CCN Seminar with Eli Sennesh (Northeastern)

Flatiron Institute community members are cordially invited to a CCN Seminar with Eli Sennesh, PhD student at Northeastern University. 

To schedule an appointment with Eli, please contact Jessica Hauser at [email protected]

Title: Meat + Math = Modeling

Abstract: Neuroscience has a sliding scale of levels of analysis in space and time, from the evolutionary-developmental trajectory of the nervous system over aeons, to whole organisms undertaking ecologically valid behaviors, to individual neural circuits and single neurons.  I will review how converging lines of evidence at the higher levels of analysis demand we revise our hypotheses about the lower levels, with a focus on affect and the brain’s regulation of the body. I will first descend the scales of analysis from the whole organism to specific circuits, synthesizing existing work within a paradigm of feedback control. I will then enumerate a number of mathematical tools that, I believe, can help us reason more tractably about these neural circuits and networks. I’ll conclude by suggesting ways to apply these mathematical tools to the modeling of neurons and neural circuits within the new feedback control paradigm.