Part of the School Seminar Series
Speaker: Dr Rob Leech, Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory
Host: BUIC
Abstract:
The brain can be viewed as a complex dynamical system. I will discuss using thisframework to study the brain's critical behaviour. Brain networks are thought to bein a critical state, poised between order and disorder, at a 'tipping' point. I presentevidence investigating the relationship between global brain dynamics andcognitive state using FMRI and neurobiolgoically-inspired computational models.We show, with FMRI, that the criticality of the system is 'tuned' by cognitive stateand, using computational simulations, that well-characterized brain networks suchas the default mode network or fronto-parietal control networks have opposingroles in modulating this criticality.