TITLE:

FROM BRAIN WAVES TO BRAIN DYNAMICS (No. 31)

DATE:

Friday, February 13th, 2004

TIME:

3:30 PM

LOCATION:

GMCS 214

SPEAKER:

Richard E. Greenblatt, Source Signal Imaging, Inc., San Diego, CA

ABSTRACT:

Using non-invasive measures of brain structure (sMRI) and activity (fMRI, EEG, MEG), researchers would like to infer the location and time course of human brain physiological activity, as well as infer causal interactions between brain regions. These problems arise in the study of normal cognitive functioning, and also in the study of disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism. Computationally, this implies that we need to solve both a forward problem (essentially equivalent to a quasi-static electromagnetic model of the head) as well as an inverse problem (the inference of brain electrical currents from extracranial electromagnetic measurements). The solution to this bioelectromagnetic inverse problem is ill-posed, and therefore model-dependent. Computational approaches to both forward and inverse problems will be discussed, along with some relevant statistical methods for causal inference and hypothesis testing.

HOST:

Jose Castillo

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