Dan Goodman

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the field of theoretical neuroscience. I'm currently working at the Ecole normale supérieure with Alain de Cheveigné and Christian Lorenzi on computational models of hearing loss.

Research Interests

I am interested in neural mechanisms underlying computations performed by the brain. In particular, I'm interested in understanding spike-timing based codes and computation, especially in the auditory system.

Projects

Brian

"Brian" is a software package for simulating spiking neural networks. Specifically, it is a package for the Python programming language providing functions and classes designed to make writing simulations of neural networks as easy and flexible as possible. See Brian's web page.

The most recent release of Brian added the Brian.hears package, for auditory modelling. For the next major release, we will be focussing on running Brian on GPU chips (inexpensive massively parallel processors available in consumer graphics cards).

Sound localisation

Sound localisation is the ability of many animals to determine to a greater or lesser degree of accuracy the direction from which a sound is coming. I am working on a neural model of this ability based on synchrony and coincidence detection. The model uses biologically plausible principles, and addresses acoustically realistic situations. In particular, it uses head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) recorded from human subjects instead of artificially introduced interaural time difference (ITD) and level difference (ILD) cues. It is able to localise sounds in the vertical as well as horizontal plane, and eliminate front-back confusions. The model also addresses how we can learn to localise after a change in head or ear shape, such as happens during development. Hopefully, this model will also lead to effective new algorithms to localise sounds in the presence of distractors, noise, reverberations, etc.

Spike sorting

I worked with Kenneth Harris to extend the KlustaKwik spike sorting algorithm to work on the next generation of multi-electrode recordings.

Hearing loss

I am working with Alain de Cheveigné and Christian Lorenzi on computational models of hearing loss.

Selected publications

• Kremer Y, Léger J-F, Goodman D, Brette R, Bourdieu L (2011).
  Late emergence of the vibrissa direction selectivity map in the rat barrel cortex.
  Journal of Neuroscience 31(29). doi:10.1523/​JNEUROSCI.6541-10.2011 [preprint]
  
• Goodman DFM, Brette R (2010).
  Spike-timing-based computation in sound localization.
  PLoS Comput. Biol. 6(11): e1000993. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000993
• Goodman DFM, Brette R (2009).
  The Brian simulator.
  Frontiers in Neuroscience 3(2), doi:10.3389/neuro.01.026.2009
• Goodman D, Brette R (2008).
  Brian: a simulator for spiking neural networks in Python.
  Frontiers in Neuroinformatics 2(5), doi:10.3389/neuro.11.005.2008.

Publications

My publications are also available on Google Scholar Citations.

In preparation and under review

• Brette R, Goodman DFM.
  Brian simulator.
  Invited article for Scholarpedia.

2011

• Rossant C, Fontaine B, Goodman DFM (2011).
  Playdoh: a lightweight Python package for distributed computing and optimisation.
  Journal of Computational Science (in press) [preprint]
• Kremer Y, Léger J-F, Goodman D, Brette R, Bourdieu L (2011).
  Late emergence of the vibrissa direction selectivity map in the rat barrel cortex.
  Journal of Neuroscience 31(29). doi:10.1523/​JNEUROSCI.6541-10.2011 [preprint]
  
• Fontaine B, Goodman DFM (joint first authors), Benichoux V, Brette R (2011).
  Brian Hears: online auditory processing using vectorisation over channels.
  Frontiers in Neuroinformatics 5:9. doi: 10.3389/fninf.2011.00009 [preprint]
  
• Brette R, Goodman DFM (2011).
  Vectorised algorithms for spiking neural network simulation.
  Neural Computation 23:6 [preprint]
• Rossant C, Goodman DFM, Fontaine B, Platkiewicz J, Magnusson AK, Brette R (2011).
  Fitting neuron models to spike trains.
  Frontiers in Neuroscience. 5:9. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2011.00009

• Goodman DFM, Brette R (2010).
  Learning to localise sounds with spiking neural networks.
  Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 23 [bibtex, video abstract]
• Fletcher A, Goodman DFM (2010).
  Quasiregular mappings of polynomial type in R².
  Conformal Geometry and Dynamics 14. [preprint]
• Goodman DFM, Brette R (2010).
  Spike-timing-based computation in sound localization.
  PLoS Comput. Biol. 6(11): e1000993. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000993 [code on ModelDB]
  
• Goodman DFM (2010).
  Code Generation: A Strategy for Neural Network Simulators.
  Neuroinformatics 8, no. 3 (9). doi:10.1007/s12021-010-9082-x. [pdf]
• Rossant C, Goodman DFM, Platkiewicz J, Brette R (2010).
  Automatic fitting of spiking neuron models to electrophysiological recordings.
  Frontiers in Neuroinformatics. doi:10.3389/neuro.11.002.2010

• Goodman DFM, Brette R (2009).
  The Brian simulator.
  Frontiers in Neuroscience 3(2), doi:10.3389/neuro.01.026.2009
• Brette R, Goodman D. (2009).
  Brian: a simple and flexible simulator for spiking neural networks.
  The Neuromorphic Engineer. doi: 10.2417/1200906.1659

• Goodman D, Brette R (2008).
  Brian: a simulator for spiking neural networks in Python.
  Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, 2(5), doi:10.3389/neuro.11.005.2008.

2006

• Goodman D (2006).
  Spirals in the boundaries of slices of quasifuchsian space.
  Conformal Geometry and Dynamics 10. [pdf]
  

Presentations and Posters

• Spotlight presentation of poster on "Learning to localise sounds with spiking neural networks" at NIPS, Vancouver (December 2010)
• Co-author of presentation given by Cyrille Rossant on “Playdoh: a lightweight Python library for distributed computation and optimisation” at EuroSciPy (July 2010)
• Tutorial on Brian (via Skype) at Telluride in Colorado (July 2010)
  
• Talk on "Computation with spikes" at Mathematical Neuroscience, Edinburgh (April 2010)
• Poster on sound localisation at Mathematical Neuroscience, Edinburgh (April 2010)
  
• Tutorial on Python and Brian at Neurocomp in Bordeaux, France (September 2009)
  
• Tutorial on Python and Brian at the Python in neuroscience workshop at CNS, Berlin (July 2009)
  
• Poster on sound localisation at CNS, Berlin (July 2009)
  
• Presentation on Brian at the Gatsby computational neuroscience unit, London (July 2009)
• Presentation on sound localisation at The Ear Institute, London (July 2009)
• Presentation on sound localisation at CerCo , Toulouse, France (Jan 2009)
• Presentation on Brian at software interoperability workshop at CNS, Portland OR, USA (July 2008)
• Poster on Brian at CNS, Portland OR, USA (July 2008)
• Tutorial on Brian at "Using Python in computational neuroscience" workshop in Freiburg, Germany (June 2008)
• Presentation on Brian at Visiontrain meeting in Malmo, Sweden (May 2008)
• Presentation on Brian at Facets CodeJam 2 in Gif-sur-Yvette, France (May 2008)
• Poster on Brian at the Mathematical Neuroscience Meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland (March 2008)

Other

• Reviewer for Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, Neural Computation, the Journal of Computational Neuroscience and the Journal of Neuroscience Methods.
  
• Designed the front cover of the May 2010 issue of Neuron (right, click for higher resolution version), featuring Agus et al.'s "Rapid Formation of Robust Auditory Memories: Insights from Noise".