The goal is to investigate how the highly advanced networks in biological systems are built and how information is transferred through them.
Think of the the murmuration of starlings, the schooling of fish, or even hypes on social media or the spreading of powerouts: the behaviour of a network is critically determined by its structure. This structure induces collective emergent behavior that can only be understood by analysing the whole network in relation to its constituent parts. Particularly in the brain, the architecture of the network is essential for its functioning: information transfer and processing within and between networks.
Networks re-organise themselves. Because of the underlying network changes are not known, it remains unclear whether these changes improve the information processing: are the representations of the sensory stimuli in the new situation more accurate and/or more efficient?
In this project a biophysical model of barrel cortex will be used to investigate networks between controlled and deprived conditions. We will work towards validation of the developed network analysis and modelling tools investigating connectivity changes.
