The visual cortex as a deep neural network

I will discuss two developments in my lab in Physiology that aims to bring neuroscience and machine learning closer. I will describe an effort to examine the coding of visual information in the brain, as well as the computational methods used to estimate the "convolutional filters" in higher order areas in the visual cortex. In addition, I will present initial results from a project that models the visual cortex as a deep neural network, using an architecture in which feedforwawrd and feedback connections interact to achieve efficient information processing.