Kempner Sketchpad with Yutaka Sprague (Graduate Fellows and Invited Guests only)

Kempner Sketchpad is a low-stakes, collaborative space where Kempner Graduate Fellows share early-stage ideas and work in progress. In each session, one or two Fellows give an informal presentation on something they are currently working on and would like feedback on—for example, research questions, analysis pipelines, figure design, puzzling results, or ways to bring in other disciplines. The focus is on constructive feedback, brainstorming, and community-building, rather than polished talks.

Yutaka will present some very initial slides on experiments and theoretical frameworks being developed while preparing for the PQE. The presentation will focus on:

• Training multiple motor tasks in an animal via reinforcement learning
• Reinforcement learning approaches and theories of multi-task learning
• Initial ideas about neural data collection and analysis for these questions

To guide the discussion, Yutaka has proposed questions such as:

• To what extent is motor learning distinct from other types of learning, and how should this shape how we study motor learning?
• How might we test different theories of multi-task learning in the brain—originally developed for ANNs—when we can only record from a small number of neurons?
• Are there learning frameworks besides reinforcement learning that could explain practiced skill acquisition in motor learning?

All Kempner Graduate Fellows are warmly invited. The value of this series comes from a range of perspectives, so please join even if this is slightly outside your exact subfield—collaboration is welcome and encouraged.