Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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SYNP: Symposium Neurophysics: Physical Approaches to Deciphering Neuronal Information Processing

SYNP 1: Symposium Neurophysics (SYNP): Physical Approaches to Deciphering Neuronal Information Processing

SYNP 1.3: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 10:30–11:00, H 0105

Circuit neurophysics: Theory and biophysics of information-flow through large-scale neuronal systems — •Fred Wolf — Theoretical Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization — Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Am Fassberg 17, 37077 Goettingen, Germany.

Understanding information flow and processing in the brain requires quantitative concepts and theoretical approaches tailored to the complex dynamics of biological neuronal systems. In the cerebral cortex, information is represented and processed by the activity of large populations of nerve cells operating in densely connected neuronal circuits. Nerve cells encode changes in their continuously varying input in discrete action potentials. The dynamical mechanism of action potential generation thus represents a fundamental bottleneck for the flow of information through neuronal populations and circuits. We have developed concepts and approaches for dissecting the dynamics of neuronal circuit information flow based on stochastic dynamics, statistical physics and ergodic theory. Recent findings by us and others indicate (1) that the bandwidth of information encoding by neuronal populations in the cerebral cortex is much higher than previously assumed and (2) that the subcellular biophysics of action potential generation is optimized to achieve a high bandwidth of information flow through large scale circuits. After a review of concepts and findings, I will discuss open theoretical and experimental problems in the nano-physiology of action potential generation.