Centre for Neural Computation (CNC)

Centre for Neural Computation (CNC) is a Centre of Excellence at the Research Council of Norway, aiming to extract the algorithms that give rise to an accessible mammalian cognitive function by taking advantage of the recent technological innovations for neural data recording and neural-circuit analysis.

How does the mammalian brain generate its own codes in the non-sensory cortices? This question marks the inception of understanding subjective experience. A path was opened in this terra incognita in 2005 when the Moser group discovered grid cells in the brain area called entorhinal cortex. Grid cells provide a metric for the brain’s spatial mapping system. Since their matrix-like firing pattern is generated within the brain independently of specific sensory features, these cells provide unprecedented access to the principles for neural coding in higher-order association cortices. The centre uses these cells as a springboard for unravelling operational principles of the mammalian cortex.

Centre for Neural Computation has assembled a dedicated expert team to decipher the fundamental codes of the brain's circuits for space, time, memory, sensory integration, and action planning – the mechanisms by which signals from specialized networks of neurons are generated, transformed, stored and retrieved by local and global network operations.