Dr James Rankin

Office: Harrison 018 & Hope Hall 1.11. Use phone extension 4673

I am a Lecturer in Mathematical Biology at the University of Exeter doing research in mathematical and computational neuroscience. My research interests include dynamical systems, bifurcation theory, modelling of sensory cortex (auditory and visual), perceptual bistability and experiments in auditory perception (psychoacoustics).

Funding
Using touch to enhance auditory perception,
EPSRC Standard Grant (Healthcare Technologies), EP/W032422/1 £568K Oct 2022 - Aug 2025
with Mark Fletcher, University of Southampton (co-I); Torsten Dau and Jeremy Marozeau, Technical University of Denmark DTU (collaborators)

Neural oscillator network modelling of auditory stream segregation,
EPSRC New Investigator Award, EP/R03124X/1 £174K Oct 2018 - Aug 2021

Recent publications (2019-2022)
Darki F, Ferrario A, Rankin J. (2022) Hierarchical processing underpins competition in tactile perceptual bistability, bioRxiv preprint

Chavane F, Perrinet LU, Rankin J. (2022) Revisiting horizontal connectivity rules in V1: from like-to-like towards like-to-all, Brain Structure and Function; special issue

Rankin J, Rinzel J. (2022) Attentional control via synaptic gain mechanisms in auditory streaming, Brain Research; special issue

Ferrario A, Rankin J. (2021) Cascades of Periodic Solutions in a Neural Circuit With Delays and Slow-Fast Dynamics
Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics; special issue

Ferrario A, Rankin J. (2021) Auditory streaming emerges from fast excitation and slow delayed inhibition,
The Journal of Mathematical Neuroscience; github

Darki F, Rankin J. (2021) Perceptual rivalry with vibrotactile stimuli,
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics; github

Darki F, Rankin J. (2020) Methods to assess binocular rivalry with periodic stimuli,
The Journal of Mathematical Neuroscience; github

Rankin J, Rinzel J. (2019) Computational models of auditory perception from feature extraction to stream segregation and behavior,
Current Opinion in Neurobiology

Byrne A, Rinzel J, Rankin J. (2019) Auditory streaming and bistability paradigm extended to a dynamic environment,
Hearing Research; github

Galvis D, Walsh D, Harries L, Latorre E, Rankin J. (2019) A dynamical systems model for the measurement of cellular senescence,
Journal of The Royal Society Interface; github

Perez A, Ashwin P, Huguet G, Seara TM, Rankin J. (2019) The uncoupling limit of identical Hopf bifurcations with an application to perceptual bistability,
The Journal of Mathematical Neuroscience

Rankin J, Rinzel J. (2019) Computational Models of Auditory Stream Segregation,
Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience; book 

Software and experimental data
Simulation code and experimental data for the Neuromechanistic Model of Auditory Streaming presented in three papers (2015, 2017, 2019) is available at the following github repository.

Simulation code and experimental data for the Dynamical Systems Model of Cellular Senescence (2019) is available at the following github repository.

Simulation code for the Neural Field Model of Orientation Selectivity in V1 (2017) is available at the following github repository.

Postdoctoral researchers
Dr Farzaneh Darki working on EPSRC-funded project "Using touch to enhance auditory perception" Oct 2022 - present

Dr Andrea Ferrario previously working on EPSRC-funded project "Neural oscillator network modelling of auditory stream segregation" Dec 2018 - Apr 2022

PGR students
Dr Farzaneh Darki; Graduated 2022, thesis. PhD student working on "Neural dynamics of perceptual competition" co-supervised by Pete Ashwin
Curtis Alcock; Graduated 2021, thesis. Masters by Research student working on "Network Effects Of Reduced Audibility (NEORA) and its Significance for Cognitive Decline" co-supervised by Marc Goodfellow

Asim Alwafi, PhD student working on "Applications of delay differential equations", co-superviser with Jan Sieber
Wolf Byttner, Masters by Research student working on "Determination of parameter dependencies across diverse populations of neuro-endocrine cells", co-superviser with Joel Tabak

Former clinical secondee
Yusur Al-Nuaimi working on "Connectivity within human skin: predictive modelling of hair loss patterns in Primary Cicatricial Alopecia"

Project students
Kirra Spillings working on "Dynamics of Coupled Bistable Units with Application to Bistable Perception"
Josephine Hoesel working on "Probabilistic and Dynamic Models in Bistable Perception" co-supervised with Jen Creaser

Previous project students
Thomas Lowe working on "A computational study of frequency-learning in neural oscillators - neural populations" co-supervised with Dr Andrea Ferrario

Sam Renton working on "A computational study of frequency-learning in neural oscillators - single neurons and STDP" co-supervised with Dr Andrea Ferrario

Jakub Onysk worked on "Auditory Streaming with Noise-Band Sounds" (summer 2018) and on "Adaptation in Neural Decoding of Bistable Sounds from MEG Data" (summer 2019)

Andrew Cox worked on "Computational modelling of neural populations encoding visual motion" (2018-2019 academic year)

Jo Fisher working on "Dynamical systems modelling of hair growth in health and disease" (2018-2019 academic year) co-supervised with Marc Goodfellow and Yusur Al-Nuaimi