Assistant Scientist, Ph.D., 1993, University of Gothenburg Adjunct Assistant Professor, Systems Science Program, Portland State University. Dual Appointment, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering Department Faculty member, Neuroscience Graduate Program Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Patrick Roberts is a theoretical neuroscientist who specializes in the development of mathematical methods, both analytical and computational, to study dynamics of neural activity patterns, and to help understand the relationship between those dynamics and behavior. Using mathematical methods drawn from statistical physics, the specific areas of research are:

1. The storage of temporal patterns in cerebellum-like structures: the dynamics of synaptic plasticity at the site of initial electrosensory information processing in mormyrid electric fish.

2. Dynamics of neural activity in the cerebellum: test various hypothetical mechanisms underlying neuronal activity patterns in the cerebellum. The modeling effort will help to bridge the gap between cellular- and systems-level experimental findings.

3. Spike-timing dependent synaptic plasticity: to analyze the neural dynamics that result from different biological learning rules. Since the timing relations of biological learning rules result from molecular events at the synapse, this line of research helps to link the implications of dynamics at the molecular level, through dynamics at the network level, to the behavior of whole organisms.

The Art of Mathematical Models Articles, presentations, and software PubMed Biblography

Selected Publications: PubMed Biblography

Selected Publications:

Roberts PD, CV Portfors, N Sawtell, and R Felix, "Model of auditory prediction in the dorsal cochlear nucleus via spike-timing dependent plasticity,"Neurocomputing, 69:1191–1194 (2006).

Roberts PD, "Recurrent neural network generates a basis for sensory image cancellation," Neurocomputing, 65-66: 237–242 (2005).

Roberts PD, "Recurrent biological neural networks: the weak and noisy limit," Phys Rev E, 69:031910 (2004). (PDF)

Mohr C, Roberts PD, Bell CC, "The mormyromast region of the mormyrid electrosensory lobe. II. Responses to input from central sources,"J Neurophysiol. , 90:1211-23 (2003).

Mohr C, Roberts PD, Bell CC, "The mormyromast region of the mormyrid electrosensory lobe. I. Responses to corollary discharge and electrosensory stimuli,"J Neurophysiol. 90:1193-210 (2003).

Roberts PD & Bell CC. "Spike Timing Dependent Synaptic Plasticity in Biological Systems", Biol. Cybern. 87, 392–403 (2002) (PDF)
The original publication is available at http://link.springer.de or at http://link.springerny.com.

Roberts PD. "Computational consequences of temporally asymmetric learning rules:
I. Differential Hebbian learning", J. Compu. Neurosci. 7: 235-246 (1999)

Roberts PD & Bell CC. "Computational consequences of temporally asymmetric learning rules:
II. Sensory image cancellation". J. Compu. Neurosci. 9: 67-83 (2000)

PubMed Biblography

---