Coupled oscillator model of the hippocampus for the study of spatial entrainment and resonance behavior

Dr. Alan Chiu

Department of Biomedical Engineering
Louisiana Tech University

Abstract

  The coupled oscillator model was developed to characterize the transmembrane voltage activity of excitable cells that arises from the membrane mapping of a potential intracellular clock. It is a robust model that is especially suitable for the study of cellular assemblies with endogenous rhythms. In this presentation, the ability of the coupled oscillators to model the lobster stomatogastric ganglion and in-vitro hippocampal pyramidal cells / interneurons network is illustrated. The relationship between the network complexity and the model coupling parameters is discussed. Utilizing properties such as unstable periodic orbits in the chaotic manifold, the analysis of potential seizure control strategies using small perturbations and stochastic resonance measurement in the theta and gamma range are performed to study the effect of noise on network entrainment and signal-to-noise ratio improvement. Other ongoing work in my research group will also be presented. First, we validate the small network simulation results using layer-by-layer assembly techniques for function restoration application. Second, we modify the synaptic coupling pathway of the coupling equations to include facilitation and potentiation in small networks. Lastly, we expand the phase to waveform mapping function to higher dimensions to incorporate the rate of change in ionic movement and channel conductance to compute the transmembrane potential.

Tuesday, October 21st, 3:00pm
101 Stanley Thomas Hall
Tulane University, Uptown.