Related papers: Neural Codes and Neural ring endomorphisms
Neural codes, represented as collections of binary strings called codewords, are used to encode neural activity. A code is called convex if its codewords are represented as an arrangement of convex open sets in Euclidean space. Previous…
Neural codes serve as a language for neurons in the brain. Convex codes, which arise from the pattern of intersections of convex sets in Euclidean space, are of particular relevance to neuroscience. Not every code is convex, however, and…
Neural codes are binary codes that are used for information processing and representation in the brain. In previous work, we have shown how an algebraic structure, called the {\it neural ring}, can be used to efficiently encode geometric…
Determining how the brain stores information is one of the most pressing problems in neuroscience. In many instances, the collection of stimuli for a given neuron can be modeled by a convex set in $\mathbb{R}^d$. Combinatorial objects known…
We study the open, closed, and non-degenerate embedding dimensions of neural codes, which are the smallest respective dimensions in which one can find a realization of a code consisting of convex sets that are open, closed, or…
Neural codes are lists of subsets of neurons that fire together. Of particular interest are neurons called place cells, which fire when an animal is in specific, usually convex regions in space. A fundamental question, therefore, is to…
The brain encodes spacial structure through a combinatorial code of neural activity. Experiments suggest such codes correspond to convex areas of the subject's environment. We present an intrinsic condition that implies a neural code may…
Neural codes, represented as collections of binary strings, encode neural activity and show relationships among stimuli. Certain neurons, called place cells, have been shown experimentally to fire in convex regions in space. A natural…
A combinatorial neural code $\mathscr C\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ is convex if it arises as the intersection pattern of convex open subsets of $\mathbb R^d$. We relate the emerging theory of convex neural codes to the established theory of oriented…
Previous work on convexity of neural codes has produced codes that are open-convex but not closed-convex -- or vice-versa. However, why a code is one but not the other, and how to detect such discrepancies are open questions. We tackle…
We introduce new geometric and combinatorial criteria that preclude a neural code from being convex, and use them to tackle the classification problem for codes on six neurons. Along the way, we give the first example of a code that is…
Neural codes allow the brain to represent, process, and store information about the world. Combinatorial codes, comprised of binary patterns of neural activity, encode information via the collective behavior of populations of neurons. A…
Neural codes are collections of binary strings motivated by patterns of neural activity. In this paper, we study algorithmic and enumerative aspects of convex neural codes in dimension 1 (i.e. on a line or a circle). We use the theory of…
Much work has been done to identify which binary codes can be represented by collections of open convex or closed convex sets. While not all binary codes can be realized by such sets, here we prove that every binary code can be realized by…
We define a notion of morphism between combinatorial codes, making the class of all combinatorial codes into a category $\mathbf{Code}$. We show that morphisms can be used to remove redundant information from a code, and that morphisms…
Place cells are neurons that act as biological position sensors, associated with and firing in response to regions of an environment to situate an organism in space. These associations are recorded in (combinatorial) neural codes,…
How does the brain encode spatial structure? One way is through hippocampal neurons called place cells, which become associated to convex regions of space known as their receptive fields: each place cell fires at a high rate precisely when…
Neurons in the brain represent external stimuli via neural codes. These codes often arise from stimulus-response maps, associating to each neuron a convex receptive field. An important problem confronted by the brain is to infer properties…
A combinatorial neural code is a subset of the power set $2^{[n]}$ on $[n]=\{1,\dots, n\}$, in which each $1\leq i\leq n$ represents a neuron and each element (codeword) represents the co-firing event of some neurons. Consider a space…
This dissertation explores applications of discrete geometry in mathematical neuroscience. We begin with convex neural codes, which model the activity of hippocampal place cells and other neurons with convex receptive fields. In Chapter 4,…