Biologically Constrained Models of the Basal Ganglia Addressing the Paradoxes of Connections and Selection

Internal Seminar: Benoît Girard, Visiting Researcher, Neural Computation Unit (Doya Unit)

Title: Biologically Constrained Models of the Basal Ganglia Addressing the
Paradoxes of Connections and Selection 

Abstract: The basal ganglia are a set of interconnected subcortical nuclei thought to play a fundamental role in action selection and reinforcement learning in vertebrates. They are involved in many neuro degenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease.
The circuitry of the basal ganglia has a complex connectivity, which is stillan object of active investigation.I will present the mean-field computational model of the macaque monkey basal ganglia we developed in Paris, its main characteristics (absence of segregated pathways) and results of interest (emerging ability of selection, oscillatory dynamics in Parkinson's disease). I will then present the preliminary results so far obtained during my stay at OIST, resulting from our attempt to convert this population-level model to an individual neuron-level model.

Refreshments will be served afterwards. We hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

Internal Seminar Organizing Committee:

Bianca Sieveritz

Rob Campbell

Maggi Mars-Brisbin

Yunhui Zheng

Jonathan Ward

Lauren Dembeck

Jigyasa Arora

Maéva Techer