CDB Seminar - Dr Talmo Pereira, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
'Quantifying and modelling behaviour using deep learning'
CDB Seminar - Dr Talmo Pereira, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
22 May 2025, 14:00 – 15:00
Please join us for a CDB Seminar by Dr Talmo Pereira of the Salk Insitute of Biological Studies
‘Quantifying and modelling behaviour using deep learning’
Zoom at: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/92930915945
Talk abstract: A core goal of neuroscience is to understand how the brain adaptively orchestrates movements to execute complex behaviours. Quantifying behavioural dynamics, however, has historically been prohibitively laborious or technically intractable, particularly for unconstrained and naturalistic behaviours which the brain evolved to produce. Driven by advances in computer vision and deep learning, new methods are being developed to overcome these limitations and enable precise and automated quantification of behaviour from conventional across species and experimental settings. In this talk we will: introduce the problem of pose tracking for behavioural quantification; show how deep learning can be employed to achieve markerless motion capture with multiple animals; highlight our efforts to make this technology more accessible through open-source tools like SLEAP (sleap.ai); and preview how this data modality enables new approaches for building generative models of how the brain produces behaviour through the use of biomechanics, physics simulation and NeuroAI.
Host: Pip Coen
Pereira and his lab develop and apply artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to study the processes that give rise to biological motion. By using a form of AI called deep learning, the lab has created computational tools capable of performing “markerless motion capture”—a powerful technology that can extract biological dynamics from video data. Pereira now leverages this approach to make sense of how animals and humans behave during health or disease, how plant root systems sequester carbon, and how the brain coordinates body movements to produce complex behaviors.