Simulation of Paracrine Effects on Neural Dynamics

...is an active suggested science project and is 10% complete.
From tsbertalan on the 9th of January, 2012, at 5:56 pm.

This is the subject of a proposal for a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

The goal of this project is to model the effects of locally diffusing hormones on central nervous system dynamics. Neural network simulations are a class of computer programs that simulate sets of interacting nerve cells such that the network as a whole transforms input signals into output signals in a way that cannot be replicated with algebraic transfer functions. While a tradition of research exists in modeling networks of biological neurons with direct transmission of signals between neurons via synaptic neurotransmission, a literature search reveals no current simulations that include the secondary paracrine communication path of compounds that can diffuse in an expanding shell around some neurons. (Hypothesis:) Inclusion of this hormone effect will strongly enhance a model’s ability to match experimentally observed behavior for a given brain region.