Atle Eskeland Rimehaug defended his thesis

The defence took place in Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus, UiO.

Main research findings

Our thoughts, feelings, memories, and behavior all arise from the actions of neurons in our brain. Meticulous scientific research over the last few decades has given us a fairly good understanding of how single neurons work, but we know comparatively little about how thousands to billions of neurons work in concert to produce our inner life. To improve our understanding of how many neurons behave together in networks, experimental neuroscientists have developed methods and tools to record the electrical activity of up to thousands of neurons at the same time. However, inferring neural activity from these electric signals can often be challenging. In this thesis, we have developed a large-scale computer model of a part of the mouse brain – the primary visual cortex. This model can be used to simulate the neural activity and the electric signals measured in experiments, and enables us to investigate how the activity of single neurons and populations of neurons generate the electric signatures we observe. This can enhance the insight into brain circuits and neural mechanisms gained from experimental measurements.

Prior to the defence, at 11:15 on the same day, Atle presented his trial lecture "A vision for the future of simulated dynamical models in computational neuroscience" in the same location.

Adjudication committee

• Professor Sacha van Albada, Research Center Julich, Germany
• Dr. Michael Reimann, EPFL, Switzerland
• Associate Professor Adín Ramírez Rivera, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway

Supervisors

• Professor II Gaute Tomas Einevoll, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway
• Professor Marianne Hafting Fyhn, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Norway
• Professor Anders M. Dale, Department of Neuroscience, University of California San Diego, USA

Read more at the UiO Department of Informatics web page.