Research Focus:

Connectomes are a window into how the structure of the brain’s network of neurons and non-neuronal cells is created by development and experience, and how this structure contributes to function. The field of connectomics has made great strides in our ability to collect these large datasets. However, extracting useful, generalizable principles from these connectivity maps remains a challenge. First, the massive size of these datasets requires analysis methods which scale but also provide interpretable summaries of connectivity patterns. Second, biological variability (e.g., region-to-region or animal-to-animal differences) and technological variability (e.g., errors in connectome reconstruction) can be difficult to disentangle, especially with few connectome samples. Third, analysis often requires relating connectivity to complex biological properties, such as neural morphology or subcellular features. Ben is interested in developing connectome analysis techniques which deal with these issues, as well as creating open-source software to facilitate this research.