Speaker
Alex Roxin

Description Neuroscience, being biology, is largely empirical. Quite a lot is known about sub-cellular processes and single-cell dynamics, although these are still very active fields. Much is known about the response of single neurons in-vivo in the cerebral cortex, especially to visual stimuli. How does one put all of this together to understand how the brain works? Maybe we can't; unless a system is linear, reductionism is bound to fail. Computational neuroscience, although many would disagree with me, has served two main goals. First, it is used to "explain" or at least describe empirical data in a self-consistent way, i.e. with models. Secondly, it is used to address the bane of reductionism. Namely, our models should be able to describe the wide range of dynamics seen throughout the brain in a single, unified framework. It is assumed this has something to do with "complexity". Unfortunately, computational neuroscience has failed on both accounts: to a lesser extent in the former case, and rather dramatically in the latter. In this talk I will discuss these issues more in depth

Speaker
Brian McNab

Description En motiu de la seva visita a l'Institut Català de Paleontologia, Brian k McNab, professor de la Universitat de Florida, imparitrà una conferència a Sala de Graus II de la Facultat de Ciències. McNab parlarà dels mecanismes que presenten mamífers i aus per minimitzar la despesa energètica, un recurs limitat particularment a illes.

Description

This international workshop on complex networks (CompleNet) aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners working on areas related to complex networks. In the past two decades we have been witnessing an exponential increase on the number of publications in this field. From biological systems to computer science, from economic to social systems, complex networks are becoming pervasive in many fields of science. It is this interdisciplinary nature of complex networks that CompleNet aims at addressing. Workshops are scheduled around the world on an yearly basis. The first edition of the workshop took place in May 2009 in Catania, Italy; the 2nd took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the 3rd in Melbourne, Florida, USA. This year we will be Berlin at the campus of the Freie Universitaet Berlin

Speaker
Javier Buceta

Description We introduce a perturbation theory to analyze how noise modifies the phenotypic landscape. In particular, we address the problem of the stochastic stabilization/destabilization of a phenotypic state with respect to the noise-free system. We illustrate this phenomenon by means of the well-characterized example of a genetic bistable switch described by the Langevin formalism. In addition, by introducing a more detailed and realistic model, we show that this effect is not an artifact due to an oversimplified mathematical modeling.

Speaker
Andrey Shilnikov

Description We identify and describe the principal bifurcations of bursting rhythms in multi-functional central pattern generators (CPG) composed of three neurons connected by fast inhibitory or excitatory synapses. We develop a set of computational tools that reduce high-order dynamics in biologically relevant CPG models to low-dimensional return mappings that measure the phase lags between cells. We examine bifurcations of fixed points and invariant curves in such mappings as coupling properties of the synapses are varied. These bifurcations correspond to changes in the availability of the network's phase locked rhythmic activities such as periodic and aperiodic bursting patterns. As such, our findings provide a systematic basis for understanding plausible biophysical mechanisms for the regulation of, and switching between, motor patterns generated by various animals.