Bridging the Gap: Implementing Building Blocks of Nervous System to Simulate Neuronal Functions at Different Levels

About this Research Topic

Background

Mechanisms of how the nervous system is built has been extensively studied in several different levels including molecular levels. Their pathological conditions have also been characterized in neurological diseases. However, such understanding does not necessarily explain the phenomena seen at the different levels, including cognitive levels.

The nervous system is a heterogenous and complex structure where specific areas are mapped to specific types of information processing including sensation of visual, auditory, and olfactory stimuli. At the same time common elements also exist in the system, such as neuron subtypes, non-neuronal cell types, developmental stages, aging processes and structures of cellular compartments including axons, dendrites, and synapses.

Specific cognitive functions might be understood by specific information inputs, synaptic connections, firing patterns, gene expression, molecular localization, and their combinations.

As seen in the history of the development of medicine, artificial intelligence and robotics, a greater understanding of how the nervous system operates has enormous implications. A multitude of studies, including omics studies, have been conducted that characterize the nervous system in certain aspects. However, there remains a strong need to advance our understanding in the nervous system, particularly across mutli-disciplinary aspects, for example, to bridge molecular levels and network and cognitive levels.

To this end, in this Research Topic, we aim to collate reports examining how different levels of biological phenomena, or elements, influence or help emerging properties in different biological levels. Such findings should enable us to further understand cognitive functions in more comprehensive way and develop better medicine, technologies.

The research topic welcomes the following:

- Simulation studies implementing characteristics of certain elements of the nervous system to explain functional phenomena seen in the different biological levels. The simulations can be simple, and do not need to be comprehensive, but should examine testable hypotheses and compare with existing knowledge

- Simulation studies linking developmental changes in synaptic, cell-population, structural properties with functional changes of the nervous system

- Studies linking mutations of genes responsible for neuronal diseases with characteristic features in neuronal and cognitive activities seen in the diseases

- Descriptions of limitations of the above described simulations and how the simulations differ from reality or expectations

Keywords: Nervous System, Neuronal Functions

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