OVERVIEW

To develop models of information processing in the brain, the Theoretical Neuroscience Lab uses mathematical analysis and numerical simulations. These tools allow the researchers to formulate their ideas and intuitions in a precise manner and thereby put them to a test using real data. Specifically, the team focuses on several ‘higher-order’ regions such as the frontal cortices that are involved in turning sensory information into decisions.

As part of the recent advances in the lab, the team has developed a new method that visualises how populations of neurons represent sensory information and decisions simultaneously. In addition, other advances in the lab include the development of a theory that describes how neurons communicate shared information. This theory resulted in the successful explanation of a large set of experimental observations.

STRATEGY

We are currently developing methods to summarize the activity of neural populations in useful ways and to compare population activity across areas. In turn, we seek to relate the population activity to behavioral, computational, and mechanistic problems or constraints that organisms are facing. We work in close collaboration with several experimental labs, both within and outside of the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown.