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On Wednesday, 11 am ET

 

Organized by David Hansel, Ran Darshan

& Carl van Vreeswijk (1962-2022) 

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About Us

About the Seminar

VVTNS  is a weekly digital seminar on Zoom targeting the theoretical neuroscience community. Created as the World Wide Neuroscience Seminar (WWTNS) in November 2020 and renamed in homage to Carl van Vreeswijk in Memoriam (April 20, 2022), its aim is to be a platform to exchange ideas among theoreticians. Speakers have the occasion to talk about theoretical aspects of their work which cannot be discussed in a setting where the majority of the audience consists of experimentalists. The seminars  are 45 min long followed by a discussion and are held on Wednesdays at 11 am ET. The talks are recorded with authorization of the speaker and are available to everybody on our YouTube channel.

 

To participate in the seminar you need to fill out a registration form after which you will

receive an email telling you how to connect.

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Idan Segev

ELSC, The Hebrew Universityof Jerusalem

June 24, 2026

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VVTNS Sixth Season Closing Lecture

From Cajal’s Spines to Digital Neurons:

Connectomics View on Dendritic Computations​​

Dendritic spines are among the smallest structures in the brain, yet they hold some of the deepest clues to how neurons compute and store memories. In this lecture, I will revisit the classical question of spine biophysics in the new age of connectomics, where nanometer-resolution electron microscopy allows us to reconstruct whole neurons with thousands of synapses and spines. I will show how spine density, spine-neck resistance, and the irregular geometry of individual spines can shape local synaptic signals, generate fast voltage dynamics, influence excitatory/inhibitory gating, and affect communication between neighboring spines. I will then discuss how automated reconstruction pipelines and biophysical modeling now make it possible to build digital neurons at spine and synapse resolution, and how AI-based approaches, such as our new AI-based TwinProp algorithm, allow us to ask - and get answer - to a fundamental question: what can a neuron compute? I will end by claiming that we now enter a new age of connectomics that provides an essential constraint on understanding how synapses, neurons, and circuits perform their computational functions.

Organizers

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David Hansel

I am a theoretical neuroscientist at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, France and visiting professor at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. I am mainly interested in the recurrent dynamics in the cortex and 

basal ganglia.

Carl van Vreeswijk *

I am a theoretical neuroscientist working at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, France. My main interest is the dynamics of recurrent networks of neurons in the sensory system.

*deceased

Ran Darshan

 I am a theoretical neuroscientist working at the Faculty of Medicine, the Sagol School of Neuroscience & the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University, Israel. I am interested in learning and dynamics of neural networks. My main goal is to achieve a mechanistic understanding of brain functions.

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©2020 by WWTNS

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