Brain dynamics and Computation
Date:
Talk hosted by the Society for Multidisciplinary and Fundamental Research (SEMF), which fosters rigorous intellectual enquiry and transdisciplinary research as an international community spanning a variety of disciplines and professional backgrounds. You can watch the talk here
The human brain contains an estimate of 100 billion (10^11) neurons. Each one of them receives about a thousand direct connections from other neurons, amounting to a total of a trillion connections (10^14). Information in the brain flows through this intricately connected neural network, giving rise to our sensations, desires and thoughts. Each instance of our perception emerges from the coordinated activity of thousands of neurons within this network, forming brain circuits that are in charge of performing specific functions or computations. To understand these computations it is paramount to characterize how the collective activity of large neural populations evolve over time. Dynamical systems theory has proven to be a very successful mathematical framework to understand this evolving brain activity, and its link to computation. Through this framework we have been able to uncover hidden computational motives in the complex activity patterns of neural populations. This has provided new insights into how brain circuits process information about the external world, giving rise to the plans and actions that allow us to navigate the complexity of our environments.