Date of Award

Winter 12-15-2016

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Author's Department

Physics

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Type

Dissertation

Abstract

Cortical oscillations are electrical activities with rhythmic and/or repetitive nature generated spontaneously and in response to stimuli. Study of cortical oscillations has become an area of converging interests since the last two decades and has deepened our understanding of its physiological basis across different behavioral states. Experimental and modeling work has taught us that there is a wide diversity of cellular and circuit mechanisms underlying the generation of cortical rhythms. A wildly diverse set of functions has pertained to synchronous oscillations but their significance in cognition should be better appraised in the more general framework of correlation between spike times of neurons. Oscillations are the core mechanism in adjusting neuronal interactions and shaping temporal coordination of neural activity. In the first part of this thesis, we review essential feature of cortical oscillations in membrane potentials and local field potentials recorded from turtle ex vivo preparation. Then we develop a simple computational model that reproduces the observed features. This modeling investigation suggests a plausible underlying mechanism for rhythmogenesis through cellular and circuit properties. The second part of the thesis is about temporal coordination dynamics quantified by "signal" and "noise" correlations. Here, again, we present a computational model to show how temporal coordination and synchronous oscillations can be sewn together. More importantly, what biophysical ingrediants are necessary for a network to reproduce the observed coordination dynamics.

Language

English (en)

Chair and Committee

Ralf Wessel

Committee Members

Woodrow Shew, Anders Carlsson, Sonya Bahar, Larry Snyder

Comments

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K73X853X

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