Cerebral Cortex Research

There are three workgroups in this laboratory:

Workgroup of neuronal networks, led by Dr. Gábor Nyiri
Workgroup of in vitro physiology led by Dr. Attila Gulyás
Workgroup of computational neuroscience led by Dr. Szabolcs Káli

Excerpt from the Guidebook of the Institute 2015.

Workgroup of neuronal networks

The sophisticated cognitive functions of the human & mammalian brain reside in complex connections of cells in the central nervous system. In order to understand how the brain works, we need to find the connections among the different brain areas. Research in our group is directed towards understanding the behavioural consequences of the activity or inactivity of those connections. We try to decipher which transmitters & receptors are used there, and how their receptors distribute & function in their synapses. Using viral tracings, optogenetic behavioural techniques, quantitative high-resolution neuroanatomical light and electron microscopic methods, we primarily focus on the role of connections that target cortical, hippocampal and forebrain areas and on the roles they play in healthy & diseased states of the brain.

Funding:

• Hungarian Brain Research Program, Hungary
  2017-1.2.1-NKP-2017-00002
• Human Brain Project; EU
  (EU H2020 720270)
• Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovaciós Alap, Hungary
  OTKA K119521
• Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovaciós Alap, Hungary
  OTKA NN125643
• New National Excellence Program
  of the Ministry of Human Capacities, Hungary.

Workgroup webpage: http://koki.hu/~nyiri/

Workgroup members:

Workgroup of in vitro physiology

Neuronal network activity is generated through the interaction of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. To understand dynamics, two aspects of network behavior have to be studied: control and coding. Studying how different inhibitory neurons behave during distinct network states we can understand control. Monitoring the activity of large populations of principal neurons during different network states can help to understand the rules of coding.

We use an improved in vitro slice preparation that upon pharmacological manipulations can switch among different activity patterns similar to physiological (gamma oscillation, sharp-wave ripples) and pathological (epileptic) in vivo patterns. This arrangement allows selective and quick manipulation of the network's behavior and parallel multichannel recording of network activity (field potentials and multiunit) as well as recording of cellular output (loose-patch recording of action potentials) and input (voltage and current clamp) from identified neurons or pairs of neurons.

We study:

• How do different inhibitory neurons integrate convergent synaptic inputs and generate action potentials during different network activity patterns?
• How do different cell types balance the activity of excitatory neurons as a function of network activation and synchrony?

Funding:

• Hungarian Brain Research Program, Hungary
  2017-1.2.1-NKP-2017-00002
• Human Brain Project; EU
  (EU H2020 720270)
• Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovaciós Alap, Hungary
  OTKA K115441

Workgroup webpage: http://www.koki.hu/~gulyas/

Workgroup members:

Workgroup of computational neuroscience

The brain is a highly complex, nonlinear system, whose operation needs to be understood over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Although a huge amount of data about the nervous system has been collected using a large variety of experimental approaches, making sense of these results and especially connecting the different scales is almost impossible through purely intuitive approaches and qualitative theories. Computational neuroscience offers a range of quantitative tools which allow us to describe the data in a succinct manner, to formulate our hypotheses about neural function clearly and precisely, and to link different scales and levels of organization through the application of mechanistic models. Models are on the one hand constrained by experimental data and, on the other hand, provide novel predictions which are testable using experimental methods.

Our workgroup uses various mathematical and simulation tools to study the dynamics and functions of both single neurons and networks in the hippocampus, often in combination with experiments conducted in the lab. Some of the main focus areas of our group are the following:

• synaptic integration and nonlinear processing in neuronal dendrites
• the origin and functions of population dynamics which are characteristic of the hippocampus, including theta and gamma oscillations and sharp wave-ripple events
• the storage and retrieval of spatial and memorial representations in the hippocampus
• fitting of neuronal parameters based on experimental data, and quantification of the expected precision of parameter inference

Workgroup members: