Systems neuroscience

The human brain, perhaps the greatest and most complicated learning system, exercises control over virtually every aspect of our behavior. The systems neuroscience area is dedicated to understanding the brain’s architecture and how it learns and controls a variety of functions. Spurred by dramatic advances in experimental methods over the past decade, investigators in this area attempt to produce quantitative models of information coding and processing in neural systems.

As descriptions of the physiology, architecture and communication patterns of neurons become more detailed, researchers must integrate these data into comprehensive models that can be used to explore the properties of neural systems and, eventually, explain behavior. Hopkins faculty research interests span a range of experimental and theoretical approaches to studying neural information processing and to developing innovative diagnostic and therapeutic technologies.

Included in Systems Neuroscience Research

• Astudy of the brain mechanisms that control movements of the upper limb, which is rooted in robotics and mathematical descriptions of how to move a limb. Researchers study motor control learning, effects of diseases on the computation that underlies this control system, and how neurophysiology of motor control relates to these computations.
• Analyzing the properties of nerve cells in the spinal cord, which are likely to cause dangerous episodes of high blood pressure after spinal cord injury, and how technology can be used to prevent these episodes.
• Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying speech perception in the auditory system and using the principles of neural processing in designing intelligent human-to-machine communication and prosthetic devices, such as hearing aids. Results will advance understanding not only of how the brain processes speech and speech-like sounds in adulthood, but also how the nervous system underlies the ability to acquire such complex tasks through learning.
• Developing new technologies to diagnose and treat brain injury, stroke and epilepsy along with advanced approaches to neural prosthesis, neuroanesthesia and neurosurgery. Technologies under development include: brain-computer interfaces, neural signal acquisition and analysis to control prostheses, Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) circuits for sensing and imaging the brain, microfabricated and microfluidic chambers for developing neural networks in vitro, optical laser speckle brain and microvessel imaging, and real-time neurological monitoring instrumentation for neurocritical care and surgery.

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