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    Geisel Web

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    Asif Raza
    at the University of Göttingen, where he zation in Göttingen, Germany. His re- also received his PhD in theoretical search focuses on modeling nonlinear physics in 1982. He is a professor of dynamical systems using approaches from The document summarizes research at the Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics on complex systems like the brain and wave propagation. The research uses nonlinear dynamics models to understand phenomena like brain function, chaotic transport in nanostructures, and wave propagation in complex media. It also examines human dynamics, neural mechanisms of timing in music, and inferring collective dynamics from neural recordings when only observing a fraction of neurons. The director, Theo Geisel, studies theoretical physics and nonlinear

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    Geisel Web

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    Asif Raza
    9 views3 pages
    at the University of Göttingen, where he zation in Göttingen, Germany. His re- also received his PhD in theoretical search focuses on modeling nonlinear physics in 1982. He is a professor of dynamical systems using approaches from The document summarizes research at the Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics on complex systems like the brain and wave propagation. The research uses nonlinear dynamics models to understand phenomena like brain function, chaotic transport in nanostructures, and wave propagation in complex media. It also examines human dynamics, neural mechanisms of timing in music, and inferring collective dynamics from neural recordings when only observing a fraction of neurons. The director, Theo Geisel, studies theoretical physics and nonlinear

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    at the University of Göttingen, where he zation in Göttingen, Germany. His re- also received his PhD in theoretical search focuses on modeling nonlinear physics in 1982. He is a professor of dynamical systems using approaches from The document summarizes research at the Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics on complex systems like the brain and wave propagation. The research uses nonlinear dynamics models to understand phenomena like brain function, chaotic transport in nanostructures, and wave propagation in complex media. It also examines human dynamics, neural mechanisms of timing in music, and inferring collective dynamics from neural recordings when only observing a fraction of neurons. The director, Theo Geisel, studies theoretical physics and nonlinear

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    9 views3 pages

    Geisel Web

    Uploaded by

    Asif Raza
    at the University of Göttingen, where he zation in Göttingen, Germany. His re- also received his PhD in theoretical search focuses on modeling nonlinear physics in 1982. He is a professor of dynamical systems using approaches from The document summarizes research at the Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics on complex systems like the brain and wave propagation. The research uses nonlinear dynamics models to understand phenomena like brain function, chaotic transport in nanostructures, and wave propagation in complex media. It also examines human dynamics, neural mechanisms of timing in music, and inferring collective dynamics from neural recordings when only observing a fraction of neurons. The director, Theo Geisel, studies theoretical physics and nonlinear

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    Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics

    Nonlinear Dynamics, Chaos, and


    Theoretical Brain Research
    Complex systems typically exhibit nonlinearities in their equations of motion; the field of nonlinear dyna-
    mics offers the mathematical basis for their investigation, e.g., for one of the most complex systems we
    know, the network of interacting nerve cells in our brains. Here, one of our goals is to understand their
    collective dynamics, which forms the essence of brain function. As ground-breaking experimental pro-
    gress, e.g. based on multiphoton imaging, now promises the observation of large brain networks at work
    in cognitive tasks, it is a challenging and promising endeavor for theoreticians to model this nonlinear ma-
    ny-body system in order to unravel brain function. More generally, our research led by Theo Geisel, Ragnar
    Fleischmann, and Viola Priesemann focuses on modelling a broad range of nonlinear dynamical systems
    in physics and biology, from theoretical brain research to chaotic transport in nanostructures and wave
    propagation in complex media.

    Quantum dynamics and wave propagation


    in complex media

    The interplay of nonlinear dynamics and wave propagation is The phenomena we address in our own research reach from
    a rich area of complex phenomena. Reaching back to the very the chaotic motion of ballistic electrons in graphene, to the
    beginnings of nonlinear science and computational physics dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices
    in the celebrated Fermi-Pasta-Ulam computer experiment and to the occurrence of extreme events in wave propagati-
    on the statistical physics of heat transport, this area of phy- on through complex media.
    sics became prominent in the field of quantum chaos. Its im- Complex media due to their internal structure can often be
    plications are now subject of research in many fundamental described as random fields with spatial correlations. When
    and applied sciences, from atom-optics to oceanography. waves are weakly scattered by such a medium, the weak but

    1500 km

    Fig. 1: The simulation of a tsunami wave in a region of the Indian Ocean where the ocean depth variations have a standard deviation of only less
    than 7% reveals the strong impact of branching on tsunami propagation [1].

