Julijana Gjorgjieva

Wednesday 3rd July 2019

Time:4.00pm

Ground Floor Seminar Room

25 Howland Street, London, W1T 4JG

Emergence of computation during cortical circuit development

The emergence of flexible and stable neural circuits requires the coordination and appropriate timing of multiple mechanisms acting at the single neuron and network level. Activity-dependent plasticity mechanisms based on developmental activity patterns are crucial for the refinement of initially imprecise connectivity into functional circuits. Based on quantitative data analysis, theory and modeling we aim to understand how neural circuits are built and organized during early postnatal development, and how they are modified by intact and perturbed sensory-evoked activity. I will discuss how specific patterns of spontaneous activity in the visual cortex before eye opening drive connectivity refinements from novel adaptive mechanisms of plasticity. After eye opening, the visual system is faced with a different challenge as sensory-evoked activity continues to refine circuit connectivity. I will show how cortical activity patterns are modified following a significant sensory perturbation that affects the correlation structure of sensory inputs, and present theoretical work that links cellular and synaptic changes to network activity patterns.

Biography
You can see this on my website: http://cns.wzw.tum.de/index.php?id=18