2026-11-02 : CONECT seminar by Jorge Mejias

“Large-scale brain models: a window to oscillatory interactions and distributed cognitive functions”.

Bjørg Kilavik

Date
2026-11-02 113:00
  • When: Monday, November 2nd 14:00 to 15:00
  • Where: INT # salle Laurent Vinay

During this INT/CONECT seminar, Prof. Jorge Mejias will present his research on “Large-scale brain models: a window to oscillatory interactions and distributed cognitive functions”

Abstract : Understanding how cognitive functions emerge from distributed cortical processing requires models that bridge local circuit dynamics and brain-wide interactions. In this talk, I will present data-constrained large-scale models of the macaque and mouse brains that integrate anatomical connectivity with biologically grounded local dynamics. I will first discuss how these models account for frequency-specific interactions across cortical areas, including the emergence of distinct communication channels and hierarchical patterns of directed influence. I will then illustrate how the same framework can be used to study cognitive functions such as working memory and perceptual decision-making, viewed as computations distributed across interacting cortical networks. Together, these studies show how large-scale circuit models can link structural connectivity, neural dynamics, and cognition across species.

Jorge Mejias is associate professor and head of the Computational Neuroscience Lab at the Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Group of the University of Amsterdam. With a background in physics and mathematics, he obtained a PhD in computational neuroscience from the University of Granada (Spain) in 2009. During his PhD, he was also visiting researcher at the Université Paris V René Descartes (now Université de Paris, France). He continued his training as a postdoctoral researcher first at the University of Ottawa (Canada) and later at New York University (USA), and also as a visiting researcher at the East China Normal University/ NYU Shanghai (China), before joining the University of Amsterdam as assistant professor in 2017. The research of his team is focused on the theoretical and computational study of data-constrained multi-scale brain networks during perception and cognition, and the subsequent development into brain simulation technologies. Their interest spans several brain functions, including working memory, decision making and predictive coding, as well as brain disorders impairing such functions. Google Scholar
Events
Bjørg Kilavik
Bjørg Kilavik
Neuroscientist

My current research aims at contributing to our understanding of the neuronal dynamics underlying visuomotor integration and spatio-temporal attention in cortical networks.