Unit News

Researchers delve into networks of virtual brain cells to explore a unique firing behavior.

Simulated neuron gives strong predictions for future research.

New research illuminates complex molecular network involved in learning.

New computational software developed by OIST researchers is hundreds of times faster than conventional tools, opening up new opportunities to understand how individual neurons and networks of neurons function.

Insight into how neurons in the cerebellum respond to rapid eye movements may provide clues for modern medical technology.

The Computational Neuroscience Unit has enhanced their neuronal simulation program STEPS, bringing us a step closer to understanding the human brain.

In a paper just accepted for publication in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, two OIST researchers have demonstrated a technique for brain dissection that allows researchers to investigate neurons in older tissues, a nearly impossible feat.

In a paper published last month in the Journal of Neuroscience, Prof. Erik De Schutter and his former postdoc Gabriela Antunes report that by constructing a computational model of many molecules in a part of the neuron that regulates synapse strength, they have gained new and surprising insight into what determines that strength.

A central, controversial, and long-standing question in neuroscience is how neurons encode the information they are sending along: is it the rate of spike firing that carries the message, or is the timing of the output spikes from a neuron relative to the input to that neuron more important?

by Micheal E. Cooper OIST researcher Hermina Nedelescu combines genetics, microscopy and computational anatomy to unravel the dense neuronal forest of Purkinje cells in the adult cerebellum.