Christian Bläsche

Citation

Thesis Title
Dynamical effects of degree correlations in networks of type I model neurons

The complex behaviour of human brains arises from the interconnections of their well-known building blocks, called neurons. With novel imaging techniques it is possible to monitor neurons’ firing patterns, and link these to how well a brain is functioning. However, there has been less understanding about how the firing patterns are affected by the neurons’ network structure. Mr Bläsche approached this mathematically. The number of incoming and outgoing connections a neuron has are called ‘in-degree’ and ‘out-degree’, respectively. The relationship between these two numbers is called their ‘degree correlation’, and Mr Bläsche examined these both within individual neurons, and also between pairs of neurons. Mr Bläsche helped develop accurate, computationally efficient models of neuronal networks which take their degree correlations into account. These models can be used to investigate how degree correlations affect neurons’ firing patterns.

Supervisors
Professor Carlo Laing
Distinguished Professor Gaven Martin