Brent Doiron

Assistant Professor

Department of Mathematics

University of Pittsburgh

Thackeray Hall - Rm 505.

Pittsburgh, PA, 15206

Tel: (412) 624-1759

Fax: (412) 624-8397

email: bdoiron “at” pitt “dot” edu

The brain is a complicated machine and despite the great interest of a broad group of academics and clinicians, there is still only limited knowledge of its inner workings.  An important step in understanding brain behavior is to relate neural processing to the dynamics of both single neurons and networks of neurons. To this end, my research uses a combination of stochastic and nonlinear dynamics, information theory, and neural modeling to explore mathematical models of brain and their relation to idealized coding tasks. In particular, I have focused on investigating the impact of correlations and rhythms across neural populations on the representation and processing of sensory stimuli.

Selected Publications

de la Rocha J*, Doiron B*, Shea-Brown E. Josic K. and Reyes A.  Correlation between neural spike trains increase with firing rate.  Nature 448: 802-806, 2007. *equal contribution.

Doiron B, Lindner B, Longtin A, Maler L, and Bastian J.  Oscillatory activity in electrosensory neurons increases with the spatial correlation of the stochastic input stimulus. PRL. 93:048101, 2004.

Doiron B, Chacron MJ, Maler L, Longtin A, Bastain J. Inhibitory feedback required for network oscillatory responses to communication but not prey stimuli. Nature 421:539-543, 2003.