Connectionists: World wide VVTNS series (6th season): Mean-field dynamics in networks with clustered connectivity and dendritic nonlinearities | Gabriel Ocker, Boston University | Wednesday, May 13, 2026, at 11:00 am ET

[David Hansel]

[image: VVTNS.png]
https://www.wwtns.online
<https://streaklinks.com/A9c7PbbpKY7PxB6PaAJWGD3-/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wwtns.online>
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on twitter: wwtns at TheoreticalWide

You are cordially invited to the lecture

Gabriel Ocker

Boston University

 on the topic of

  Mean-field dynamics in networks with

clustered connectivity and dendritic nonlinearities


The lecture will be held on Zoom on May 13, 2026 at *11:00 am ET *

> To receive the link: https://www.wwtns.online/register-page
>

>
*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 : Launched as the World Wide  Theoretical Neuroscience Seminar
(WWTNS) in November 2020 and renamed in homage to Carl van Vreeswijk in
Memoriam (April 20, 2022), 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, **held on Wednesdays at 11 am ET,**  are 45-50 min long followed
by a discussion. The talks are recorded with authorization of the speaker
and are available to everybody on our YouTube channel.*


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