Over the last decades a large amount of cellular/molecular level abnormalities have been identified in the brain of patients suffering from neurological and psychiatric disorders (e.g. schizophrenia). However, this neurobiological knowledge has not translated into effective medical treatments. This is mainly due to the fact that we cannot convincingly link these abnormalities to behavioural/sensory deficits or symptoms. Computational modelling is a powerful tool to bridge this gap.

We build computational models of sensory information processing in the human brain and its impairments in disorders. The detailed nature of these allows for an incorporation of cellular/molecular level abnormalities as found in patients and, therefore, enables us to investigate the underlying neuronal mechanisms. Furthermore, these computational models can be used to develop and test possible medical treatments.

We focus on two sensory phenomena: centre-surround suppression (i.e. the mutual inhibition of a central stimulus and its surround) and oscillatory activity (i.e. organised rhythmic behaviour of populations of neurons).