The Cognitive & Computational Neuroscience Centre (CCNC) is an inter-disciplinary initiative established at UCD to carry out research at the interface between Computer Science and the Neuro-sciences. This Basic Research project funded by Enterprise Ireland makes use of dynamical systems theory to understand brain function both at a neural and cognitive level.

At the neural level, a number of researchers have argued that the dynamical properties of firing neurons may have a central role to play in explaining how the brain computes. For example, one important dynamical feature is the process of synchronised oscillation of neuronal firing patterns. It has been shown that clusters of neurons at simultaneously stimulated sites in the cortex and elsewhere in the brain can exhibit synchronous oscillations over distances comparable to the size of the cortex. Recently, it has been shown that synchrony appears at multiple scales, from small pools of locally connected neurons to sites on opposite sides of the brain. It is hypothesised that synchronised firing plays a central role in "binding" together disparate features of sensory input (e.g. colour and shape), allowing us to perceive objects in the world as coherent wholes, with the correct features associated with the appropriate objects.

We are developing a theory called Cortical Software Re-Use (CSRU) which aims to account for a range of neuro-computational and cognitive-developmental phe-nomena. The central concept of the theory, that of "software re-use", is borrowed from the field of software engineering. Put simply, it states that dynamical neural processes from the sensory-motor areas of the brain provide the computational building blocks for higher level functions up to and including those involved in cognition and language. The aim of our research effort is to provide a rigorous mathematical foundation, implement it as a computational model, and test it against neuroscientific data.

Contact:Dr Ronan Reilly, CCNC,Department of Computer Science, UCD;
E-mail: ronan.reilly@ucd.ie
1. Department of Computer Science, UCD
2. Department of Mathematical Physics, UCD
3. Department of Psychology, UCD