Large-scale alterations of cortical activity induced by brain lesions and their relevance to behavioural deficits. (360G-Wellcome-101253_Z_13_Z)

My project is concerned with understanding how behaviour is affected after brain damage. To advance current understanding, the work will use a unique converging set of approaches based on (i) analyses of the effects of controlled brain lesions in monkeys, and (ii) computational modelling of remote effects of focal brain injury. In work using animal models, I will induce artificial damage in different parietal areas to understand how this damage leads to variations of connectivity in the brain. I will examine how impaired behaviour following brain lesion relates to altered functional connectivity within structurally-intact cortex. Based on data collected, I will also develop a theoretical framework able to simulate the effect of lesions in specific brain regions on functional connectivity. This framework will ultimately be used to understand how altered connectivity can be restored to normality. The primary benefit from the project will be in developing a better theoretical account of how brain lesions alter brain activity in structurally intact regions. These theoretical gains will be matched also by methodological gains in the development of more accurate techniques to investigate brain connectivity in subjects with brain lesion, which will be a core part of the project.