Stochastic processes at values in graphs induced by interacting neurons systems: a model for functional brain activity

• Grant number: 15/11578-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2015
• End date: November 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Probability and Statistics - Probability
• Principal Investigator: Pablo Augusto Ferrari
• Grantee: Guilherme Ost de Aguiar
• Host Institution: Instituto de Matemática e Estatística (IME). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07699-0 - Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Neuromathematics - NeuroMat, AP.CEPID

Abstract

The traffic between neuronal structures, during behavior or even at rest, creates and reshapes continuously complex functional networks of correlated dynamics. The understanding of how these spatio-temporal patterns of brain activity evolve alongtime has been at the core of the modern neuroscience and has been investigated, in diverse experimental modalities, usually through graph theoretical tools. The goal of this research project is to develop a new paradigm for accounting for functional brainnetworks observed in experimental data in neuroscience. Specifically, we address the statistical model selection problem for functional brain activity data. In order to do so, we introduce a new class of models, the graph-valued stochastic processes,propose a theoretical study of its mean features and finally pursue a consistent statistical procedure to select a member of this class.