The functional brain dynamics theme is concerned with the relationships between brain activity and functional behavior. For example, what are the changes in the activity of our neurons as we learn a new guitar cord? What are the dynamical of anatomical changes in our brains, and how must brains change in order for functional behavior to be achieved?

Our work on functional brain dynamics helps unravel the dynamics of cerebellar control through computer modeling. We calculate the consequences of changes in neurons in relation to their targets, including the cerebral cortex, the basal ganglia, and the spinal cord, with implications for learning of sequential actions, and complex coordinated patterns, be them cognitive or motor.In the two videos, we see the functional dynamics of a component of the olivocerebellar system that is able to maintain short term memory through dynamically coupled oscillators. In each video, the period of the stimulus presentation varies.

One observes the fundamentally different outcomes of the same stimulus being presented at different times. This result illustrates context dependency of neural activities: the brain will do something different depending on its state.

References

For Brain Dynamics-related publications, please visit our Publications page.