Optimal Neuroethology of Movement and Motor Control (19w5235)

The Banff International Research Station will host the "Optimal Neuroethology of Movement and Motor Control" workshop in Banff from May 19, 2019 to May 24, 2019.

‘The only way humans and animals can affect the world is via movement... the only reason for the existence of the brain may be to ultimately affect movement’ (Wolpert, 2011). Thus, understanding how goal-directed movement behavior is planned and controlled may give us a unique window into neuroscience. Thousands of experiments have shed light on movement behavior and a comparable number of mathematical models have been built to interpret these experiments. But the ultimate scientific objective is to distill this long catalog of insights into a few key principles of sensorimotor control and stitch together a broadly applicable mathematical theory from the myriad domain-specific models.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT).