Rutgers Network Neuroscience Interest Group: Caio Seguin, PhD

“Advances in network neuroscience: towards connectome-based predictions and mechanisms”

Speaker: Caio Seguin, PhD
Research Fellow in Network Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne

Date and Time: Thursday, April 23rd at 4:00 PM

Zoom: https://rutgers.zoom.us/my/lp756?pwd=Y3Q1NTNGTFJibHpYcUUwYUNaaFg5UT09

In-Person: SRB seminar room

Abstract: Network neuroscience and connectomics have made great advances in characterising the organisation of brain connectivity using the mathematics of graph theory. Despite this progress, the question remains: are network and graph properties merely descriptive, or do they bear on mechanisms of brain function and dysfunction? In this talk, I will discuss the recent shift away from descriptions of brain connectivity, and towards the use of network measures as tools for mechanism discovery and health outcomes prediction. I will focus on network models of brain signalling and communication, presenting evidence that simples models provide insight into how connectome architecture shapes a diverse range trans-synaptic signalling processes—from the propagation of single-neuron optogenetic perturbations in C. elegans, to the transmission of electrical pulses through the human connectome, to the therapeutic effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation for depression. Taken together, these advances suggest general principles of how connectome wiring shapes neural signalling and open up opportunities for connectome-based interventions in psychiatry.