Opportunity Details

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Faculty Information
	Christoph Borgers
	cborgers@tufts.edu
	Professor
	P: (617) 627-2366
	F: (617) 627-3966
Address:
	Department of Mathematics Bromfield-Pearson Hall Tufts University
	Medford, MA 02155

Opportunity:

Gamma oscillations and synaptic plasticity

Summary:

My research is in mathematical and computational neuroscience. My primary interest is in the physical and mathematical mechanisms underlying rhythmic oscillations in the central nervous system, and the functional roles that those oscillations play. For a few years, I have thought in particular about oscillations at approximately 40 Hz, called "gamma oscillations". These are ubiquitous in the brain, associated with sensory processing, short-term memory, and attention. It has been conjectured that one particular kind of gamma oscillations may play a central role in forming "cell assemblies", coalitions of neurons that are (possibly just temporarily) linked by particularly strong synaptic connections. Cell assemblies are believed to play a central role in the coding of information in the brain. Another kind of gamma oscillations, in which the activity of individual neurons is irregular and seemingly random (in spite of the fact that the population activity undergoes a clean and regular oscillation), has been conjectured to have the opposite effect, that of weakening synaptic connections, taking away cell assemblies, wiping the slate clean in preparation for new processing, as it were. The summer project that I would like to involve a summer scholars student in is to write a computer program testing these hypotheses. This will require the student to learn about how nerve cells and their synaptic connections are modeled mathematically and computationally, learn about mechanisms of synaptic plasticity (the dynamic strengthening and weakening of synaptic connections in the brain, thought to be the basis of all learning), and about how those mechanisms are modeled, and finally to write code to experiment with. This sounds like a tall order for a single summer. However, I have Matlab code already that can serve as a starting point. (It includes the modeling of neuronal networks, but not yet the modeling of synaptic plasticity, the student will need to add that to the code.) Overall, I think interesting results can be obtained within a single summer, especially if the student has the relevant background (see "Prerequisites"). I hope, however, that this project can be extended into the academic year 2009/2010, in the form of a senior honors thesis.

Contact Via:

E-mail
Phone

What is the timeframe for this research opportunity?

summer 2009 (can be extended into the academic year 2009/2010, and I hope it will be)

Prerequisities for students?

Calculus, Differential Equations (Math 38), ability to program in Matlab, some background in neurobiology highly desirable.

Responsibilities for students?

The student will write Matlab code, as outlined in the summary, and experiment with it. I expect to meet frequently with the student to discuss the direction to move in, and think about and analyze results.

Area(s) of Research:

computational neuroscience