NIPS 2011 - NIPS 2011 Workshop on Machine Learning and Inference in Neuroimaging

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Category NIPS 2011

Deadline: September 30, 2011 | Date: December 16, 2011-December 17, 2011

Venue/Country: Granada, Spain

Updated: 2011-09-02 07:06:51 (GMT+9)

Call For Papers - CFP

to various problems in neuroimaging, including “mind reading”, “brain

mapping”, clinical diagnosis and prognosis. Multivariate pattern

analysis (MVPA) is a promising machine-learning approach for

discovering complex relationships between high-dimensional signals

(e.g., brain images) and variables of interest (e.g., external stimuli

and/or brain's cognitive states). Modern multivariate regularization

approaches can overcome the curse of dimensionality and produce highly

predictive models even in high-dimensional, low-sample scenarios

typical in neuroimaging (e.g., 10 to 100 thousands of voxels and just

a few hundreds of samples).

However, despite the rapidly growing number of neuroimaging

applications in machine learning, its impact on how theories of brain

function are construed has received little consideration. Accordingly,

machine-learning techniques are frequently met with skepticism in the

domain of cognitive neuroscience. In this workshop, we intend to

investigate the implications that follow from adopting machine-

learning methods for studying brain function. In particular, this

concerns the question how these methods may be used to represent

cognitive states, and what ramifications this has for consequent

theories of cognition. Besides providing a rationale for the use of

machine-learning methods in studying brain function, a further goal of

this workshop is to identify shortcomings of state-of-the-art

approaches and initiate research efforts that increase the impact of

machine learning on cognitive neuroscience.

Moreover, from the machine learning perspective, neuroimaging is a

rich source of challenging problems that can facilitate development of

novel approaches. For example, feature extraction and feature

selection approaches become particularly important in neuroimaging,

since the primary objective is to gain a scientific insight rather

than simply learn a ``black-box'' predictor. However, unlike some

other applications where the set features might be quite well-explored

and established by now, neuroimaging is a domain where a machine-

learning researcher cannot simply "ask a domain expert what features

should be used", since this is essentially the question the domain

expert themselves are trying to figure out. While the current

neuroscientific knowledge can guide the definition of specialized

'brain areas', more complex patterns of brain activity, such as spatio-

temporal patterns, functional network patterns, and other multivariate

dependencies remain to be discovered mainly via statistical analysis.

The list of open questions of interest to the workshop includes, but

is not limited to the following:

● How can we interpret results of multivariate models in a

neuroscientific context?

● How suitable are MVPA and inference methods for brain mapping?

● How can we assess the specificity and sensitivity?

● What is the role of decoding vs. embedded or separate feature

selection?

● How can we use these approaches for a flexible and useful

representation of neuroimaging data?

● What can we accomplish with generative vs. discriminative modelling?

Workshop Format:

In this two-day workshop we will explore perspectives and novel

methodology at the interface of Machine Learning, Inference,

Neuroimaging and Neuroscience. We aim to bring researchers from

machine learning and neuroscience community together, in order to

discuss open questions, identify the core points for a number of the

controversial issues, and eventually propose approaches to solving

those issues.

The workshop will be structured around 3 main topics:

- machine learning and pattern recognition methodology

- causal inference in neuroimaging

- linking machine learning, neuroimaging and neuroscience

Each session will be opened by 2-3 invited talks, and an in depth

discussion. This will be followed by original contributions. Original

contributions will also be presented and discussed during a poster

session. The workshop will end with a panel discussion, during which

we will address specific questions, and invited speakers will open

each segment with a brief presentation of their opinion.

This workshop proposal is part of the PASCAL2 Thematic Programme on

Cognitive Inference and Neuroimaging (http://

mlin.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/).

Paper Submission:

We seek for submission of original research papers. The length of the

submitted papers should not exceed 4 pages in Springer format (here

are the LaTeX2e style files). We aim at publishing accepted paper

after the workshop in a proceedings volume that contains full papers,

together with review papers by the invited speakers. Authors are

expected to prepare a full 8 page paper for the final camera ready

version after the workshop.

Important dates:

- September 30, 2011 - paper submission

- October 15th, 2011 - notification of acceptance/rejection

- December 16th - 17th - Workshop in Sierra Nevada, Spain, following

the NIPS conference

Invited Speakers:

Polina Golland (MIT, US)

James V. Haxby (Dartmouth College, US)

Tom Mitchell (CMU, US)

Daniel Rueckert (Imperial College, UK)

Peter Spirtes (CMU, US)

Gaël Varoquaux (Neurospin/INRIA, France)

Program Committee:

Guillermo Cecchi (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center)

Melissa Carroll (Google)

Moritz Grosse-Wentrup (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems,

Tübingen, Germany)*

James V. Haxby (Dartmouth College, USA, University of Trento, Italy)

Georg Langs (Medical University of Vienna)*

Bjoern Menze (ETH Zuerich, CSAIL, MIT)

Janaina Mourao-Miranda (University College London, United Kingdom)

Vittorio Murino (University of Verona/Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia,

Italy)

Francisco Pereira (Princeton University)

Irina Rish (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center)*

Mert Sabuncu (Harvard Medical School)

Bertrand Thirion (INRIA, NEUROSPIN)