CNS*2026 Halifax

A central challenge in neuroscience is understanding how brain structure gives rise to complex, large-scale brain dynamics when local biological properties vary systematically across brain regions rather than being spatially uniform. Converging evidence from connectomics, transcriptomics, myeloarchitecture, chemoarchitecture, and other tissue-level measurements demonstrates that such regional variation is a fundamental feature of brains across species and a key driver of neural dynamics. Constraining large-scale models of brain dynamics with these local biological properties is therefore essential for increasing biological realism and for developing more accurate mechanistic accounts of brain function. Recent advances in multimodal brain mapping and computational modeling now make it possible to integrate spatially heterogeneous biological information across the whole brain into dynamical models, enabling stronger links across multiple scales of brain organization.

This workshop brings together leading experts with complementary expertise in incorporating biologically grounded, spatially varying constraints into whole-brain field and network models of dynamics. Through six engaging talks, the speakers will demonstrate how these constraints fundamentally alter predictions of brain criticality, large-scale wave dynamics, functional connectivity, synchronization, and the spreading of activity and pathology in brain disease, in both humans and non-human species. Specifically, the workshop aims to (i) highlight key open-access repositories of spatially resolved biological brain data, (ii) showcase state-of-the-art tools and methods for large-scale brain modeling, and (iii) expand the participants’ analytic capabilities. Together, these contributions will equip the workshop participants with the necessary knowledge for incorporating local biological constraints into their own models and interrogating their influence on the organization of brain activity, advancing a more unified and biologically grounded understanding of the mechanisms of brain function and dynamics.

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Schedule of talks:
09:00 - 09:30 James Pang (Monash University, Australia) - Geometric influences on mammalian brain organization, connectivity, and dynamics

09:30 - 10:00 Changsong Zhou (Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong) - Optimal Griffiths phase in heterogeneous human brain networks: Brain criticality embracing stability and flexibility across individuals (virtual presentation)

10:00 - 10:30 Adrian Ponce Alvarez (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain) - Nonlinear network mechanisms driving brain activity hierarchies

10:30 - 11:00 BREAK

11:00 - 11:30 Vincent Bazinet (McGill University, Canada) - Network architecture and regional heterogeneity shape patterns of neurodegeneration

11:30 - 12:00 Joana Cabral (University of Lisbon, Portugal) - From tissue mechanics to brain dynamics (virtual presentation)

12:00 - 12:30 John Griffiths (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada) - What’s the missing secret sauce in whole-brain models of fMRI functional connectivity?