The course is interdisciplinary and covers modeling at different levels of organization of the brain, from single neurons to microcircuits and networks. We will focus on differences between healthy and diseased brains. Participants will learn about compartmental and morphological modeling of synapses, dendrites and neurons, as well as simulating local field potentials (LFPs). The course combines lectures, tutorials and computer exercises.

This summer school is the seventh in the series of the Baltic-Nordic Courses on Neuroinformatics (BNNI 2013 in Kaunas, Lithuania; BNNI 2014 in Tampere, Finland; BNNI 2015 in Tartu, Estonia; BNNI 2016 in Warsaw, Poland; BNNI 2017 in Kaunas, Lithuania; BNNI 2018 in Ventspils, Latvia).

TARGET AUDIENCE

The target audience of the course will be advanced master students, doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in biomedical and technology sciences, from medicine, biology, psychology, to mathematics, informatics, information technology, physics, chemistry, who would like to get an introduction to neuroinformatics and computational neuroscience. Some experience with programming and quantitative reasoning as well as strong interest in computational and mathematical modeling of the brain will be desirable but not necessary to benefit from the school. We will use the NEURON simulation environment for biophysical realistic models of neurons and the Matlab software package including the TREES toolbox. Desktop computers will be provided for the exercise part.

ORGANIZERS

Peter Jedlicka, ICAR3R, Justus Liebig University Gießen, Germany

Ausra Saudargiene, Neuroscience Institute, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania

Marja-Leena Linne, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

Jochen Triesch, FIAS, Frankfurt, Germany

Martin Mittag, ICAR3R, Justus Liebig University Gießen, Germany

Herbert Ehrenberger, ICAR3R, Justus Liebig University Gießen, Germany

Susanne Steiner, FIAS, Frankfurt, Germany