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DESCRIPTION:Brain-Wide Compositionality and Learning Dynamics in Biological
  Agents\n\nKanaka Rajan\, Harvard University\n	Tuesday January 21\, 12-1pm
 \n	Zoom Link: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/89914150820\n	In Person: 550 Sherbroo
 ke\, Room 189\n	\n	Abstract: Biological agents continually reconcile the int
 ernal states of their brain circuits with incoming sensory and environment
 al evidence to evaluate when and how to act. The brains of biological agen
 ts\, including animals and humans\, exploit many evolutionary innovations\
 , chiefly modularity—observable at the level of anatomically-defined brain
  regions\, cortical layers\, and cell types among others—that can be repur
 posed in a compositional manner to endow the animal with a highly flexible
  behavioral repertoire. Accordingly\, their behaviors show their own modul
 arity\, yet such behavioral modules seldom correspond directly to traditio
 nal notions of modularity in brains. It remains unclear how to link neural
  and behavioral modularity in a compositional manner. We propose a compreh
 ensive framework—compositional modes—to identify overarching compositional
 ity spanning specialized submodules\, such as brain regions. Our framework
  directly links the behavioral repertoire with distributed patterns of pop
 ulation activity\, brain-wide\, at multiple concurrent spatial and tempora
 l scales.\n	Using whole-brain recordings of zebrafish brains\, we introduce
  an unsupervised pipeline based on neural network models\, constrained by 
 biological data\, to reveal highly conserved compositional modes across in
 dividuals despite the naturalistic (spontaneous or task-independent) natur
 e of their behaviors. These modes provided a scaffolding for other modes t
 hat account for the idiosyncratic behavior of each fish. We then demonstra
 te experimentally that compositional modes can be manipulated in a consist
 ent manner by behavioral and pharmacological perturbations. Our results de
 monstrate that even natural behavior in different individuals can be decom
 posed and understood using a relatively small number of neurobehavioral mo
 dules—the compositional modes—and elucidate a compositional neural basis o
 f behavior. This approach aligns with recent progress in understanding how
  reasoning capabilities and internal representational structures develop o
 ver the course of learning or training\, offering insights into the modula
 rity and flexibility in artificial and biological agents.\n
DTSTART:20250121T170000Z
DTEND:20250121T180000Z
SUMMARY:QLS Seminar Series - Kanaka Rajan
URL:https://www.mcgill.ca/channels/channels/event/qls-seminar-series-kanaka
 -rajan-362481
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