Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Here Come The Test Results: An Analysis Of Games In Experimental Design For Neuroscience Research, Madison Mcdougall

Scripps Senior Theses

A large part of experimental design in neuroscience revolves around the tasks that are designed for participants to complete to understand the complex system that is the brain. However, as Alan Newell pointed out in his 1973 paper, “You can’t play 20 questions with nature and win,” as designed tasks often answer a binary question that limits their contribution to understanding the brain as a system or a “genuine slab of human behavior.” Games provide an apt solution to this problem, as their complexity embodies a naturalistic task while their well-defined rules create a robust experimental system. Video games specifically …

Visual Cortical Traveling Waves: From Spontaneous Spiking Populations To Stimulus-Evoked Models Of Short-Term Prediction, Gabriel B. Benigno

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thanks to recent advances in neurotechnology, waves of activity sweeping across entire cortical regions are now routinely observed. Moreover, these waves have been found to impact neural responses as well as perception, and the responses themselves are found to be structured as traveling waves. How exactly do these waves arise? Do they confer any computational advantages? These traveling waves represent an opportunity for an expanded theory of neural computation, in which their dynamic local network activity may complement the moment-to-moment variability of our sensory experience.

This thesis aims to help uncover the origin and role of traveling waves in the …

Solving The Cable Equation, A Second-Order Time Dependent Pde For Non-Ideal Cables With Action Potentials In The Mammalian Brain Using Kss Methods, Nirmohi Charbe

Master's Theses

In this thesis we shall perform the comparisons of a Krylov Subspace Spectral method with Forward Euler, Backward Euler and Crank-Nicolson to solve the Cable Equation. The Cable Equation measures action potentials in axons in a mammalian brain treated as an ideal cable in the first part of the study. We shall subject this problem to the further assumption of a non-ideal cable. Assume a non-uniform cross section area along the longitudinal axis. At the present time, the effects of torsion, curvature and material capacitance are ignored. There is particular interest to generalize the application of the PDEs including and …

Spiking Neural Network That Maps From Generalized Coordinates To Cartesian Coordinates, Chloe K. Guie

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In this thesis, I look to understand how insects compute task-level quantities by integrating range-fractionated sensory signals to create a sparse-spatial coding of Cartesian positions. I created biologically plausible 2-D and 3-D models of one species of the stick insect (Carausius morosus) leg and encoded the foot position through a spiking neural network. This model used spiking afferents from three angles of an insect leg which are integrated by one non-spiking interneuron. This model contains many dendritic compartments and one somatic compartment that encode the foot’s position relative to the body. The Functional Subnetwork Approach (FSA) was used …

