Section: Overall Objectives

Introduction

Understanding brain function and its alterations requires the integration of multiple levels of organization, operating at different spatial and temporal scales. The integration of such a large variety of data is now possible thanks to the recent emergence of large-scale multimodal datasets (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease neuroimaging initiative [ADNI], gene expression atlases from the Allen Institute...). In this context, mathematical and computational approaches are becoming increasingly important because: i) they provide formalized, operational and flexible frameworks for integrating multiple processes and scales; ii) they allow automated processing and analysis of massive datasets. These approaches can then be used to find biomarkers of a disease, for genotype/phenotype correlations, or to characterize functional responses for instance.