# Project 5: Computational

> **NIH NIH P50** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2020 · $246,765

## Abstract

Abstract 
We will use detailed biophysical (Dynamical Systems) modeling to pursue two large questions critical to 
integrating and understanding the results of Projects 1-4. What are the physiological origins of the brain 
rhythms studied empirically in Projects 1-4? How do network level rhythms depend on the physiological 
properties of the underlying neuronal ensembles? Modeling uses differential equation descriptions of 
physiology at the level of single cells, synapses and networks. Data from Projects 2 and 4, along with prior 
models and in-vitro findings, will help to build and refine physiologically-plausible cell circuit models that 
generate oscillations. Models will help investigate how local brain rhythms, periodic (and aperiodic) sensory 
inputs and top-down signals combine in Active Sensing. We will rigorously test questions concerning the 
neuron populations, interconnections and cellular processes (e.g., conductances) that generate specific 
rhythms (e.g., alpha and delta) in multiple parts of the brain during Active Sensing tasks. Laminar activity 
profiles sampled concurrently from multiple cortical and thalamic areas in Projects 2 and 4 will allow us to 
model and constrain rhythmic dynamics at a network level, which is the a-priori level of analysis in Projects 1 
and 3. In an “iterative loop,” models will generate testable predictions at cellular, cell-circuit and and small 
network levels to be tested in monkeys, and at larger network levels to be tested in humans (Core A), in each 
case feeding back into the modeling. Our SPECIFIC AIMS are: 
AIM 1: Model thalamocortical interactions underlying intrinsic sampling rhythms in Active Sensing. 
AIM 2: Model the physiology of selective thalamocortical entrainment to rhythmic input. An ongoing R21 
AIM 3: Model the large scale circuitry orchestrating distinct operational modes of Active Sensing.. 
CENTER SYNERGIES: This project will use thalamic and cortical data from Project 4 to model cortical and 
thalamic interactions in selective entrainment to “extrinsic” rhythms, and data from Project 2 to model cortical 
and thalamic interactions underlying “intrinsic” rhythmic sampling of sensory input. After the computational 
models have incorporated sufficient empirically-derived information, results that make testable new predictions 
for the physiology studies will be used to refine their analyses. They will also provide tools with which to explain 
the effects of thalamic projections on cortical coherences seen in the analyses of projects 1 and 3. Specific 
model predictions will be tested with phamacological manipulations in monkeys, and with direct brain 
stimulation in monkeys and in selected ECoG sstudies (Core A), and the results will refine the model.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9940906
- **Project number:** 5P50MH109429-04
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** NANCY KOPELL
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $246,765
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9940906

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9940906, Project 5: Computational (5P50MH109429-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9940906. Licensed CC0.

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