Related papers: Contextual guidance: An integrated theory for astr…
This essay, derived from a lecture at "The Physics Modeling of Thought" workshop in Berlin in winter 2023, explores the mutually beneficial relationship between theoretical neuroscience and statistical physics through the lens of efficient…
As a vital cognitive function of animals, the navigation skill is first built on the accurate perception of the directional heading in the environment. Head direction cells (HDCs), found in the limbic system of animals, are proven to play…
The brain is a highly complex organ consisting of a myriad of subsystems that flexibly interact and adapt over time and context to enable perception, cognition, and behavior. Understanding the multi-scale nature of the brain, i.e., how…
Neural circuits are able to perform computations under very diverse conditions and requirements. The required computations impose clear constraints on their fine-tuning: a rapid and maximally informative response to stimuli in general…
Grid cells play a principal role in enabling mammalian cognitive representations of ambient environments. The key property of these cells -- the regular arrangement of their firing fields -- is commonly viewed as means for establishing…
Neural circuits exhibit remarkable computational flexibility, enabling adaptive responses to noisy and ever-changing environmental cues. A fundamental question in neuroscience concerns how a wide range of behaviors can emerge from a…
Adaptive reasoning enables humans to flexibly adjust inference strategies when environmental rules or contexts change, yet its underlying neural dynamics remain unclear. This study investigated the neurophysiological mechanisms of adaptive…
We present a simple biophysical model for the coupling between synaptic transmission and the local calcium concentration on an enveloping astrocytic domain. This interaction enables the astrocyte to modulate the information flow from…
The traditional view of neural computation in the cerebral cortex holds that sensory neurons are specialized, i.e., selective for certain dimensions of sensory stimuli. This view was challenged by evidence of contextual interactions between…
Dynamics play a critical role in computation. The principled evolution of states over time enables both biological and artificial networks to represent and integrate information to make decisions. In the past few decades, significant…
The brain is immensely complex, with diverse components and dynamic interactions building upon one another to orchestrate a wide range of functions and behaviors. Understanding patterns of these complex interactions and how they are…
To thrive in dynamic environments, animals must be capable of rapidly and flexibly adapting behavioral responses to a changing context and internal state. Examples of behavioral flexibility include faster stimulus responses when attentive…
The Syncytial Mesh Model introduces a three-layered framework for large-scale brain dynamics integrating local neural circuitry, macrostructural connectivity, and a slow mesoscale control-field substrate associated with astrocytic syncytial…
Neuroscience has long informed the development of artificial neural networks, but the success of modern architectures invites, in turn, the converse: can modern networks teach us lessons about brain function? Here, we examine the structure…
Current theories suggest that adaptive decision-making necessitates the interaction between multiple decision-making systems. The computational definitions of different models of decision-making suggest interactions with task demands and…
The grid cells (GCs) of the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and place cells (PCs) of the hippocampus are key elements of the brain network for the metric representation of space. Currently, any of the existing theoretical models can explain…
The understanding of neural activity patterns is fundamentally linked to an understanding of how the brain's network architecture shapes dynamical processes. Established approaches rely mostly on deviations of a given network from certain…
This article extends the combinatorial approach to support the determination of contextuality amidst causal influences. Contextuality is an active field of study in Quantum Cognition, in systems relating to mental phenomena, such as…
Adequate brain perfusion is required for proper brain function and life. Maintaining optimal brain perfusion to avoid secondary brain injury is one of the main concerns of neurocritical care. Cerebral autoregulation is responsible for…
The critical brain hypothesis posits that neural systems operate near a phase transition, optimizing the processing of information. While scale invariance and non-Gaussian dynamics--hallmarks of criticality--have been observed in brain…