AutoMIND | Automated Model Inference from Neural Dynamics for a Mechanistic Understanding of Cognition

Summary
Human cognition depends on complex coordinated dynamics of neural populations, which is shaped by a rich heterogeneity in cellular properties and network connectivity patterns of neural circuits. While cognitive neuroscience leverages macroscopic brain signals to relate neural activity to behavioral states, we currently cannot dissect them for their physiological contributions, hindering mechanistic interpretations of experimental data. One way to systematically study how physiological parameters shape neural dynamics is through mechanistic modeling of spiking neural networks. However, current modeling approaches are not quantitatively constrained by observed electrophysiological data, and often require painstaking and ad-hoc parameter-tuning by hand. Efficient discovery of mechanistic models that are consistent with experimental data would dramatically accelerate our understanding of how cellular and network properties impact cognition, and why it breaks down in pathological states, representing a radical departure from how neural data is analyzed in cognitive neuroscience. To this end, I propose to develop a machine learning-assisted model inference tool—Automated Model Inference from Neural Dynamics (AutoMIND)—that can identify parameters of candidate spiking neural network models that could capture arbitrary target neural dynamics from human brain recordings. AutoMIND extends on recent advances in simulation-based inference techniques, incorporating simultaneous parameter manifold-learning and gradient-based simulations. AutoMIND has broad utility for tackling neuroscientific questions by enabling expedited in-silico experiments. Here, I apply it to multiscale neural data to study how cellular and network properties shape: 1) the emergence of synchronous network oscillations during early neurodevelopment, and 2) the difference in neural dynamics and computation between sensory and association cortices—two questions of fundamental importance to neuroscience.
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Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101030918
Start date: 01-05-2021
End date: 30-04-2023
Total budget - Public funding: 162 806,40 Euro - 162 806,00 Euro
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Original description

Human cognition depends on complex coordinated dynamics of neural populations, which is shaped by a rich heterogeneity in cellular properties and network connectivity patterns of neural circuits. While cognitive neuroscience leverages macroscopic brain signals to relate neural activity to behavioral states, we currently cannot dissect them for their physiological contributions, hindering mechanistic interpretations of experimental data. One way to systematically study how physiological parameters shape neural dynamics is through mechanistic modeling of spiking neural networks. However, current modeling approaches are not quantitatively constrained by observed electrophysiological data, and often require painstaking and ad-hoc parameter-tuning by hand. Efficient discovery of mechanistic models that are consistent with experimental data would dramatically accelerate our understanding of how cellular and network properties impact cognition, and why it breaks down in pathological states, representing a radical departure from how neural data is analyzed in cognitive neuroscience. To this end, I propose to develop a machine learning-assisted model inference tool—Automated Model Inference from Neural Dynamics (AutoMIND)—that can identify parameters of candidate spiking neural network models that could capture arbitrary target neural dynamics from human brain recordings. AutoMIND extends on recent advances in simulation-based inference techniques, incorporating simultaneous parameter manifold-learning and gradient-based simulations. AutoMIND has broad utility for tackling neuroscientific questions by enabling expedited in-silico experiments. Here, I apply it to multiscale neural data to study how cellular and network properties shape: 1) the emergence of synchronous network oscillations during early neurodevelopment, and 2) the difference in neural dynamics and computation between sensory and association cortices—two questions of fundamental importance to neuroscience.

Status

CLOSED

Call topic

MSCA-IF-2020

Update Date

28-04-2024
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.1. EXCELLENT SCIENCE
H2020-EU.1.3. EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
H2020-EU.1.3.2. Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
MSCA-IF-2020 Individual Fellowships