This is our work project during Neuromatch Academy 2020.
Thanks to our TA Alex Gonzalez and our Mentor Ben Scott
What is the minimum connectivity of a functional neural network to perform a visual discrimination task?
In the context of brain lesions and neurodegenerative diseases, we find that neuron populations adapt to the loss of the cell’s viability. The brain’s correct function is often interrupted only at stages where a large percentage of neurons are lost. How does the flow of information can be interrupted by these lesions? Does the location of these regions are essential?
The neural representation of visual and motor information associated with a task is spread on several brain regions conforming to a functional network to engage in different stages of a visual task (visual, motor, and choice related). Using a model where we assume the nature of the information communication between areas, we want to explore what is the minimal neural connectivity that allows the network to perform the task and how performance is affected by artificially lesioning the model.
Model
