Seminar by Gorka Zamora-Lopez 19/04/2024

Friday April 19, 2024, 14h30 – Salle Henri Gastaut

Gorka Zamora-Lopez (CBC, Univ. Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Human Brain Project)

A dynamical perspective for complex networks: applications to brain connectivity and consciousness

Abstract: The field of complex networks has become a central tool for studying real systems across various fields of research. Represented as graphs, different systems can be studied using the same analysis methods, which allows for their comparison. However, from a dynamical point of view, we show that network analysis is
to be regarded as a model-based method, tunable for different model of navigation and spread of information. As such, we take stand that network topology and network dynamics shall be jointly studied. We illustrate the benefits of this approach for the analysis of neuroimaging functional data, over the traditional network metrics,
as it coherently merges with measures of effective connectivity. In particular, applied to fMRI of patients suffering from disorders of consciousness, our approach could elucidate the disrupted propagation of activity in patients with long-term unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, and we could identify crucial neural circuits that are restablished in patients regaining minimal consciousness.