The Brain Conferences: Dynamics of the brain: temporal aspects of computation

The brain is an extraordinarily complex dynamical system whose critical operations run over timescales ranging from the sub-millisecond (e.g., auditory perception), to the circadian (e.g., sleep and homeostatic phenomena), to weeks and years (e.g., learning and memory). Brain circuits express collective properties that can be detected macroscopically, such as traveling waves or oscillations, but recent developments also reveal, through large-scale recordings of neuron populations, smaller-scale spatiotemporal phenomena such as transient dynamics (spatio-temporal multi-neuronal activation patterns in response to odours, in preparation for action, in “replay" during sleep). Those dynamics suggest strong constraints on the orchestration of activity in brain circuits. This conference will explore experimental and theoretical approaches to understand the underpinnings of such dynamics and their relevance for computation in the brain.

Topics: brain circuits, neuroscience, computation