Resilience through diversity: Biophysical heterogeneity protects physiological neurocircuit activity

Scott Rich

Diversity is the norm in most biological systems, and the brain is no exception: significant heterogeneity is observed in fundamental properties of similarly classified neurons in the human brain. Whether this variability plays a functional role in physiological activity or is merely an epiphenomenon of noisy and stochastic biological processes has not been robustly examined. Important evidence for a functional role for this diversity is found in the fact that it is reduced in neuropathology, particularly in the seizure-generating brain regions of patients with epilepsy. It logically follows that neuronal heterogeneity might serve a protective role against seizure, but this hypothesis requires finding a mechanistic link between reduced neuronal heterogeneity and dynamics associated with seizure. In this talk, I will present recent work applying computational and mathematical neuroscience to this question, revealing unique dynamics in spiking neuronal networks and stability structures in mean-field reduced systems controlled entirely by the amount of variability in baseline neuronal excitability. These results not only provide new vistas through which to view the disorder of epilepsy and the role of heterogeneity in the brain, but highlight the power of applying computational and mathematical tools to challenging neuroscientific problems, particularly those bridging spatial scales.

 Overview  Program