Statistical analysis of the organization of neurons in the cerebral cortex

Use statistical methods to analyze the distribution of neurons. The location of neurons within a region of space can be thought of as a pattern and these patterns can be analyzed. These types of patterns arise in many areas such as the location of trees in the forest, the position of cities on a map etc. With statistical methods these patterns can be analyzed to reveal an underlying structure. For example, a “simple” question when presented with a pattern is if it is “regular” or “irregular”. These categories can be further subdivided, and our aim is to develop methods to distinguish patterns formed by different types of neurons. Some pathological conditions, such as those occurring in autism, are not always associated with obvious degeneration of large brain areas, but is more likely to be due to changes in how neurons are incorporated into neuronal networks. These changes could thus be detected as reorganization in the location of neurons. We will develop statistical methods to analyze such changes.

If you are interested in spatial point process theory and can program in MatLab this is the project you have been looking for.

The work will be done at the Dept of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet.