Journal of Neuroscience Methods 220 (2013) 99
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Neuroscience Methods journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jneumeth
Editorial
Foreword to the Special Issue on LASCON 2012
Neuroscience is a vast and expanding interdisciplinary field, and the use of mathematical and computational modeling tools is likely to play a key role in its future development. Sensitive to this trend, several countries and economic blocs in the world started in the late 1980s to held regular schools on computational neuroscience to foster the development of a new generation of neuroscientists skilled in this area. Neuroscience in Latin America is a relatively well-developed field, with several active laboratories in all areas ranging from molecular biology to behavioral research. However, by the mid2000s there was still no regular training program in Latin America capable of introducing computational neuroscience to its young researchers and students. Perhaps due to this reason Latin America has lagged behind other regions of the world in terms of general visibility in computational neuroscience. With the objective of contributing to improve computational neuroscience in Latin America I have designed in 2005, with the help of Drs. James Bower, David Beeman and Rodrigo Oliveira, the Latin American School on Computational Neuroscience – LASCON. The primary aim of LASCON is to promote the field of computational neuroscience in Latin America and stimulate the creation of a culture of using computational modeling methods to approach neuroscience problems among Latin American researchers and students. LASCON also hopes to foster the creation of informal as well as systematic scientific collaborations among its participants: students with students, students with lecturers/tutors and lecturers/tutors with lecturers/tutors. LASCON is a biennial introductory school to computational neuroscience aimed primarily at Latin American students, but it is also open to students from other parts of the world. The first three editions occurred in 2006, 2008 and 2010 with support from the Latin American Regional Committee (LARC) of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) and the Brazilian agencies National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
0165-0270/$ – see front matter © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2013.10.013
(CNPq), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). The fourth edition occurred in 2012, and was supported by the above institutions plus the Biophysical Society and the Organization for Computational Neuroscience (OCNS). These first four editions of LASCON were all held at the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto, which had an invaluable role in the establishment of the school by providing the institutional and physical space for the classes to be held. Up to now LASCON has been a success story and I am committed to keeping it as such. The impact of LASCON has started to be felt, as some former students of the school are now researchers or postdoctoral fellows in universities worldwide, and works resulting from collaborations initiated during the school editions have started to be published as journal papers. The dream of consolidating a regular school on computational neuroscience in Latin American reached a symbolic stage with the fourth edition of LASCON. In 2012 the school finally reached the optimal four-week format, which allows coverage of all major topics in brain modeling and yet gives time to the students to work on their projects. This format will be preserved in the forthcoming editions of the school starting with the 2014 edition, which will be held at Pipa beach in northeastern Brazil. To celebrate the fourth edition of LASCON, which was called the LASCON for ever edition by its organizers, I am happy to introduce this special edition of the Journal of Neuroscience Methods. It contains articles by some of the lecturers, tutors and students who have participated in the history of LASCON so far and it gives a snapshot of some of the themes that have been covered in the school. I wish you all a pleasant reading. Antonio C. Roque Departamento de Física, FFCLRP, Universidade de São Paulo, 14040-901 Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Neuroscience Methods journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jneumeth
Editorial
Foreword to the Special Issue on LASCON 2012
Neuroscience is a vast and expanding interdisciplinary field, and the use of mathematical and computational modeling tools is likely to play a key role in its future development. Sensitive to this trend, several countries and economic blocs in the world started in the late 1980s to held regular schools on computational neuroscience to foster the development of a new generation of neuroscientists skilled in this area. Neuroscience in Latin America is a relatively well-developed field, with several active laboratories in all areas ranging from molecular biology to behavioral research. However, by the mid2000s there was still no regular training program in Latin America capable of introducing computational neuroscience to its young researchers and students. Perhaps due to this reason Latin America has lagged behind other regions of the world in terms of general visibility in computational neuroscience. With the objective of contributing to improve computational neuroscience in Latin America I have designed in 2005, with the help of Drs. James Bower, David Beeman and Rodrigo Oliveira, the Latin American School on Computational Neuroscience – LASCON. The primary aim of LASCON is to promote the field of computational neuroscience in Latin America and stimulate the creation of a culture of using computational modeling methods to approach neuroscience problems among Latin American researchers and students. LASCON also hopes to foster the creation of informal as well as systematic scientific collaborations among its participants: students with students, students with lecturers/tutors and lecturers/tutors with lecturers/tutors. LASCON is a biennial introductory school to computational neuroscience aimed primarily at Latin American students, but it is also open to students from other parts of the world. The first three editions occurred in 2006, 2008 and 2010 with support from the Latin American Regional Committee (LARC) of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) and the Brazilian agencies National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
0165-0270/$ – see front matter © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2013.10.013
(CNPq), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). The fourth edition occurred in 2012, and was supported by the above institutions plus the Biophysical Society and the Organization for Computational Neuroscience (OCNS). These first four editions of LASCON were all held at the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto, which had an invaluable role in the establishment of the school by providing the institutional and physical space for the classes to be held. Up to now LASCON has been a success story and I am committed to keeping it as such. The impact of LASCON has started to be felt, as some former students of the school are now researchers or postdoctoral fellows in universities worldwide, and works resulting from collaborations initiated during the school editions have started to be published as journal papers. The dream of consolidating a regular school on computational neuroscience in Latin American reached a symbolic stage with the fourth edition of LASCON. In 2012 the school finally reached the optimal four-week format, which allows coverage of all major topics in brain modeling and yet gives time to the students to work on their projects. This format will be preserved in the forthcoming editions of the school starting with the 2014 edition, which will be held at Pipa beach in northeastern Brazil. To celebrate the fourth edition of LASCON, which was called the LASCON for ever edition by its organizers, I am happy to introduce this special edition of the Journal of Neuroscience Methods. It contains articles by some of the lecturers, tutors and students who have participated in the history of LASCON so far and it gives a snapshot of some of the themes that have been covered in the school. I wish you all a pleasant reading. Antonio C. Roque Departamento de Física, FFCLRP, Universidade de São Paulo, 14040-901 Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil
