Neural Basis of Learning

par/by François Rivest
Département d’Informatique et de Recherche Opérationnelle
Université de Montréal

Understanding learning is not only of interest to computer scientists and robotic researchers, it is also a problem of interest to people in neural science. Neuroscientists face the challenging problem of understanding how the brain learns, from the simple lamprey, to the complex human brain. In this talk, I will present the different learning systems the brain seems to have accompanied with relevant neuropsychological evidences. I will also try to draw some parallels between some of these systems and topics in machine learning (for example, how few brain areas can be modeled by machine learning algorithms). If there is enough time, I will try to cover the neurobiological basis of learning, i.e. how learning works at the synaptic level.