Leenoy Meshulam - Can We Hope for Simplicity When Describing the Brain? (TSVP Talk at OIST)
Channel: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST)
Date: 2022-06-28

Dr. Leenoy Meshulam is visiting OIST from 2022/05/09 until 2022/07/31 through the "Theoretical Sciences Visiting Program" (TSVP). Find out more about the TSVP on the program website: https://groups.oist.jp/tsvp.

Abstract: Every moment, whether we are listening to a symphony or shooting a basketball, millions of neurons in our brain furiously interact with each other. This interaction allows the brain to execute highly complex computations, involving the concerted activity of many individual units. To understand such complexity in other systems, we routinely use simplified models. For example, to understand the weather system we do not follow every water molecule in the air, but rather rely on the interaction between coarse-grained quantities of density and pressure. To achieve such intuitive understanding for the brain we seek theoretical approaches that can simplify the rich dynamics of neural activity. I will show how by drawing on concepts from statistical physics such as Ising models and renormalization group, we can capture the collective nature of neural activity. Additionally, I will explain how the scaling we have uncovered in the system allows us to remain optimistic, and how it hints that emergent simplicity does indeed exist in the highly complex system that is the brain.

Profile: Leenoy Meshulam is a Swartz Theory Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Washington, Seattle. She works at the interface of physics and neuroscience, mainly drawing on theoretical frameworks from statistical physics and dynamical systems to uncover principles of brain function.  She is particularly interested in how function emerges from the coordinated activity of large neuronal populations. Dr. Meshulam received her PhD from Princeton University in 2018. Prior to that she completed her undergraduate and masters at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Here at OIST she is looking forward to fruitful interactions and collaborations.

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