Zuarinagar (Goa): Cognitive Neuroscience Lab of Dept. of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus organized a 2-day national workshop on “Experimental Methods in Cognitive Neuroscience” on 15th – 16th December, 2017 at the campus.
The workshop was inaugurated by Prof. Narayanan Srinivasan, Head, Centre for Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (CBCS), University of Allahabad; in presence of Prof. Raghurama G, Director, BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus; Organizing Secretary Dr. Veeky Baths, Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus and Co-organizer Dr. Ramesh K Mishra, Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences (CNCS), University of Hyderabad. Around 30 participants from various colleges and universities from different parts of India attended the workshop.
Following eminent speakers from India and abroad participated in interactive sessions:
- Aditya Murthy, Centre for Neuroscience, IISc Bangalore
- Ashima Nehra, Department of Neurospsychology, AIIMS, New Delhi
- Narayanan Srinivasan, CBCS, University of Allahabad
- Pratik Mutha, Department of Biological Engineering, IIT Gandhinagar
- Raghavendra Singh, India Research Laboratory IBM
- Ramesh Kumar Mishra, CNCS University of Hyderabad
- Sachin Deshmukh, Centre for Neuroscience, IISc Bangalore
- Samit Chakrabarty, School of Bio-Medical Sciences, University of Leeds
Following topics were discussed during the two days’ workshop:
- Neural Motor Control
- Neuropsychological Rehabilitation
- Introduction to EEG and ERP studies
- Computation modeling using Deep Learning
- Neural Representation of spatial maps in the brain
- Eye Tracking
- Neural Organization of the Visuomotor Learning
Two technical demonstrations from Tobii and EGI were conducted during the workshop. Tobii technologies are front runners in the field of Eye Tracking manufacturing technologies. Vitasta India handles the Indian sales of Tobii products. Mr. Kunal and Mr. Parag provided hands on demonstration of the screen based eye tracker and the mobile eye trackers to the participants. EGI is one of the largest vendors of dense array EEG, EMG and other neuro-observation systems. At the workshop, EGI representative, Mr. Suhas, spoke about the various offerings from EGI and also spoke about the success stories of Neuroscience Labs across the world.
The subject of cognitive neuroscience is, in a broad sense, the human mind. Cognitive neuroscience helps to understand how the human brain supports thought, perception, affection, action, social process and other aspects of cognition and behavior. Questions about the mind are studied from different scientific perspectives in philosophy, linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and computer science. Cognitive Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary approach to understand the neural substrates of mental processes. It is a broad area where insights from psychology, neurobiology, bioengineering, physics, computer science, linguistics, mathematics and philosophy find relevance. This diversity in the researchers’ background necessitates standardization and discussion of latest experimental methods which will be the focus for this workshop.
