Can math models help us understand the brain?

Series
Stelson Lecture Series
Time
Thursday, April 16, 2026 - 5:00pm for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
DM Smith 115
Speaker
Lai-Sang Young – New York University – lsy@cims.nyu.eduhttps://cims.nyu.edu/~lsy/
Organizer
Alex Blumenthal

Please Note: Join us at the Stelson Reception for refreshments in the Skiles atrium from 4-4:45PM prior to the talk. Around 4:45PM we will walk over to DM Smith.

I would like to think that they can, and will illustrate by sharing some work my collaborators and I have done on the monkey visual system, which is very similar to that of humans. Specifically, I will focus on two visual properties: one is used in the detection of edges, the other is relevant when our eyes track moving objects. To explain the origin of these properties, simple mathematical ideas were first developed in idealized settings. They were then tested -- and fine-tuned -- via simulations using large-scale dynamical network models that are biologically more realistic.