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Orchestra without Conductor:
Hualou Liang, Ph.D., assistant professor, SHIS and GSBS
“The brain operates as an orchestra without a conductor,” said Liang. “To be able to produce the right cognitive melody, different neural 'players' have to coordinate their activities, each providing the right contribution at exactly the right time. It remains a puzzle for scientists to work out how the brain is able to achieve such a feat.”
Hualou Liang, Ph.D.
Liang’s research is primarily concerned with the properties of large-scale neuronal networks, responsible for such brain functions as attention, learning and processing of visual information. Understanding these complex functions requires a multidisciplinary approach, using techniques and ideas of biology, physics and computer science. “We are excited about the prospects for contributing to the growth of knowledge about brain functions through a combination of experimental and computational approaches,” he said.
The research in his lab is devoted to the quantitative analysis of information processing by neural populations, or groups of nerve cells. It involves advanced mathematical and statistical methods that are relevant to neuroscience, particularly those appropriate for noninvasive imaging techniques and techniques for recording neural activity from multiple electrodes on the same subject.
“My research subjects are mostly monkeys at the National Institutes of Health and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I have collaborators,” Liang said. “They provide me data and I run data analysis. I occasionally run experiments on humans here using EEG (electroencephalogram) to record brain waves.”