Zilverling

prof.dr. S.A. van Gils (Stephan)

Chair holder for Nonlinear Analysis
EEMCS-AM-MIA
Zilverling 3042
s.a.vangils@utwente.nl
+31534893410
Business card

Stephan van Gils holds the chair for Nonlinear Analysis in the department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Twente.

Short CV

born on 1 November 1954
1973-1979: Mathematics at the Free University Amsterdam
1979-1984: PhD in Mathematics at the CWI in Amsterdam (advisor Odo Diekmann)
1985-1987: Postdoc at the Free University Amsterdam with Jan Sanders
1985         : Fulbright Fellowship, Postdoc at Michigan State University with Shui-Nee Chow
1986         : Postdoc at the University of Houston with Marty Golubitsky 
1987-2000: Assistant Professor at Dept. of Applied Mathematics, University of Twente
2000-2004: Associate Professor at Dept. of Applied Mathematics, University of Twente
2004-2009: Programme Director Applied Mathematics
2004-........: Professor of Nonlinear Analysis, University of Twente
2009-2020: Chair Applied Analysis, University of Twente
2016-2022: Head of Department Applied Mathematics
2018-2020: Chair of the cluster Nonlinear Dynanics of Natural Systems (NDNS+)

Expertise

  • Neuroscience

    • Neuron
    • Epilepsy
    • Parkinson's Disease
    • Seizure
    • Behavior (Neuroscience)

  • Computer Science

    • Models
    • Algorithms

  • Mathematics

    • Transmission Delay

Organisations

Delay differential equations

Delay differential equations are characterized by the fact that the rate of change of the present state depends on the history of the state. There are many examples, notably in the field of biology, but also in physical systems and economy. Over the past 30 years the general theory for this class of equations has been shaped much in the spirit of the qualitative theory for ordinary differential equations.

When the state space is the n-dimensional Euclidian space, a complete description of the dynamics in the neighborhood of an equilibrium is well known, including the normal form equation on the center manifold.

The goal is to extend this to cases where the state space is infinite dimensional and the linear part of the equation contains an unbounded operator like diffusion.

Mathematical neuroscience

Neural field equations where introduced by Amari, Wilson and Cowan in the seventies of the previous century. It is a continuum description of electrical activity in the brain based on averaging over both space and time. In terms of mathematics it is an integro-differential equation and due to the transmission delays and synaptic handling it is an example of an abstract delay differential equation.

The goal is to link this equation to human data. This is an extremely challenging inverse problem where we try to identify the local and nonlocal connectivity and the (nonlinear) sigmoidal gain function from recordings of the brain.

Epilepsy

It is a challenging problem to identify the part of cortex that must be resected, the epileptic zone, in order to stop focal epileptic seizures. Our goal is to build a network of dynamic nodes, based on human cortical SPES (Single Pulse Electric Stimulation) and to determine from the dynamics of the network the epileptic zone. This research is done in collaboration with the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU). 

Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease a neurodegenerative disorder. When medication does not relieve the symptoms, deep brain stimulation (DBS) is one of the options where the subthalamic nucleus is stimulated continuously at 130 HZ. In the first decade of the century Peter Tass promoted another way of simulation, the so called coordinated reset (CR) stimulation.

In cooperation with the medical centers of Nijmegen and Maastricht, we investigate the plasticity rules that govern the dynamics of the basal ganglia, make simulation models for the basal ganglia that incorporate these rules, and perform a CR-trial on Parkinson patients.

Publications

2024

Hopf Bifurcations of Two Population Neural Fields on the Sphere with Diffusion and Distributed Delays (2024)SIAM journal on applied dynamical systems, 23(3), 1909-1945. Spek, L., van Gils, S. A., Kuznetsov, Y. A. & Polner, M.https://doi.org/10.1137/23M1554011

2023

Analysis of Dynamics of Neural Fields and Neural Networks (2023)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente. Spek, L.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036554824

2022

Bifurcations of Neural Fields on the Sphere (2022)[Working paper › Preprint]. Spek, L., Gils, S. A. v., Kuznetsov, Y. A. & Polner, M.Dynamics of delayed neural field models in two-dimensional spatial domains (2022)Journal of differential equations, 317, 439-473. Spek, L., Dijkstra, K., Gils, S. A. v. & Polner, M.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jde.2022.02.002

2021

Ion dynamics at the energy-deprived tripartite synapse (2021)PLoS Computational Biology, 17(6). Article e1009019. Kalia, M., Meijer, H. G. E., van Gils, S. A., van Putten, M. J. A. M. & Rose, C. R.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009019

2020

Neural field models with transmission delays and diffusion (2020)Journal of mathematical neuroscience, 10. Article 21. Spek, L., Kuznetsov, Y. A. & van Gils, S. A.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13408-020-00098-5Dynamics of delayed neural field models in two-dimensional spatial domains (2020)[Working paper › Preprint]. ArXiv.org. Spek, L., Polner, M., Dijkstra, K. & van Gils, S. A.https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2009.08362On analysis of inputs triggering large nonlinear neural responses: Slow-fast dynamics in the Wendling neural mass model (2020)Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, 83. Article 105103. Hebbink, J., van Gils, S. A. & Meijer, H. G. E.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnsns.2019.105103Deep learning of circulating tumour cells (2020)Nature Machine Intelligence, 2(2), 124-133. Zeune, L. L., Boink, Y. E., van Dalum, G., Nanou, A., de Wit, S., Andree, K. C., Swennenhuis, J. F., van Gils, S. A., Terstappen, L. W. M. M. & Brune, C.https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-020-0153-xPathological responses to single pulse electrical stimuli in epilepsy: the role of feedforward inhibition (2020)European journal of neuroscience, 51(4), 1122-1136. Hebbink, J., Huiskamp, G. J. M., van Gils, S. A., Leijten, F. S. S. & Meijer, H. G. E.https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.14562

Research profiles

Address

University of Twente

Zilverling (building no. 11), room 3042
Hallenweg 19
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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University of Twente

Zilverling (building no. 11), room 2090
Hallenweg 19
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations

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