Título: Functional Brain Networks: Uses and misuses

Ponente: Dr. Javier Buldú.  (Center for Biomedical Technology, U. Politécnica Madrid, U. Rey J. Carlos, Madrid)

Dia y hora: Viernes 3 DE MARZO A LAS 12:30

Lugar: SALA DE CONFERENCIAS, EDIFICIO I+D+i, CAMPUS RIO EBRO

Resumen:

In this seminar I will talk about how to project the dynamical interactions between brain regions into a functional network. First, I will overview what are the main risks of using Network Science for analysing datasets obtained from different brain imaging techniques. Second, I will explain my experience when constructing (functional) multilayer networks whose layers represent the significant frequency bands at which the brain is supposed to operate. More specifically, I will talk about what are the consequences of considering the brain as a multiplex network instead of using a full multilayer description where all brain regions may interact between them at any frequency band. We will see how the heterogeneity and the percentage of missing inter-layer links crucially modify the spectral properties of the multilayer network, namely the second smallest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix. Both numerical simulations together with the analysis of real datasets obtained from resting-state magnetoencephalographic recordings reveal that the construction of frequency-based multilayer brain networks is far from being a trivial task.