Flexibility and Resilience in Cortical Processing: Neural mechanisms and mathematical analysis

Mammalian brains increasingly reuse the same neurons and regions for different tasks, while maintaining robust performance when the environment or stimulus context changes. Udo Ernst combines theoretical modelling with quantitative physiological observations to investigate the mechanisms that support both flexibility and resilience. Selective processing in the primate visual system provides the central example. One analytically tractable framework routes attended external signals through avalanches of spikes in recurrent neuronal networks; a second examines control circuits that preserve reliable routing across stimulus contexts. Mathematical analysis clarifies both mechanisms and how their operating ranges depend on physiological parameters.