Ilya Rybak Research Interests

Computational Neuroscience (general issues):

• Computational modeling of biological neurons and neural networks

• Kinetics of ionic channels in and their role in the neuronal pattern formation

• Cross-level integration of sub-cellular, cellular, network and systems brain/neural mechanisms

• Spatio-temporal dynamics of activity and oscillations in biological neural networks and populations

• Interfacing computational models working in real time with real neural systems

Motor Control (general issues):

• Neural control of voluntary and automatic movements

• Neurogenesis of the respiratory rhythm and neural control of breathing

• Neurogenesis of the locomotor rhythm and neural control of locomotion

Neurogenesis of the respiratory rhythm and neural control of breathing:

• Network mechanisms for rhythm generation and motor pattern formation in the respiratory brainstem

• Spatial organization of the brainstem respiratory center

• The role of cellular and network mechanisms in the respiratory rhythm and pattern generation

• The role of the pons and pulmonary feedback in the control of the respiratory rhythm and motor pattern

• Interactions between the respiratory and cardiovascular systems in normal and disease states

Neurogenesis of the locomotor rhythm and neural control of locomotion:

• Cellular and network mechanisms for locomotor rhythm generation in the mammalian spinal cord

• The role of intrinsic properties of spinal interneurons and motoneurons in locomotor pattern generation

• Afferent and supra-spinal control of the spinal central pattern generator (CPG) during walking

• Developing neuro-musculo-skeletal models of mammalian locomotion

• Applications to restoration of the locomotor function after spinal cord injuries and diseases

• Applications to legged robot locomotion

Vision:

• neural mechanisms for image processing and feature detection in the visual cortex

• temporal dynamics of neuronal activity and orientation selectivity in the visual cortex

• visual image processing, perception, representation and invariant recognition

• visual attention based on eye movements and foveation

• bottom-up (image content driven) and top-down (goal and semantics driven) control of attention

• interactions between neural mechanisms for low-level and high-level brain structures during visual perception and recognition

• representation of what and where information in the visual system

• behavioral and cognitive aspects of visual perception

• applications of biological vision principles to computer and robot vision

 

Selected projects:

Modeling the locomotor  CPG              Neural control of locomotion              Motor control         Network model of respiratory CPG                     Modeling neural control of breathing                      Behavioral model of visual perception                       Modeling orientation selectivity

 

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