This talk has two parts. First, I will use biophysically detailed models show how a variety of brain rhythms depend on underlying physiology in brain circuits, with hints about how brain rhythms use this physiology to support cognitive functions. Then I will use this background material in the context of a specific visual task requiring multiple brain areas (cortical and subcortical) and dynamically changing brain rhythms, to show how the experimentally measured complex brain dynamics come about and support function. The model suggests ways in which the rhythms provide flexibility for related tasks.
About the Speaker
Nancy Kopell received her A.B. from Cornell University in 1963 and Ph.D. in Mathematics from University of California Berkeley in 1967. She was a CLE Moore Instructor at MIT and then taught at Northeastern University. In 1986 she joined the faculty at Boston University, where she is now William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has held fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan foundation, the J.S. Guggenheim Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She was also a recipient of the Mathematical Neuroscience Prize from Israel Brain Technologies and the Swartz Prize in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience from SfN. Prof. Kopell is interested in dynamics of the nervous system, including the mechanistic origins of brain rhythms, their use in cognition, and their role in cognitive disorders. She started and continues to run the Cognitive Rhythms Collaborative, a group whose mission is to facilitate collaboration among theorists and experimentalists on problems involving brain dynamics.
Celebrating Mathematics
To increase awareness of mathematics on the campus; the Division of Applied Mathematics has planned a number of free events centered around May 12, the birthday of Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman fields medallist.
Learn more about the May 12 initiative through its website.
Brown began this celebration in 2019 with a virtual screening of the documentary film Secrets of the Surface on the life of Maryam Mirzakhani.
- SEAM (Social Equity and Applied Math) Seminar
- Date: Friday, May 5, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
- Location: Virtual
- Lecturer: Dr. Jo Boaler, Nomellini-Olivier Professor of Education (Mathematics), Stanford University
- Title: The Role of Multidimensional Mathematics in the Pursuit of Equity
- Cost: Free
- For more information on the SEAM seminar series: click here
- Division of Applied Mathematics Math Film Screening
- Date: Friday, May 5, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
- Location: 170 Hope Street, Room 108
- Cost: Free
- Refreshments will be served
- A screening of the 30-minute film on Olga Ladyzhenskaya by Ekaterina Eremenko, followed by student presentations and discussion about her mathematics
- To learn more about Olga Ladyzhenskaya, click here
- Jointly sponsored by the Division of Applied Math and the Math Department
- Applied Math, CCBS, and ICERM Presents Nancy Kopell (Boston University)
- Date: Monday, May 8, 5:30 PM
- Location: 121 S Main St, Providence, RI 02903, 11th Floor
- Lecturer: Dr. Nancy Koppel, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University
- Title: Brain Rhythms Connect Physiology and Cognition
- Cost: Free (Registration required)
- Refreshments will be served at 4:30 PM
- See the ICERM website and the Applied Math Events page for an abstract
- Jointly sponsored by the Division of Applied Math and CCBS (The Carney Institute), hosted as a public lecture by ICERM
- Note: A group will gather at 4:20 PM outside 182 George Street to walk together to ICERM