Computational Neuroscience

While all GPN students have the opportunity to conduct thesis research that is computationally based and to take coursework specific to this discipline, formal studies organized by the Computational Neuroscience Curriculum Committee (Uri Eden, Nancy Kopell, Mark Kramer, David Mountain, and Barbara Shinn-Cunningham) in collaboration with the GPN Academic Director of Computational Studies (Frank Guenther, Associate Director of GPN) provides them with the most advanced set of skills required to face the challenges emerging from this exciting new discipline in neuroscience.

This specialized curriculum supplements core neuroscience training with advanced training in a wide array of computational methods for (i) studying the nervous system and (ii) developing neuroscience-related technologies. Topics of study include neural network modeling, neural dynamics, sensory, motor, and cognitive modeling, statistical modeling, sensory prosthesis, brain-machine interfaces, neuroinformatics, neuromorphic engineering, and robotics. Coursework is chosen from the wide array of computational and neuroscience courses offered by the many departments and programs of the main Boston University campus and the BU School of Medicine. Students pursue their thesis interests in laboratories across the University and have the opportunity to combine hands on experimental research with highly sophisticated computational analysis.

To acknowledge the rigorous academic foundation that students receive from completing this specialized curriculum, and the interdisciplinary background of their “core” coursework that they share with all students in GPN, upon graduating they receive the PhD in Neuroscience and Computational Neuroscience.

Computational Neuroscience Faculty at Boston University

(Please note: Potential applicants should contact GPN rather than individual faculty members listed below. Specific questions about the computational neuroscience specialization can be sent to Prof. Frank Guenther, Associate Director, GPN.)

	Peter Bergethon Intelligence modeling; electrochemistry of biomolecules		Jason Bohland Speech neuroscience; neuroimaging; neuroinformatics
	Jon Brumberg Speech neuroscience; neural prosthesis; speech synthesis & technology		Daniel Bullock Neural modeling of voluntary action and reinforcement learning
	Gail Carpenter Neural networks; pattern recognition; neuromorphic technology		Michael Cohen Speech processing; measurement theory; cardiovascular modeling
	Stephen Colburn Binaural hearing; neural modeling; hearing impairments		James Collins Synthetic biology; systems biology; sensory prosthesis
	Uri Eden Mathematical and statistical modeling of neural spiking activity		Timothy Gardner Songbird neural circuit development; neural recording technology
	Stephen Grossberg Neural modeling of vision; speech; cognition; emotion; motor control; navigation; mental disorders		Frank Guenther Speech neuroscience; neural prosthesis; neuroimaging
	Xue Han Neurotechnology, optogenetics, neural prosthetics		Michael Hasselmo Memory-guided behavior; role of oscillations in cortical function
	Marc Howard Cognition and neural representation of time and space		Allyn Hubbard Auditory physiology; VLSI; neurocomputing
	Eric Kolaczyk Statistical analysis of network-indexed data; biological networks modeling and data analysis		Mark Kon Machine learning and bioinformatics; neural network theory
	Nancy Kopell Neural dynamics; rhythmic behavior in neural networks		Mark Kramer Neural dynamics; neural rhythms in normal and diseased brains
	Ennio Mingolla Vision; neural network modeling; neuromorphic technology		David Mountain Auditory information processing; biomedical electronics
	Hamid Nawab Signal processing of neural activity; auditory scene analysis		Jason Ritt Sensorimotor behaviors; active sensing; neural prosthesis
	Michele Rucci Active perception; visual neuroscience; robotics		Eric Schwartz Computational neuroscience; machine vision; neuroanatomy
	Kamal Sen Natural sound encoding; auditory plasticity; birdsong		Barbara Shinn-Cunningham Auditory neuroscience; spatial hearing; neuroimaging
	David Somers Visual perception and cognition; neuroimaging; neural modeling		Cara Stepp Sensorimotor function disorders
	Malvin Teich Biosignal analysis; audition; vision; biological imaging		Jason Tourville Speech motor control; neuroimaging; neuroanatomy
	Lucia Vaina Computational models of vision; neuroimaging		Massimiliano Versace Neural modeling; whole-brain systems; neuromorphic technology; cognitive robotics
	Arash Yazdanbakhsh Human vision and its modeling; human electrophysiology and psychophysics