This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2009. The fellowship supports a research and training plan entitled " A mathematical model of hippocampal neurogenesis to explain the computational influence of adult-born neurons on brain function" for Anthony DeCostanzo. The host institution for this research the Columbia University and the sponsoring scientist is Fusi Stefano.
This research employs a biologically realistic mathematical model of hippocampal neurogenesis to explain what adult-born neurons do for the function of the brain. First, behavioral and physiological data from mice are being used to make the model as realistic as possible. Second, the model is being validated using a combined approach: data from genetically modified mice that have altered neurogenesis are being collected while the model is altered to mirror the genetic change in the mice. Then the model is used to predict how these mice should behave as a result of their altered genetics. Using this combination of a genetic strategy in mice with a computational model we can determine how changes in neurogenesis affect the computations of a neural circuit, and how these computations in turn lead to behavior changes, gaining insight into the benefits that neurogenesis offers to the function of the brain.
This work fits with the Fellow's overall scientific goal of pursuing a mathematical understanding of how the brain generates and stores ideas and representations of the world, and how these neural processes underlie creativity, insight, intuition and problem-solving. This understanding may one day allow us to understand the very nature of creativity itself, and to build computers that have yet greater creative faculties than the human brain. The results from the current research project are presented annually at the Society for Neuroscience and COSYNE meetings and published in peer-reviewed academic journals. The Fellows will also produce general interest writing on computational neuroscience through a devoted website as well as other media.
