Michael Breakspear

Unpacking the brain into multiscale space: Methods, evidence and models. Both the architecture and the dynamics of the brain have characteristic features at different spatial scales. However, the existence, nature and function of dynamical interdependencies between such scales have not been investigated. "Wavelets" - hierarchical families of functions - are natural candidates for modelling and analysing multiscale systems. In this talk, we briefly explicate wavelet functions and then show how they can be used to understand complex neural dynamics. For example, wavelet decompositions of neural models reveal both scale-free and scale dependent dynamics with strong interdependences between scales. Human functional neuroimaging studies of the visual system also show evidence for multiscale interactions. Finally, we explicate a novel theoretical framework for neural systems in which the dynamics are nested within a multiscale architecture and link this to computational theories of brain organization.