Dr Serafim Rodrigues
Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems. Plymouth University, UK
Model reductions, excitability and application to granule cells
Mon Dec 5, 2011. 12.00am
This talk aims to provide some insight about neuronal model reductions and understand the mathematical origin of excitability. To do so, techniques from singular perturbation theory applied to slow-fast systems will be recalled. We will apply these techniques to the standard Hodgkin-Huxley model, showing how it can be reduced to a planar vector field. In addition, to understand its excitability, bifurcation theory and geometrical analysis will be employed to demonstrate that spiking emerges from the so called Canards Phenomena, which is a brutal dynamical transition upon parameter variation. I will also show that the same techniques can be applied to granule cells (of interest to some researchers at CITIC).
