The eighth talk in the 2021 Western-Fields Seminar Series in Networks, Random Graphs, and Neuroscience<http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/activities/21-22/western-fields> is next Thursday (28 October) at noon ET. Frances Skinner<https://www.skinnerlab.org/> (Krembil Research Institute) will give a talk titled “Tackling the cellular diversity in our brains” (abstract below). Dr. Skinner is a leader in computational neuroscience and has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of neural dynamics from single cells to whole networks. This seminar series features monthly virtual talks from a diverse group of researchers across computational neuroscience, physics, and graph theory. We are looking forward to talks from Alexander Lubotzky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) in November and Jeannette Janssen (Dalhousie University) in December. Registration link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYuf-GppzkjHt0W5HMDpME2UpUiE7ntO5JS — How do we address the challenge of bringing about a cellular-based understanding of our brain workings? From a neurological disease perspective, this needs to be addressed as pathologies involve cellular specifics. The ‘brain hub’ hippocampus, an essential brain structure for learning and memory, generates robust rhythmic activities. However, figuring out how the multitude of cell types in the hippocampus contribute to these states is an immense challenge. In this talk, I will describe the modeling approaches we are taking to obtain a cellular-based understanding of theta (3-12 Hz) rhythms in the hippocampus, an essential element of the ‘phase-coding functional unit’ in the hippocampus. -- Lyle Muller http://mullerlab.ca