Connectionists: New on the VVTNS YouTube channel: Mean-field dynamics in networks with clustered connectivity and dendritic nonlinearities | Gabriel Ocker, Boston University

[David Hansel]

[image: VVTNS.png]

>
> <https://84454458.streak-link.com/C-MkvBdbG1Enlihk0gvX0Wro/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wwtns.online>
>
https://www.wwtns.online
> <https://streaklinks.com/A9c7PbbpKY7PxB6PaAJWGD3-/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wwtns.online>
> - on twitter: wwtns at TheoreticalWide  and on YouTube
>

New on the VVTNS Website and YouTube Channel
https://www.wwtns.online
<https://streaklinks.com/A9c7PbbpKY7PxB6PaAJWGD3-/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wwtns.online>


Mean-field dynamics in networks with

clustered connectivity and dendritic nonlinearities


lecture delivered on May 13,  2026  by

Gabriel Ocker

Boston University

Abstract: Networks of interconnected neurons display diverse patterns of
activity.  Relating these patterns to the structure of the network is a
central goal of theoretical neuroscience. Classic neural field and rate
models have been powerful tools for this purpose due to their analytical
tractability. Here, we show that the recently-developed combinatorial
threshold-linear network (CTLN) model is a mean-field theory for
excitatory-inhibitory Hawkes networks, with clustered connectivity, in an
inhibition-stabilized regime. This mapping allows us to leverage powerful
analytical results for CTLN networks to predict diverse macroscopic
dynamics of clustered Hawkes networks, including metastability between
various macroscopic fixed points, limit cycles, and chaotic attractors.  We
will then examine an extension of this approach to models with nonlinear
dendritic dynamics, focusing on dendritic calcium spikes.We uncover a
marked point process mean-field theory for these networks and use this to
examine how somatic vs dendritic-targeting connectivity shapes the
mean-field equilibrium phase diagram.
.

*About VVTNS : **VVTNS  is a weekly digital seminar on Zoom targeting the
theoretical neuroscience community. Launched as the World Wide Neuroscience
Seminar (WWTNS) in November 2020 and renamed in homage to Carl van
Vreeswijk in Memoriam (April 20, 2022), its aim is to be a platform to
exchange ideas among theoreticians, but not only. Speakers have the
occasion to talk about theoretical aspects of their work which cannot be
discussed in a setting where the majority of the audience consists of
experimentalists. The seminars  are 45 min long followed by a discussion
and are held on Wednesdays at 11 am ET. The talks are recorded with
authorization of the speaker and are available to everybody on our YouTube
channel.*



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