GeoTop lecture: The topology of Brain Cells.

Nils Baas (NTNU, Trondheim)

Abstract:

I will discuss the topological methods used to analyze a recent data set of grid cells in the brain of rats. The data come from the Moser Lab at NTNU. Under spatial behaviour the single cell activity of a collection of such neurons is measured. 

I will show that the natural state space of the collection is a two dimensional torus. Furthermore, by the use of cohomological techniques the (global) spatial behaviour can be predicted from the (local) single cell activity.

The results have been published in Nature in January 2022.