Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University, Japan

TITLE: Brain/MINDS 2.0 and the Digital Brain Project

Abstract: Following the conclusion of the Brain/MINDS project (2014-2024), a new six-year program Multidisciplinary Frontier Brain and Neuroscience Discoveries (Brain/MINDS 2.0) has started. A remarkable feature of this program is that the Digital Brain plays a central role in integrating structural and dynamic brain data from multiple species for understanding brain functions and tackling neuropsychiatric disorders. This talk will present what is the Digital Brain of Brain/MINDS 2.0, how we can build that, and how we can use that. The primary aims of the Digital Brain Project are to develop open-source software tools for data-driven model building by integrating anatomical, genetic, physiological, and behavioral data from mice, marmosets, macaques and humans and to provide cloud-based platform for cross-species data search, data-driven model building, and simulation analyses. By utilizing those tools and platforms, we aim to build models that realize brain functions like reinforcement learning and Bayesian inference and reproduce neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s disease and psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia to help early diagnosis and exploration of therapeutic and preventive strategies. This ambitious project requires fresh talents from math, computation, AI and brain sciences, as well as broad international collaborations. Through this conference, we hope to extend our network with researchers and research projects with overlapping interests and technologies.

SEU-ALLEN Joint Center, Southeast University, China

TITLE: Toward Building a Whole Brain Connectome at Single Neuron Resolution

Abstract: In this talk I will discuss our work of a large-scale study of whole-brain morphometry, analyzing 3.7 peta-voxels of mouse brain images at the single-cell resolution, producing one of the largest multi-morphometry databases of mammalian brains to date. We annotated 3D locations of cell bodies of 182,497 neurons, modeled 15,441 dendritic microenvironments, characterized the full morphology of 1,876 neurons along with their axonal motifs, and detected 2.63 million axonal varicosities that indicate potential synaptic sites. Our analysis covers six levels of information related to neuronal populations, dendritic microenvironments, single-cell full morphology, sub-neuronal dendritic and axonal arborization, axonal varicosities , and sub-neuronal structural motifs, along with a quantification of the diversity and stereotypy of patterns at each level. Overall, our study provides an integrative description of key anatomical structures of neurons and their types, covering a wide range of scales and features, and contributes a large-scale resource to understanding neuronal diversity in the mammalian brain. With this dataset, we start to formulate a possible whole brain scale connectome at the single neuron resolution for mouse brains.

University of California, Irvine, USA

TITLE: Graphical Modeling of Brain Networks

University of California Los Angeles, USA

TITLE: Brain Dynamics and Flexible Behaviors

Abstract: Executive control processes and flexible behaviors rely on the integrity of, and dynamic interactions between, large-scale functional brain networks. The right insular cortex is a critical component of a salience/midcingulo-insular network that is thought to mediate interactions between brain networks involved in externally oriented (central executive/lateral frontoparietal network) and internally oriented (default mode/medial frontoparietal network) processes. How these brain systems reconfigure with development is a critical question for cognitive neuroscience, with implications for neurodevelopmental pathologies affecting brain connectivity. I will describe studies examining how brain network dynamics support flexible behaviors in typical and atypical development, presenting evidence suggesting a unique role for the dorsal anterior insular from studies of meta-analytic connectivity modeling, dynamic functional connectivity, and structural connectivity. These findings from adults, typically developing children, and children with autism suggest that structural and functional maturation of insular pathways is a critical component of the process by which human brain networks mature to support complex, flexible cognitive processes throughout the lifespan.