Thursday, July 16

MS59
Mathematical Modeling in Physiology

2:00 PM-4:00 PM
Room: Sidney Smith 1087

Mathematical models have proved valuable in understanding the behavior of physiological structures. The mathematics must be rich enough to capture important phenomenon, such as oscillations, bursting, pattern formation and signal propagation. At the same time, a mathematical model must be simple enough to yield to analysis, yet provide insight into the complex dynamics present in vivo. Mathematical modeling and analysis of four physiological systems will be presented in this minisymposium. Several questions may present themselves, among them: How does a noisy signal affect the transmission of neural signals? What role does diffusion play in signal propagation? What role does bursting play in cell activity and signal processing? This minisymposium will bring together scientists in biology, biomedical engineering, mathematics, medicine and physiology, who share a common interest in understanding the dynamics of physiological structures.

2:00 Noise-Enhanced Dynamics in Sensory Neurons

James J. Collins, Boston University

2:30 The Effects of Nonexcitable Regions on Signal Propagation in Excitable Media: Propagation Failure and Reflection

Timothy J. Lewis and James P. Keener, University of Utah

3:00 Heterogeneous Patterns of Pancreatic Beta-Cell Activity Studied with Modeling and Dynamic Current Clamp

Arthur Sherman and Gerda de Vries, National Institutes of Health; Leslie S. Satin and Tracie A. Kinard, Virginia Commonwealth University

3:30 Fourier Analysis of Sinusoidally Driven Thalamocortical Relay Neurons and a Minimal Integrate-and-Fire-or-Burst Model

Gregory D. Smith, National Institutes of Health; Charles L. Cox and S. Murray Sherman, State University of New York, Stony Brook; and John Rinzel, Center for Neural Science and Courant Institute for Mathematical Science, New York University