Linking detailed cellular biophysics to macroscopic neural behavior

Determine how detailed biophysical processes at the neuronal level combine to generate complex macroscopic behaviors in neural systems, including in relatively simple organisms, thereby clarifying how cellular-level dynamics give rise to emergent network- and organism-level function.

Background

The paper contrasts detailed biophysical neuron models with coarse-grained population and network-level models, emphasizing that while the former capture cellular processes, they involve many parameters that are difficult to measure and often display degeneracy, complicating bottom-up inference.

This modeling gap motivates a core unresolved question: how do the rich, heterogeneous cellular mechanisms—ion channels, dendritic and axonal properties, and synaptic dynamics—aggregate to yield the complex behaviors observed at larger scales, even in comparatively simple nervous systems? Bridging this micro-to-macro link is central for understanding neural function and informing principled coarse-graining.