From Ion Channels to Cognition: Multiscale Modeling of Brain Circuits under physiological and pathological conditions

19 Marzo 2026
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giovedì 19 Marzo 2026
Ore: 17:15
Aula Pacinotti, Scuola di Ingegneria, Pisa

Abstract: 

Understanding how higher brain functions emerge from cellular and subcellular processes remains one of the central challenges of modern neuroscience. This seminar will present a computational approach that integrates experimentally constrained single-cell biophysics, realistic morphologies, and synaptic dynamics into large-scale network models capable of reproducing oscillatory regimes, spatiotemporal activation patterns, and information flow. The seminar will explore how detailed connectivity architectures and neuron-specific properties influence memory-related activity patterns and cognitive processes such as odor recognition and spatial navigation, and how perturbation of ion channel kinetics, synaptic strengths, and connectivity motifs, providing mechanistic insight into dysfunction associated with neurological and neurodegenerative conditions. Beyond basic neuroscience and technological advances, this seminar will outline how biologically grounded neuronal models can inform translational strategies, including pharmacological target identification and the development of brain-inspired, explainable artificial intelligence systems. By bridging molecular mechanisms to systems-level computation, multiscale modeling offers a principled path toward understanding both normal cognition and its pathological alterations.

Bio:

Michele Migliore, PhD, is Senior Associate at the Institute of Biophysics IBF (CNR-IBF) in Palermo, Italy. He was Research Director at the Institute of Biophysics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IBF, Palermo, Italy) from 1983 to 2024 and Director of the Palermo section of CNR-IBF from 2015 to 2017. He was Visiting Professor of Computational Neuroscience at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (2018–2023), Visiting Professor of Cybernetics at the Department of Mathematics and Informatics of the University of Palermo (2000–2018), and Visiting Scientist at the Department of Neuroscience at the Yale University School of Medicine (New Haven, USA) from 2000 to 2020. His lab is involved in modelling realistic neurons and networks, synaptic integration processes, and plasticity mechanisms. The main long-term goal is to understand the emergence of higher brain functions and dysfunctions from cellular processes, implementing new tools and using state of the art simulation environments on different supercomputer systems.