Mathematics & Statistics Colloquium - Dr Chad Giusti, University of Delaware

Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - 15:00
MS Teams

Title: Topology and coding in brain networks

Speaker: Dr Chad Giusti, University of Delaware

The talks will be held virtually this semester via Microsoft Teams. Link to join the meeting is given below.  All are welcome.
TO JOIN CLICK: Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

ABSTRACT:
A common strategy neurons in the brain use for representing information is through patterns of coactivity. One of the major goals of quantitative neuroscience is the development of quantitative frameworks for detecting, characterizing, and understanding these coding strategies. In this talk, I will describe an approach to addressing these problems using tools from algebraic and geometric topology. In particular, I will describe the common "stimulus space" model for neural activity in which neurons' response to stimuli is measured via the metric in some intrinsic space. In this case, the activity profiles of neurons describe a topological space, and I will explain how classical and modern computational tools from topology allow us to detect and analyze that space via observations of the activity of the neurons. No background in neuroscience or algebraic topology will be expected.

Image Source - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pure-mathematics-formul%C3%A6-blackboard.jpg