CRCNS Research Proposal: Modeling traveling waves in the human cortex

The human brain consists of a massive network of interconnected brain cells, and an important unanswered question is to explain how these cells interact to flexibly support different types of behaviors. In this project the principal investigators (PIs) hypothesize that rhythmic waves of neuronal activity—traveling waves—play an important role in allowing the brain to flexibly reorganize and cause task-related activity to move to its proper destination during behavior. This project will measure traveling waves from the human brain directly, using electrodes surgically placed inside the brain in collaboration with neurosurgeons performing clinical procedures. Further, using these recordings, the PIs will create computational models of these waves to test theories for how traveling waves move across the brain and how they change direction in relation to different task behaviors. In addition to explaining the fundamental mechanisms of traveling wave propagation, this work also has practical implications for creating brain-computer interfaces and treating diseases related to disrupted neuronal interactions. This research thus has implications for improving human health by showing how traveling waves should be structured in healthy individuals and demonstrating how they may not propagate properly in people with brain disorders. The project is a collaboration between Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh and offers valuable educational and outreach opportunities. Specifically, it offers training opportunities in neuroscience methods for undergraduates and other trainees from the New York City and Pittsburgh areas as well as an online monthly meeting group for the discussion of scientific issues related to traveling waves, which is fully open to all.The goal of this project is to perform novel experiments and build computational models to explain the functional properties and mechanisms of traveling waves in the human cortex. Traveling patterns of neuronal oscillations are a widespread but mysterious phenomenon in which neuronal oscillations propagate spatially across the human cortex. The PIs hypothesize that traveling waves coordinate information transmission across the brain such that their direction and timing reveal where and when specific task-related information is processed along large-scale brain regions. This project will create biologically plausible computational models of how neural traveling waves are generated in the human brain and iteratively refine these models by conducting parallel experiments in human neurosurgical patients with implanted electrodes. These subjects will perform realistic spatial memory and navigation paradigms and measure how traveling waves propagate in different directions to support separate behaviors. It will also create computational models to explain these task-related direction shifts. The PIs will analyze how the timing of traveling waves relates to the speed of memory retrieval in the experiments. Specifically, the PIs will create ​​computational models that simulate how the timing of traveling wave propagation relates to the fidelity and speed of neural signal propagation across the cortex. In this work, through close interaction between experiments and theoretical modeling, the PIs will obtain a rigorous explanation of the neural basis of traveling waves for high-level cognition and detailed types of neural computation.This award is being co-funded by the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) within the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate (MPS) and Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) in the Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.