Meet Dr Sadra Sadeh

Dr Sadeh said: “My research models how activity emerges from neuronal networks in the brain. We build computational models based on biology (for example, of the visual system) and then compare results to what we observe in experimental recordings.

“The research aims to understand how structural connectivity in the brain gives rise to neural activity that underlies behaviour. This may potentially tell us more about what goes wrong in the dysfunctional brain. In fact, many brain diseases, from epilepsy to Parkinson's, might be described as abnormalities of electrical activity in the brain, when the brain is not ‘in tune’.

“I want to know how the brain works mechanistically, and I'm hoping my research can reveal the basic algorithms and mechanisms underlying brain function. To achieve this, we build simplified models of the brain that take in structural information and replicate or predict the dynamics of neural activity and individual behaviour."

“The problem is that the number of cells in the brain and the number of connections between them is astronomical. This leaves you with solving a very interesting biological puzzle: understanding how neural networks in the brain self-organise to form our complex minds.

“These models have a broad impact, from helping to understand how basic mental faculties work (vision, language, sleep, cognitive function), to understanding when they fail to work in neurological disorders.

“This field of research can also help with developing brain-computer interfaces that might be useful in treating brain disorders or boosting healthy brains. It has a close interaction with AI too. AI can be used to develop better computational models to understand the brain, while computational modelling of the brain can in turn advance AI models (a field referred to as Neuro-AI). All these topics are at the centre of much public attention and debate recently, and there's a lot of potential to benefit individuals, society, and the future of brain science and brain health, if the power of these tools is utilised to the full.

“Neuroscience can only thrive with interdisciplinary interactions, especially between experimental and theoretical fields. It's almost impossible to imagine new big discoveries without collaborations across different disciplines. That's why it's very crucial for us, as computational neuroscientists, to constantly talk to and interact with experimental neuroscientists, from basic neuroscientists to clinicians. The nature of this collaborative work is reciprocal: we learn from them about the complexity and diversity of cellular and network mechanisms in the brain, and feed back to them by utilising powerful computational and machine learning techniques to make sense of this complexity. Like the brain itself, it's only with harmony and collaboration that we as scientists can decipher the code of the brain.

“Joining King’s has been great. Everyone has been very helpful and welcoming. I have already talked to many groups and started very interesting collaborations.”