The European Institute for Theoretical Neuroscience (EITN), an incubator of ideas in the HBP
The EITN is a science-oriented structure created as part of the Theoretical Neuroscience activities of the Human Brain Project (HBP). It is aimed to serve as an incubator of ideas in the project, creating interactions within the HBP, as well as between the HBP and the scientific community outside the project.
Funded in 2014, the institute is operated by the Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience (Neuro-PSI), multidisciplinary and internationally recognized Institute and unit of the CNRS and has for scientific director Alain Destexhe (Neuro-PSI, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette). Its activities are essentially related to science and research.
Main activities
The workshops and visitor program, two main activities of the EITN, contribute to confront the ideas developed in the HBP with the international scientific community. The EITN not only broadcasts ideas and brain theories developed in the project, but also gathers new ideas from the intense interactions taking place during the workshops.
Public
The EITN is open to neuroscience researchers, from all over Europe and the rest of the world, whether there are HBP partners or not.
Team
Alain Destexhe, Scientific Director
Irina Kopysova, Chief of Administrative and Technical team
Scientific Environment
- A proximity with experimentalists.
The EITN is a theory center embedded in an experimental neuroscience environment : The Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience (Neuro-PSI). It encourages its researchers and students to be directly involved in experiments, or to develop mixed experimental and theoretical projects. Collaboration with the experimentalists include all the 22 groups of Neuro-PSI and the experimental and theoretical teams of the Human Brain Project (HBP) and NeuroSpin, research center for innovation in brain imaging. - A center of exchange welcoming theoreticians.
The institute hosts theoreticians, who are encouraged to spend time in the experimental labs around, and develop mixed experimental/theoretical projects. Similarly, the EITN welcomes experimentalist researchers to interact with the theoreticians and develop similar interdisciplinary projects.
Main Topics
Theoretical neuroscience is at the crossroad of many fields such as experimental neuroscience, physics, mathematics, and information technologies. The thematics investigated in the EITN workshops range from the microscopic (single neurons) to the macroscopic (entire brain areas) aspects in order to better understand the brain.
Examples of such research themes are:
- Bridging scales: Derive simplified neuron and neural circuit models from biophysically morphologically detailed models; Modeling brain signals at different scales, from intracellular, local field potentials, VSD up to EEG and MEG signals;
Examples of past EITN workshops on this theme:
– Mean-field approaches to the dynamics of neuronal networks,
– Modeling brain signals. - Generic models of brain circuits: provide theoretical methods for large-scale simulations with generic networks models. The models investigated are aimed at being fully compatible with the Human Brain Projects platforms;
Example of past EITN workshop on this theme:
– Network science for cortical circuits: specificity versus regularity. - Learning and memory: Derive learning rules from biophysical synapse models; Unsupervised learning rules and emergent connectivity;
Example of past EITN workshop on this theme:
– Synaptic plasticity. - Models of cognitive processes: Models for perception-action; Models for working memory; Models of biologically realistic network states, wakefulness and sleep;
Examples of past EITN workshops on this theme:
– Visuo-motor integration,
– Roles and Mechanisms of Cortico-cortical Feedback. - Linking model activity and function to experimental data: link theoretical models at different levels of description to cross-bridge neuroscience and models implemented in various Human Brain Project platforms.
Example of past EITN workshop on this theme:
– Neural coding in high dimensional, nonlinear systems.
Each of these themes are the basis of the events organized at the EITN during the year. External visitors whose expertise is related to these themes are encouraged to apply to the visitor program and participate to workshops. The EITN workshops also aim at using the EBRAINS infrastructure of the HBP.
