The Computational Neurology Group is a research group at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), consisting of Prof. Dr. Xenia Kobeleva and her team.
Group homepage: https://computationalneurology.com/
Research questions
In the Computational Neurology Group, we investigate clinically relevant questions in the field of neuropsychiatry (especially questions about neurodegenerative diseases) using computational approaches. In doing so, we bridge clinical neuroscience (neurostimulation, symptoms, networks and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases) and computational neuroscience (whole-brain network neural modeling, parameter inference, control theory), contributing to a growing body of translational research that connects computational methods to real-world clinical data and patient-oriented questions.
Research strategy: Combining data- and model-driven approaches
Our research focuses on combining a data-driven approach and a model-driven approach, aiming for tuning our mathematical models so that they accurately replicate empirical brain activity data (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Computational neurology connects a data-driven approach (top left), a model-based approach (bottom left), and clinical data (right). © Xenia Kobeleva
The data-driven approach mainly focusses on the analysis of neurological diseases with methods of machine learning in order to identify characteristic properties of the brain structure and brain function as clinical phenotypes. The model-driven approach builds on our findings from the data-driven approach. It formalizes a mechanistic relationship between clinical data and brain function via equations; in doing so, this relationship can be meaningfully interpreted, and it extends and goes beyond mere observations. Simulated brain models exert high congruence with actual brain activity data (compare Figure 2).
Figure 2: Brain networks can be realistically simulated with dynamical models. The simulated brain network (left) shows high conformity to the actual clinical data (right). © Xenia Kobeleva
These mathematical models can enable medical doctors to adapt their treatments based on patient-specific model parameters.
Research methods
Social benefit of our research
We are firm believers that research transparency and outreach to patients is the necessary foundation that legitimizes our academic work. Following the principles of Open Science, we thoroughly document our research inputs, methodologies, and outputs, make them publicly available and subsequentially publish our results in Open Access. By doing so, we enable third-party replication of our results in different contexts, validating or falsifying our findings. We also engage in several outreach activities (communicating our research results to patients affected) and maintain strong relationships to patient interest groups (see website section “non-expert info”). As such, we investigate not only research questions that are clinically relevant, but also relevant to the individuals affected by neurodegenerative diseases (whether these individuals are actual patients, or family/care-givers).
We invite applications for a master's thesis for contributing to advance control theory to brain networks to simulate treatment effects (e.g., medication or neurostimulation). This interdisciplinary project has a strong methodological focus and touches topics of neural data analysis and optimization.
The Institut für Neuroinformatik (INI) is a research unit of the Faculties of Computer Science and Medicine at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Its scientific goal is to understand the fundamental principles through which organisms generate behavior and cognition while linked to their environments through sensory and effector systems. Inspired by our insights into such natural cognitive systems, we seek new solutions to problems of information processing in artificial cognitive systems. We draw from a variety of disciplines that include experimental psychology and neurophysiology as well as machine learning, neural artificial intelligence, computer vision, and robotics.
Universitätsstr. 150, Building NB, Room 3/32
D-44801 Bochum, Germany
Tel: (+49) 234 32-28967
Fax: (+49) 234 32-14210
Briand Qeriqi 