Jorge Jaramillo (UChicago): Schmidt AI in Science Speaker Series
Organized by the University of Chicago’s Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Fellowship Program.
Agenda
4:00pm – 4:45pm: Presentation
4:45pm – 5:00pm: Q&A
5:00pm – 5:30pm: Reception
Meeting location
William Eckhardt Research Center. Room 401
5640 S Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637
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Title: Bridging Structure and Function in Brain Dynamics
Abstract: Computational neuroscience uses mathematical models and data analysis to understand how neural circuits give rise to behavior. A central idea is that large-scale connectivity—often quantified as connectivity matrices—constrains neural dynamics, ultimately shaping behavior. While such large-scale interactions are essential for brain computation, the relationship between structure and function remains poorly understood.
In the first part of this talk, I examine working memory, the ability to sustain information beyond the presentation of a stimulus. A leading neural mechanism underlying working memory is persistent activity—sustained firing after a stimulus disappears, maintaining internal representations without input. I show how tract tracing and cell-type specificity constrain long-range interactions that support sustained activity across the brain.
Working memory and other cognitive functions emerge from interactions between cortical (evolutionarily “new”) and subcortical (evolutionarily “old”) structures. In the second part, I build on this view to suggest a “boundary-less” formalism for cognition. Together, these directions aim toward a framework in which structure, cell-type specificity, and dynamics jointly shape computation across scales.
Bio: Jorge Jaramillo, PhD. Before joining UChicago, Dr. Jaramillo was a Junior Group Leader at the European Neuroscience Institute and Campus Institute for Dynamics of Biological Networks in Göttingen (2021-2023) and a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Prof. Xiao-Jing Wang at the New York University Center for Neural Science (2015-2020). He received a PhD in Computational Neuroscience as a Bernstein Fellow in Berlin, Germany under the supervision of Prof. Richard Kempter (2014).
Research Interest: In the Distributed Neural Dynamics and Control lab, Dr. Jaramillo investigates how subcortical structures interact with cortical circuits to subserve cognitive processes such as memory, attention, and decision-making. They use tools from dynamical systems and control theory to simulate and analyze how distributed neural dynamics arise from multiregional neural circuits and how these dynamics are controlled for purposeful behavior. Moreover, they study the network and behavioral effects of exogenous neuromodulation of subcortical structures (e.g., as used in DBS) to discover new avenues for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