    1
    Nonlinear Dynamics, Chaos, and Theoretical Brain Research

    Fig. 2: The collective dynamics of the network of interacting nerve cells in our brains forms the basis of brain function and provides formidable
    challenges for innovative theoretical research. When recording activity from a brain area (left), we are constrained to sampling a fraction of the
    neurons (right). We are developing approaches for inferring the collective dynamics despite this subsampling constraint (figure generated using
    TREES toolbox by H. Cuntz).

    correlated random forces conspire with nonlinear dynamics We investigate these questions building on approaches from
    and diffraction to cause waves of extreme height or intensity statistical physics and information theory. In collaboration
    in characteristic branch-like spatial structures [2]. This phen- with experimentalists from the Hôpital Salpetrière in Paris
    omenon can cause unexpected conductance features in se- we recently showed that the human brain can exhibit col-
    miconductors as well as giant “rogue waves” at sea. And even lective dynamics close to a “critical state”, as in a 2nd order
    tiny fluctuations in the height-profile of the ocean floor can phase transtition [3,5]. This state appears functionally parti-
    scatter tsunami waves and focus their energy by an order of cularly versatile for brain function, because in models it has
    magnitude (see Fig.1), with severe consequences for tsunami been found to maximize information processing capacity.
    predictability. This line of our research is complemented by To precisely infer the properties of collective dynamics from
    our studies on the intrinsic localization of nonlinear waves, neural recordings, we are deriving mathematical approaches
    e.g. of Bose-Einstein condensates in leaky optical lattices, that allow to infer the collective dynamics from only a small
    which also leads to extreme events albeit by very different subset of all neurons (subsampling). This approach for the
    mechanisms. first time formalizes the inference of system dynamics from
    observations that are limited to a small fraction of units, and
    Neural Dynamics and Information Processing is thus relevant not only for brain research, but also for in-
    fering system properties from sparsely sampled networks in
    Studying the human brain, one is faced with a complex net- general.
    work of 80 billion neurons, each of them interacting with
    thousands of other neurons by means of action potentials, Human Dynamics and
    short electrical pulses. In our research at the Institute for Neural Mechanisms of Timing
    Nonlinear Dynamics and the Max Planck Institute for Dy-
    namics and Self-Organization we address three major ques-
    tions: What is the collective dynamics of the interacting Human dynamics is a new branch of statistical physics,
    neural network? How does this network give rise to infor- which aims to understand statistical properties of human
    mation processing and thus to our cognitive abilities? And behavior as expressed e.g. in inter-event times and waiting
    how can we infer these properties from neural recordings, if time distributions. This is particularly important for the mo-
    we can assess the activity of only a fraction of all neurons? deling and forecast of the spreading of epidemics, where re-

    2
    Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics

    liable statistics of human traveling behavior is required. In a [1] H. Degueldre, J. J. Metzger, T. Geisel, and R. Fleischmann, „Random
    focusing of tsunami waves,“ Nature Phys. 12, 259–262 (2016).
    seminal study [6], we have used banknotes (dollar bills) as a
    proxy for human travel and determined e.g. an inverse po- [2] J. J. Metzger, R. Fleischmann, and T. Geisel, “Statistics of Extreme Waves in
    wer law for the traveling distances. More recently we have Random Media,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 112(20), 203903 (2014).
    investigated the nature of temporal fluctuations in perfor- [3] V Priesemann, M Valderrama, M Wibral, M Quyen, “Neuronal Avalanches
    med musical rhythms (Fig. 3). We found that these fluctu- Differ from Wakefulness to Deep Sleep–Evidence from Intracranial Depth
    Recordings in Humans”, PLOS Comp Biol 9, e1002985 (2013)
    ations exhibit long-range correlations, i.e., a small rhythmic
    fluctuation at some point in time still influences rhythmic [4] H. Hennig, R. Fleischmann, and T. Geisel, “Musical rhythms: The science of
    being slightly off,” Physics Today 65(7), 64–65 (2012).
    fluctuations after tens of seconds [4]. Our findings have led
    to patents for the so-called humanizing of computer-genera- [5] A. Levina, J.M. Herrmann, and T. Geisel, “Dynamical synapses causing self-
    ted musical sequences. organized criticality in neural networks”, Nature Phys. 3:857-860 (2007).

    [6] D. Brockmann, L. Hufnagel, and T. Geisel, „The scaling laws of human


    travel“, Nature 439:462-465 (2006)

    www.nld.physik.uni-goettingen.de
    www.nld.ds.mpg.de

    Fig. 3: We aim to characterize the nature of temporal fluctuations Fig. 4: Some of the problems we address require extensive com-
    in musical performances and the neuronal mechanisms underlying puting power. For that purpose our group operates dedicated
    musical timing. high-performance computing platforms with approximately 10,000
    CPU cores.

    Theo Geisel Theoretical Physics at the University of


    Göttingen and Director at the Max Planck
    Theo Geisel studied physics and mathe- Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organi-
    matics at the Universities of Frankfurt zation, where he founded the Bernstein
    and Regensburg. Following postdoctoral Center for Computational Neuroscience
    research at the Max Planck Institute for in 2005. Theo Geisel is editorial board
    Solid State Research and the Xerox Palo Alto member of Physical Review X, Fellow of the
    Research Center he was Heisenberg Fellow American Physical Society, and recipient of
    of the DFG. In 1988 he was appointed Pro- the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (1994)
    fessor of Theoretical Physics at the Univer- and the Gentner-Kastler Prize (2009) of the
    sity of Würzburg, in 1989 at the University Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft and
    of Frankfurt. Since 1996 he is Professor of the Société Française de Physique.

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