Network control models of human brain dynamics
Computational psychiatry allows us to get closer to uncovering the neural bases of mental health disorders and, eventually, novel interventions to treat them. A particularly powerful tool has emerged in this realm – Network Control Theory (NCT) – which takes engineering principles and applies them to enable quantification of brain dynamics. Specifically, NCT allows mapping of the amount of control energy needed by individuals’ brains to transition between recurring states of activation, called transition energy (TE). In this talk, we will introduce the brain as a networked system and describe how NCT can be applied to understand brain dynamics and their changes in development, disease, and altered states – including under the effect of psychedelics.
Bio: Amy Kuceyeski is a professor of mathematics in radiology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine and an adjunct professor in the Department of Computational Biology at Cornell. She was awarded her Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Case Western Reserve University, after which she came to WCM and never left. Amy’s lab is interested in understanding how the human brain works in order to better diagnose, prognose and treat neurological disease and injury. Quantitative approaches, including machine learning and biophysical modeling, applied to data from rapidly evolving neuroimaging techniques, have the potential to enable ground-breaking discoveries about how the brain works. Amy has particular interest in non-invasive brain stimulation and pharmacological interventions, like psychedelics, that may be used to modulate brain activity and promote recovery from disease or injury. âÃÂÃÂAmy is also co-director of the AI core for the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative, an institute spanning several top academic centers that is poised to shed light on the mystery that is the female brain. The initiative will focus on understanding how the brain is changed by puberty, menstruation, oral contraceptives, pregnancy, motherhood, menopause and aging/dementia.