Prof. Arpan Banerjee
Professor, National Brain Research Centre
Title: Leveraging inter-subject variability from real brains to tune a virtual brain
Date: Wednesday, 15th February 2023
Time: 04:00 pm (IST)
Meeting Link: http://bit.ly/3YF8hey
Abstract
A significant development in recent times has been the establishment of whole-brain computational models (WBMs) to understand brain dynamics at multiple spatiotemporal scales. Structure-function mapping, an often cherished goal of neuroscientific explorations, is feasible using WBM to address non-invasive neurophysiological and neuroimaging measurements. I will present a pipeline that can take subject-specific tractography data as input to generate the functional dynamics observed in electro-encephalogram (EEG)/ magneto-electrogram (MEG) and fMRI recordings. Further, I will demonstrate how key factors in human lifespan aging such as synaptic scaling and conduction speeds can explain the underlying neurocompensatory mechanisms that preserves functional integration during healthy aging using a WBM, constrained on subject-specific connectome. Using biophysically realistic extensions that capture the multi-scale neurotransmitter–neuroelectric interactions we demonstrate how GABA/Glutamate relationships vary over lifespan aging. Subsequently, we show how such implementations of WBM can extract the conduction speed as the most relevant patient-specific clinical marker of cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis. Switching gears to task-based approaches, using controlled experimental paradigms such as auditory state rhythms and language discrimination tasks we show how brain hemispheric lateralization of speech/ tonal input processing can also be explained by WBMs. Finally, inter-individual variability of subjective multisensory perception can be explained from global integration mechanisms in distributed brain networks. Together, we outline the various ways WBM a.k.a virtual brain, sculpted from idiosyncrasies of subject-specific connectome, contribute to basic neuroscientific explorations involving resting state and task-based experimental paradigms and also generate predictive markers for clinical practice
About the Speaker
Arpan is the principal investigator of Cognitive Brain Dynamics Lab housed in the National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, India. He has been a mentor to several MS and PhD students and post-doctoral fellows adept in performing cutting-edge research on brain dynamics using EEG/ MRI/ MEG technologies in last 9 years which have resulted in several publications in top-tier international journals and conference presentations. Previously Arpan obtained a PhD from Florida Atlantic University in 2007, an MSc in Physics from the University of Pune in 2002, and a BSc (Honours in Physics) from Presidency College, Kolkata.