Events Calendar

Seminars in Biomedical Engineering

Speaker: Monika Jadi, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow Computational Neurobiology Laboratory Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Talk Title: Computation structures in the brain

Abstract: Discovering computational principles that drive information processing in the brain is critical to understanding neural correlates of sensory processing, brain-state and behavior. Structure in the nervous system, from a synapse to networks of neurons, is thought to have functional consequences on information processing in the brain. I will describe my work investigating the structural rules of synaptic signaling in individual neurons. Using biophysically inspired cable theory based models, this work has revealed a novel computational role for suppressive signaling that targets the distal tips of dendrites in post-synaptic neurons. At the network level, I have investigated structural rules of contextual processing, specifically those pertaining to oscillatory activity. Using analytically tractable as well as spiking models , my work proposes a novel mechanism for regulation of cortical oscillations that depends on the relative balance of signaling to subclasses of neurons. Finally, I will describe my recent work on neural correlates of attentive behavior along a cortical column, a canonical structure in the sensory cortex. Using machine-learning techniques, I find trial-by-trial predictors of attentive behavior that precede the sensory discriminandum as well as the resulting behavioral choice by several seconds.

Host: K. Kirk Shung, PhD

Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta