Related papers: Robust information propagation through noisy neura…
Efficient coding theory posits that sensory circuits transform natural signals into neural representations that maximize information transmission subject to resource constraints. Local interneurons are thought to play an important role in…
Units of complex systems -- such as neurons in the brain or individuals in societies -- must communicate efficiently to function properly: e.g., allowing electrochemical signals to travel quickly among functionally connected neuronal areas…
A key question in neuroscience is at which level functional meaning emerges from biophysical phenomena. In most vertebrate systems, precise functions are assigned at the level of neural populations, while single-neurons are deemed…
Sensory perception (e.g. vision) relies on a hierarchy of cortical areas, in which neural activity propagates in both directions, to convey information not only about sensory inputs but also about cognitive states, expectations and…
Biological systems rely on robust internal information processing: Survival depends on highly reproducible dynamics of regulatory processes. Biological information processing elements, however, are intrinsically noisy (genetic switches,…
Short-term changes in efficacy have been postulated to enhance the ability of synapses to transmit information between neurons, and within neuronal networks. Even at the level of connections between single neurons, direct confirmation of…
A sufficiently large information flux in recurrent neural networks, quantified by the mutual information between successive network states, is considered a prerequisite for rich information processing capabilities. This raises the question…
When inhibitory neurons constitute about 40% of neurons they could have an important antinociceptive role, as they would easily regulate the level of activity of other neurons. We consider a simple network of cortical spiking neurons with…
Biological systems leverage top-down feedback for visual processing, yet most artificial vision models succeed in image classification using purely feedforward or recurrent architectures, calling into question the functional significance of…
Numerous studies have shown that neuronal responses are modulated by stimulus properties, and also by the state of the local network. However, little is known about how activity fluctuations of neuronal populations modulate the sensory…
Neural networks with equal excitatory and inhibitory feedback show high computational performance. They operate close to a critical point characterized by the joint activation of large populations of neurons. Yet, in macaque motor cortex we…
Noise is an inherent part of neuronal dynamics, and thus of the brain. It can be observed in neuronal activity at different spatiotemporal scales, including in neuronal membrane potentials, local field potentials, electroencephalography,…
We typically think of cells as responding to external signals independently by regulating their gene expression levels, yet they often locally exchange information and coordinate. Can such spatial coupling be of benefit for conveying…
Neurons in the central nervous system are affected by complex and noisy signals due to fluctuations in their cellular environment and in the inputs they receive from many other cells 1,2. Such noise usually increases the probability that a…
Neural systems process information across a broad range of intrinsic timescales, both within and across cortical areas. While such diversity is a hallmark of biological networks, its computational role in nonlinear information processing…
Cells continuously sense their surroundings to detect modifications and generate responses. Very often changes in extracellular concentrations initiate signaling cascades that eventually result in changes in gene expression. Increasing…
The repertoire of neural activity patterns that a cortical network can produce constrains the network's ability to transfer and process information. Here, we measured activity patterns obtained from multi-site local field potential (LFP)…
Sensory neurons often have variable responses to repeated presentations of the same stimulus, which can significantly degrade the stimulus information contained in those responses. This information can in principle be preserved if…
Backpropagation-optimized artificial neural networks, while precise, lack robustness, leading to unforeseen behaviors that affect their safety. Biological neural systems do solve some of these issues already. Unlike artificial models,…
Neurons in the visual cortex are correlated in their variability. The presence of correlation impacts cortical processing because noise cannot be averaged out over many neurons. In an effort to understand the functional purpose of…