Neuromatch Academy: A 3-Week, Online Summer School In Computational Neuroscience, Bernard Marius 'T Hart, Titipat Achakulvisut, Ayoade Adeyemi, Athena Akrami, Bradly Alicea, Alicia Alonso-Andres, Diego Alzate-Correa, Arash Ash, Jesus J. Ballesteros, Aishwarya Balwani, Eleanor Batty, Ulrik Beierholm, Ari S. Benjamin, Upinder Bhalla, Gunnar Blohm, Joachim C. H. Blohm, Kathryn Bonnen, Marco Brigham, Bingni W. Brunton, John Butler, Brandon Caie, N Alex Cayco Gajic, Sharbatanu Chatterjee, Spyridon Chavlis, Ruidong Chen, You Cheng, H. M. Chow, Raymond Chua, Yunwei Dai, Isaac David, Eric E. J. Dewitt, Julien Denis, Alish Dipani, Arianna Dorschel, Jan Drugowitsch, Kshitij Dwivedi, Sean Escola, Haoxue Fan, Roozbeh Farhoodi, Yicheng Fei, Pierre-Étienne Fiquet, Lorenzo Fontolan, Jeremy Forest, Yuki Fujishima, Byron V. Galbraith, Mario Galdamez, Richard Gao, Julijana Gjorgjieva, Alexander Gonzalez, Qinglong Gu, Yueqi Guo, Ziyi Guo, Pankaj K. Gupta, Busra Tugce Gurbuz, Caroline Haimerl, Jordan B. Harrod, Alexandre Hyafil, Martin Irani, Daniel Jacobson, Michelle Johnson, Ilenna Simone Jones, Gili Karni, Robert E. Kass, Hyosub Edward Kim, Andreas M. Kist, Randal Koene, Konrad Kording, Matthew R. Krause, Arvind Kumar, Norma K. Kühn, Ray Lc, Matthew L. Laporte, Junseok Lee, Songting Li, Sikun Lin, Yang Lin, Shuze Liu, Tony Liu, Jesse A. Livezey, Linlin Lu, Jakob H. Macke, Kelly Mahaffy, A. Lucas Martins, Nicolás Martorell, Manolo Martínez, Marcelo G. Mattar, Jorge Aurelio Menendez, Kenneth D. Miller, Patrick J. Mineault, Nosratullah Mohammadi, Yalda Mohsenzadeh, Elenor Morgenroth, Taha Morshedzadeh, Alice Claudia Mosberger, Madhuvanthi Muliya, Marieke Mur, John D. Murray, Yashas Nd, Richard Naud, Prakriti Nayak, Anushka Oak, Itzel Olivos Castillo, Seyedmehdi Orouji, Jorge Otero-Millan, Marius Pachitariu, Biraj Pandey, Renato Paredes, Jesse Parent, Il Memming Park, Megan A. K. Peters, Xaq Pitkow, Panayiota Poirazi, Haroon Popal, Sandhya Prabhakaran, Tian Qiu, Srinidhi Ragunathan, Raul Rodriguez-Cruces, David Rolnick, Ashish Kumar Sahoo, Saeed Salehinajafabadi, Cristina Savin, Shreya Saxena, Paul Schrater, Karen Schroeder, Alice C. Schwarze, Madineh Sedigh-Sarvestani, K. Yuvaraj Sekhar, Reza Shadmehr, Maryam M. Shanechi, Siddhant Sharma, Eric Shea-Brown, Krishna V. Shenoy, Carolina L. Shimabukuro, Sergey Shuvaev, Man Ching Alison Sin, Maurice Smith, Nicholas A. Steinmetz, Karolina Stosio, Elizabeth Straley, Gabrielle Strandquist, Carsen Stringer, Rimjhim Tomar, Ngoc Tran, Sofia Triantafillou, Lawrence Udeigwe, Davide Valeriani, Vincent Valton, Maryam Vaziri-Pashkam, Peter Vincent, Gal Vishne, Pascal Wallisch, Peiyuan Wang, Claire Ward, Michael Waskom, Kunlin Wei, Anqi Wu, Zhengwei Wu, Brad Wyble, Lei Zhang, Daniel Zysman, Federico D’Oleire Uquillas, Tara Van Viegen

Articles

No abstract provided.

Elucidating And Leveraging Dynamics-Function Relationships In Neural Circuits Through Modeling And Optimal Control, Sruti Mallik

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A fundamental research question in neuroscience pertains to understanding how neural networks through their activity encode and decode information. In this research, we build on methods from theoretical domains such as control theory, dynamical systems analysis and reinforcement learning to investigate such questions. Our objective is two-fold: first, to use methods from engineering to identify specific objectives that neural circuits might be optimizing through their spatiotemporal activity patterns, and second, to draw motivation from neuroscience to formulate new engineering principles such as synthesis of dynamical networks for decentralized control applications. We specifically take a top-down, optimization driven approach in our …

Eeg Features Of Explore-Exploit Decision-Making In Alcohol Use Disorder, Ethan Campbell

Psychology ETDs

Little research has assessed explore-exploit behavior in addiction using drug cues and even fewer studies have measured the neural activity underlying these behaviors. The present study aims to explore brain mechanisms of disordered decision-making in alcohol use disorder (AUD) through electroencephalography (EEG) during performance of a novelty bandit task with alcohol imagery and using a validated computational model of explore-exploit dynamics. Individuals with AUD (n = 28) and age and sex-matched controls (n = 27) showed differences in choice behavior and showed differences in EEG activity as a function of exploratory behavior, chosen stimulus type, and explore-exploit computational …

Axonal Blockage With Microscopic Magnetic Stimulation, Hui Ye

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Numerous neurological dysfunctions are characterized by undesirable nerve activity. By providing reversible nerve blockage, electric stimulation with an implanted electrode holds promise in the treatment of these conditions. However, there are several limitations to its application, including poor bio-compatibility and decreased efficacy during chronic implantation. A magnetic coil of miniature size can mitigate some of these problems, by coating it with biocompatible material for chronic implantation. However, it is unknown if miniature coils could be effective in axonal blockage and, if so, what the underlying mechanisms are. Here we demonstrate that a submillimeter magnetic coil can reversibly block action potentials …

