Cerebral Cortex Connectomics

Date

Jun 6, 2019

Time

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Speaker

Moritz Helmstaedter

Affiliation

Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany

Language

en

Main Topic

Biologie

Host

Gene Myers

Description

Brains are highly interconnected networks of millions to billions of neurons. For a century, we have not been able to systematically map these connectivity networks. Only recently, using novel electron microscopy techniques and machine-learning based data analysis, the dense mapping of neuronal networks has become possible at a larger scale. This new field of connectomics is still limited by technology and requires next-generation human-machine interaction for data analysis, but it is already starting to provide exciting insights into how neuronal circuits operate in the brain. Our goal is to make connectomics a high-throughput screening technique for neuroscience, applicable to the large circuits in the mammalian cerebral cortex. We are using connectomic data from the cerebral cortex to analyze brain-implemented algorithms, extract possible imprints of sensory experience, investigate the postnatal development of neuronal circuits and study connectome alterations in models of psychiatric disease.

Last modified: Jun 7, 2019, 12:09:05 AM