Untitled - Laboratory of Neurophysics and Physiology

Arvind Kumar, Freiburg: Basal ganglia
W17
Functional role of correlations: theory and experiments
Space Curie, Thu, 9:00-17:30
Tatjana Tchumatchenko, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Srdan Ostojic, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
Understanding neural correlations has been the topic of intense activity in the recent years. While
great progress has been made in unraveling the mechanistic origins of correlations in neural networks,
their role in neural computations and plasticity is still not clear. The purpose of this workshop is to
bring together theorists and experimentalists working on that topic in order to review recent progress
and generate ideas for future work. The program will consist of 30-40 minutes talks and a round table
discussion. There will also be ample time for informal discussions.
Speakers:
Valentin Dragoi (Houston U)
Alex Ecker (Tuebingen)
Michael Graupner (New York U)
Ilan Lampl (Weizman)
Peter Latham (UCL)
Alex Pouget (Geneva)
Jaime de la Rocha (Barcelona)
Robert Rosenbaum (Pittsburgh)
Stefan Rotter (Freiburg)
W18
Relevance of synaptic plasticity for multistable behaviour in neural systems
Space Grignard, Thu, 9:00-17:30
Alessandro Torcini, Institute of Complex Systems, Florence, Italy
Christian Hauptmann, Research Center Juelich, Juelich, Germany
Fluctuating spontaneous activity has been observed in several areas of the brain. In particular, irregular
oscillations among more synchronized and less synchronized states appear in the hyppocampus during
slow-wave sleep and quiet wakefulness, due to the massive endogenous activation of large neuronal
populations. Furthermore, abnormal synchronization processes characterize several neurological diseases.
For instance, under healthy conditions particular neuronal populations located in the thalamus
and the basal ganglia fire in an uncorrelated manner. In contrast, abnormal synchronization of these
neuronal populations causes Parkinsonian resting tremor.
Recent computational studies have revealed that synaptic plasticity is a fundamental ingredient to
ensure multistability in neuronal circuits. In particular, spike timing dependent plasticity (STDP)
appears to play a crucial role in promoting the coexistence of states with different level of synchrony.
These studies can be extremely useful for the understanding of mechanisms of memory consolidation
in the neocortex as well as for the development of new Deep Brain stimulation techniques.
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