Thesis Project Form
Title (tentative): Criticality in different conscious statesThesis advisor(s): Arnulfo Gabriele | E-mail: |
Address: Via All'Opera Pia, 13 - 16145 Genova | Phone: |
Description
Motivation and application domain
Over the last decade, numerous signatures of criticality have been identified in brain activity. Some of the most striking examples are the probability distributions of size and duration for intermittent spontaneous activity bursts during ongoing activity in the cortex. Recently it has been observed that avalanches dynamics are modulated during sleep stages.
General objectives and main activities
The thesis aims at extensively investigating the characteristics of neuronal avalanches in the human brain at different conscious states. The candidates will analyse intra-cranial data from epileptic patients recorded in 5 different conditions (wakefulness, 2 NREM and 2 REM stages).
The thesis requires the construction of advanced processing pipeline for the estimation of avalanche distributions and long-range temporal correlations on intra-cerebral data.
The thesis requires the construction of advanced processing pipeline for the estimation of avalanche distributions and long-range temporal correlations on intra-cerebral data.
Training Objectives (technical/analytical tools, experimental methodologies)
The candidates will learn about self-organized criticality concepts and how to analyse SEEG data to characterize the dynamical properties of neuronal avalanches.
Place(s) where the thesis work will be carried out: DIBRIS – Università di Genova Neuroscience Centre – University of Helsinki, Finland
Additional information
Maximum number of students: 1
Financial support/scholarship: ERASMUS+