Date of Award

5-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Biological Sciences

First Advisor

Julie Haas

Second Advisor

Jennifer Swann

Abstract

Generally, modelling in the sciences bring out many benefits. It is taking the known relationships about different physical parameters in order to develop new hypothesis due to the ability to scan through different possibilities systematically. Since my field is in neuroscience, I will focus my efforts on explaining to you how modelling can be useful to understanding the brain in a theoretical manner, as well as assisting experimentalists develop new experiments (Fig.1A), via two specific examples of modelling the network involving the thalamic reticular nucleus in Dr. Julie Haas' lab.

Modelling can never achieve realistic results that experiments can, simply because we do not know of all of the variables that come into play. But it can provide us with insights due to the fact that modelling can scan through multitudes of possibilities that would take too long and a whole lot of resources to achieve in experiments. These insights can then guide experimentalists in designing experiments to discover what the brain might be using to achieve such amazing computational capabilities.

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