPI Informatics. Germany
  359. Matthias Munk. MPI. Germany
  360. Vinzenz Schönfelder. SISSA | Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati. Italy
  361. Clara Ferreira. Oxford University. United Kingdom
  362. Detlef Wegener. University of Bremen. Germany
  363. Yves Moreau. University of Leuven. Belgium
  364. Patrick Barland. Academia.edu. Spain
  365. Miriam Klein-Flügge. UCL. United Kingdom
  366. Zoltan Nadasdy. Eotvos Lorand University, NeuroTexas Institute, University of Texas. Hungary
  367. Peter Bossaerts. University of Melbourne. Australia
  368. Eduardo Dias-Ferreira. The Rockefeller University. United States
  369. Linas Vilciauskas. New York University. United States
  370. Merlin Lange. RIKEN. Japan
  371. Gabriel Griesser. CIFOM-ET. Switzerland
  372. Raphael Massarelli. University of Lyon. France
  373. Wolfram Kawohl. University of Zurich. Switzerland
  374. Arthur Leblois. CNRS. France
  375. Béchir Jarraya. NeuroSpin. France
  376. Günter Windau. Radboud University. Netherlands
  377. Patrick Ruther. University of Freiburg. Germany
  378. Carlos Gómez-Ariza. Universidad de Jaen. Spain
  379. Paul Dean. Univeristy of Sheffield. United Kingdom
  380. Boris Velichkovsky. Technical University Dresden, TUD. Germany
  381. Rodrigo Abreu. Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal. Portugal
  382. Brigitte Chamak. U. Paris Descartes. France
  383. Eric Everschor. Psychotherapeutische Praxis. Germany
  384. Magor Lorincz. University of Szeged. Hungary
  385. Bassam Atallah. Fundacao Champalimaud. Portugal
  386. Steffen Scholpp. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Germany
  387. Bahadir Kasap. Radboud University Nijmegen. Netherlands
  388. Floris de Lange. Radboud University Nijmegen. Netherlands
  389. Peter Redgrave. University of Sheffield. United Kingdom
  390. Luis Carretie. Laboratorio de Neurociencia cognitiva y afectiva, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Spain
  391. Hans Scherberger. University of Göttingen. Germany
  392. Stephan van Gils. University of Twwente. Netherlands
  393. Simone Lackner. Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. Portugal
  394. Tony Prescott. University of Sheffield. United Kingdom
  395. Herbert Jaeger. Jacobs University Bremen. Germany
  396. Luuk van de Rijt. Radboudumc, biophysics. Netherlands
  397. Erwan Bezard. Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases. France
  398. Yael Amitai. Ben-Gurion University. Israel
  399. Wim Crusio. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. France
  400. Xurxo Mariño. University of A Coruña. Spain
  401. Ilan Lampl. Weizmann Institut. Israel
  402. Jean Petitot. CAMS-EHESS. France
  403. Krishna Kishore. University of Michigan. United States
  404. Martial Van der Linden. University of Geneva. Switzerland
  405. Vincent Croset. University of Oxford. United Kingdom
  406. Andrew Matus. FMI. Switzerland
  407. Benedetto De Martino. Cambridge University . United Kingdom
  408. Ana Amaral. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  409. Inna Slutsky. Tel Aviv University. Israel
  410. Madalena Fonseca. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  411. John Anderson. University of Toronto. Canada
  412. Yuri Alexandrov. Institute of psychology RAS. Russia
  413. Lukasz Kaczmarek. Adam Mickiewicz University. Poland
  414. Marco Schieppati. University of Pavia. Italy
  415. Mike Hemberger. Max Planck Insitute for Brain Research. Germany
  416. Stéphane Viollet. CNRS - Aix Marseile University. France
  417. Franck RUFFIER. CNRS, Aix-Marseille University. France
  418. Michel Imbert. Ecole normale supérieure. France
  419. Jonathan Roiser. UCL. United Kingdom
  420. David Higgins. Ecole Normale Superieure. France
  421. Antonio Javier Pons Rivero. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Spain
  422. Ronald Welz. WDS Technologies SA. Switzerland
  423. Pietro Vertechi. Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. Portugal
  424. Emma Cahill. University of Cambridge. United Kingdom
  425. Tatiana Chernigovskaya. St. Petersburg State University. Russia
  426. Elena Amenedo. University of Santiago de Compostela. Spain
  427. David Holcman. Ecole Normale Superieure. France
  428. Quentin Huys. University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. Switzerland
  429. ronald oosting. utrecht university. Netherlands
  430. Gabriel Madirolas. Instituto Cajal, CSIC. Spain
  431. Dani Martí. ENS, INSERM. France
  432. Wim Fias. Ghent University. Belgium
  433. Joana Nogueira. Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown . Portugal
  434. Valentin Wyart. Inserm / Ecole Normale Superieure. France
  435. Michael Suchocki. individual. Canada
  436. Mathieu Desroches. Inria. France
  437. Etienne Herzog. CNRS. France
  438. Hedi Young. Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Portugal
  439. Nachiket Kashikar. University of Sussex. United Kingdom
  440. Gordon Pipa. University Osnabrück. Germany
  441. Kae Nakamura. Kansai Medical University. Japan
  442. Javier Cudeiro. University of A Coruña. Spain
  443. Paula Maria Fuertes. Psychology. Spain
  444. Fabio Simoes de Souza. Institute of Molecular Medicine. Portugal
  445. Hazem Toutounji. Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück. Germany
  446. Kenneth Miller. Columbia University. United States
  447. Ben Seymour. University of Cambridge. United Kingdom
  448. Renee Bleau. University of Glasgow. United Kingdom
  449. Barry Dickson. HHMI. United States
  450. Wolfgang Robinig. University of Graz. Austria
  451. Foteini Vlachou. Instituto de História da Arte, Faculdade das Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Portugal
  452. JP hugnot. inserm. France
  453. David Gall. Université Libre de Bruxelles. Belgium
  454. Herwig Baier. Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology. Germany

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