Anna Levina: Balance and criticality in developing networks

Universität Tübingen

Before we are able to understand such an immensely sophisticated object as a human brain, we shell learn to interpret the simpler systems. As a compromise between the full complexity of the brain and often deceiving simplicity of artificial networks, we aim at understanding principles of information processing and self-organization in the developing cultures. I will present our efforts to understand how the balance between excitation and inhibition modulated by adaptation to create stable dynamics in cultures with different counts of inhibitory cells.
At the same time, in standard cultures, I will present evidence that they develop towards the critical state (manifested in the power-law-like distribution of avalanche sizes). I will show how closeness to critical state coincides with the optimal computational state in terms of maximization of information transfer and storage. I will discuss the correction for inevitable subsampling in the data recorded by microelectrodes arrays.

 

Guests are welcome!

 

Organized by

Richard Kempter / Margret Franke