[CTN] Joint CTN/Comp Math Seminar: Tuesday, March 6 3:30 p.m. MC5158

[Sue Ann Campbell]

Dear all,

Please join us for next Tuesday's CTN seminar (March 6th) by Dr. Bard
Ermentrout (University of Pittsburgh,). Title and abstract follow below.
This is a joint seminar with the Centre for Computational Mathematics.

The seminar is at the usual time: 3.30 p.m. on Tuesday, but please note
that it will be held on the 5th floor of the Math and Computer building,
room MC 5158.

If you would like to meet with Dr. Ermentrout, and/or come to dinner
afterwards, please let me know.

Hope to see you all there!

Sue Ann

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Dr. Bard Ermentrout
University Professor of Computational Biology
Professor, Department of Mathematics
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.pitt.edu/~phase/

Title: Flicker Hallucinations: Faraday waves in the brain

Abstract: In this talk which should be accessible to both students and 
faculty, I first describe a striking visual illusion that occurs when the 
visual system is subjected to uniform bright flickering light in the 8-20 Hz 
frequency range. Subjects consistenlty report specific patterns at certain 
frequencies. We use a simple firing rate model that is spatially distributed 
in one or two dimensions to model the phenomena. We then use Floquet theory 
to analyze the regimes of stability and finally use symmetric bifurcation 
theory to explain why some patterns are associated with some frequencies. 

-- 
Dr. S.A. Campbell                   Professor 
Department of Applied Mathematics   office: MC5124
University of Waterloo              email: sacampbell at uwaterloo.ca
Waterloo Ontario                    phone:(519)888-4567 x35461
N2L 3G1                             fax:(519)746-4319
Canada                              http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~sacampbe