Data Assimilation For Conductance-Based Neuronal Models, Matthew Moye

Dissertations

This dissertation illustrates the use of data assimilation algorithms to estimate unobserved variables and unknown parameters of conductance-based neuronal models. Modern data assimilation (DA) techniques are widely used in climate science and weather prediction, but have only recently begun to be applied in neuroscience. The two main classes of DA techniques are sequential methods and variational methods. Throughout this work, twin experiments, where the data is synthetically generated from output of the model, are used to validate use of these techniques for conductance-based models observing only the voltage trace. In Chapter 1, these techniques are described in detail and the …

Neuromechanical Tuning For Arm Motor Control, Russell Lee Hardesty Jr

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Movement is a fundamental behavior that allows us to interact with the external world. Its importance to human health is most evident when it becomes impaired due to disease or injury. Physical and occupational rehabilitation remains the most common treatment for these types of disorders. Although therapeutic interventions may improve motor function, residual deficits are common for many pathologies, such as stroke. The development of novel therapeutics is dependent upon a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms that govern movement. Movement of the human body adheres to the principles of classic Newtonian mechanics. However, due to the inherent complexity of …

Automated And Standardized Tools For Realistic, Generic Musculoskeletal Model Development, Trevor Rees Moon

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Human movement is an instinctive yet challenging task that involves complex interactions between the neuromusculoskeletal system and its interaction with the surrounding environment. One key obstacle in the understanding of human locomotion is the availability and validity of experimental data or computational models. Corresponding measurements describing the relationships of the nervous and musculoskeletal systems and their dynamics are highly variable. Likewise, computational models and musculoskeletal models in particular are vitally dependent on these measurements to define model behavior and mechanics. These measurements are often sparse and disparate due to unsystematic data collection containing variable methodologies and reporting conventions. To date, …

‘Preferred’ Stimulus Of A Whole Model Visual System, Olivier Penacchio, Julie M. Harris

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Scalar Short-Term Memory, Tyler D. Bancroft

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The location of the brain’s working and short-term memory (WM/STM) “system” is unclear. The existence of a dedicated WM/STM system is itself under debate. Recently, it has been proposed that WM/STM storage relies not on a dedicated system in prefrontal cortex, but rather that it is an emergent function of interaction between attentional and representational systems (e.g., sensory cortex) in the brain. However, mnemonic representations of very simple stimuli have repeatedly been shown to exist in frontal cortex. In this manuscript, I use computational and behavioural methods to demonstrate similarities between the representations of different types of very simple stimuli …

Particle Swarm Optimization Using Multiple Neighborhood Connectivity And Winner Take All Activation Applied To Biophysical Models Of Inferior Colliculus Neurons, Brandon S. Coventry

Open Access Theses

Age-related hearing loss is a prevalent neurological disorder, affecting as many as 63% of adults over the age of 70. The inability to hear and understand speech is a cause of much distress in aged individuals and is becoming a major public health concern as age-related hearing loss has also been correlated with other neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's dementia. The Inferior Colliculus (IC) is a major integrative auditory center, receiving excitatory and inhibitory inputs from several brainstem nuclei. This complex balance of excitation and inhibition gives rise to complex neural responses, which are measured in terms of firing rate …

Electrical Advantages Of Dendritic Spines, Allan T. Gulledge, Nicholas T. Carnevale, Greg J. Stuart

Dartmouth Scholarship

Many neurons receive excitatory glutamatergic input almost exclusively onto dendritic spines. In the absence of spines, the amplitudes and kinetics of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) at the site of synaptic input are highly variable and depend on dendritic location. We hypothesized that dendritic spines standardize the local geometry at the site of synaptic input, thereby reducing location-dependent variability of local EPSP properties. We tested this hypothesis using computational models of simplified and morphologically realistic spiny neurons that allow direct comparison of EPSPs generated on spine heads with EPSPs generated on dendritic shafts at the same dendritic locations. In all morphologies …

Neuroscholar’S Electronic Laboratory Notebook And Its Application To Neuroendocrinology, Arshad M. Khan, Joel D. Hahn, We-Cheng Cheng, Alan G. Watts, Gully Apc Burns

Arshad M. Khan, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.