Fall 2016

Seminars are held at 11:30AM in Cullimore Hall, Room 611, unless noted otherwise. For questions about the seminar schedule, please contact Casey Diekman.


Date: December 6, 2016

Speaker: Christina Weaver
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science,
Franklin & Marshall College

University Profile

Title: "Cortical Diversity and Brain Aging: Insights from Computational Modeling"

Abstract:

The relationship between the morphology and function of individual neurons has been studied extensively over the years, and computational modeling has played a key role.  Here we describe studies of this relationship in a unique dataset:  layer 3 pyramidal cells in young and aged rhesus monkeys.  The size and excitability of these neurons differ more than twofold in the primary visual vs. prefrontal cortices—differences which are absent in comparable regions of the mouse.  As monkeys age, neurons in both regions undergo morphologic changes to their dendrites and spines, but neuronal excitability changes only in the prefrontal cortex.   Are the morphologic changes sufficient to explain the observed functional differences across regions and with aging?  How might memory formation be affected by these changes during aging?  We show how computational methods including electrotonic analyses, spine cluster detection, and parameter optimization have led to insights into these important questions.