Areas of Interest
Broadly speaking, I am interested in applying mathematical modeling techniques to further our understanding of the brain. My research focuses on different spatial and temporal scales of brain function, from single neuron spiking, to activity of large-scale spiking neuron networks, to networks of interacting neuronal populations. The consistent theme of my research is to utilize mathematical modeling to understand the physiological mechanisms generating experimentally observed neural activity, thus providing the neuroscience community with quantitative support of experimental hypotheses and a rigorous theoretical framework for exploring and developing experimentally-testable predictions. Mathematically, understanding the mechanisms generating specific model behaviors requires complete analysis of stable and unstable solutions to the nonlinear ordinary differential equations of the model system. For this analysis, I utilize numerical simulations and analysis techniques from dynamical systems, singular perturbation theory and bifurcation theory.
Currently, my research activities are primarily concentrated in two major directions: construction and analysis of mathematical models of the sleep-wake regulatory network and investigation of the interactions of single neuron properties and network structure on spatio-temporal activity patterns in large-scale spiking neuron network models.