Convergent Science Network Podcast

This post-lecture interview was conducted during the BCBT Summerschool held at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, september 2010. 

The connectome, as developed by Olaf Sporns and his colleagues (University of Indiana, USA), offers a description of the human brain from the perspective of a dynamic, multilayered network. It tries to map the anatomy as well as the structural organization of the brain's dynamic nature, and does so by incorporating views from physics and economy, like expressed in e.g. Graph Theory. The dynamic network approach has also brought new terms and concepts, that address the brain as an architecture of interconnected modules, and hubs, besides that of neurons. With Paul Verschure Olaf Sporns discusses the limitations of the techniques applied to build and quantify such a network model, as well as the fundamental limitations of abstract modeling itself with respect to real brains, in a real world. For the future, Olav Sporns sees the mapping of 'the' brain challenged by multiple individual factors, like the apparent anatomical differences between people given similar behavior, and the enormous changes in connectivity that appear to occur during youth and adolescence.

About the lecturer
Olaf Sporns is Professor and Associate Department Chair at Indiana University. His focus is in the area of computational cognitive neuroscience. Specifically, functional integration and binding in the cortex, neural models of perception and action, network structure and dynamics, applications of information theory to the brain, and embodied cognitive science using robotics.