6,203 research outputs found
Spike Oscillations
According to Belinskii, Khalatnikov and Lifshitz (BKL), a generic spacelike
singularity is characterized by asymptotic locality: Asymptotically, toward the
singularity, each spatial point evolves independently from its neighbors, in an
oscillatory manner that is represented by a sequence of Bianchi type I and II
vacuum models. Recent investigations support a modified conjecture: The
formation of spatial structures (`spikes') breaks asymptotic locality. The
complete description of a generic spacelike singularity involves spike
oscillations, which are described by sequences of Bianchi type I and certain
inhomogeneous vacuum models. In this paper we describe how BKL and spike
oscillations arise from concatenations of exact solutions in a
Hubble-normalized state space setting, suggesting the existence of hidden
symmetries and showing that the results of BKL are part of a greater picture.Comment: 38 pages, 14 figure
The equivalence of information-theoretic and likelihood-based methods for neural dimensionality reduction
Stimulus dimensionality-reduction methods in neuroscience seek to identify a
low-dimensional space of stimulus features that affect a neuron's probability
of spiking. One popular method, known as maximally informative dimensions
(MID), uses an information-theoretic quantity known as "single-spike
information" to identify this space. Here we examine MID from a model-based
perspective. We show that MID is a maximum-likelihood estimator for the
parameters of a linear-nonlinear-Poisson (LNP) model, and that the empirical
single-spike information corresponds to the normalized log-likelihood under a
Poisson model. This equivalence implies that MID does not necessarily find
maximally informative stimulus dimensions when spiking is not well described as
Poisson. We provide several examples to illustrate this shortcoming, and derive
a lower bound on the information lost when spiking is Bernoulli in discrete
time bins. To overcome this limitation, we introduce model-based dimensionality
reduction methods for neurons with non-Poisson firing statistics, and show that
they can be framed equivalently in likelihood-based or information-theoretic
terms. Finally, we show how to overcome practical limitations on the number of
stimulus dimensions that MID can estimate by constraining the form of the
non-parametric nonlinearity in an LNP model. We illustrate these methods with
simulations and data from primate visual cortex
The iso-response method
Throughout the nervous system, neurons integrate high-dimensional input streams and transform them into an output of their own. This integration of incoming signals involves filtering processes and complex non-linear operations. The shapes of these filters and non-linearities determine the computational features of single neurons and their functional roles within larger networks. A detailed characterization of signal integration is thus a central ingredient to understanding information processing in neural circuits. Conventional methods for measuring single-neuron response properties, such as reverse correlation, however, are often limited by the implicit assumption that stimulus integration occurs in a linear fashion. Here, we review a conceptual and experimental alternative that is based on exploring the space of those sensory stimuli that result in the same neural output. As demonstrated by recent results in the auditory and visual system, such iso-response stimuli can be used to identify the non-linearities relevant for stimulus integration, disentangle consecutive neural processing steps, and determine their characteristics with unprecedented precision. Automated closed-loop experiments are crucial for this advance, allowing rapid search strategies for identifying iso-response stimuli during experiments. Prime targets for the method are feed-forward neural signaling chains in sensory systems, but the method has also been successfully applied to feedback systems. Depending on the specific question, “iso-response” may refer to a predefined firing rate, single-spike probability, first-spike latency, or other output measures. Examples from different studies show that substantial progress in understanding neural dynamics and coding can be achieved once rapid online data analysis and stimulus generation, adaptive sampling, and computational modeling are tightly integrated into experiments
SuperSpike: Supervised learning in multi-layer spiking neural networks
A vast majority of computation in the brain is performed by spiking neural
networks. Despite the ubiquity of such spiking, we currently lack an
understanding of how biological spiking neural circuits learn and compute
in-vivo, as well as how we can instantiate such capabilities in artificial
spiking circuits in-silico. Here we revisit the problem of supervised learning
in temporally coding multi-layer spiking neural networks. First, by using a
surrogate gradient approach, we derive SuperSpike, a nonlinear voltage-based
three factor learning rule capable of training multi-layer networks of
deterministic integrate-and-fire neurons to perform nonlinear computations on
spatiotemporal spike patterns. Second, inspired by recent results on feedback
alignment, we compare the performance of our learning rule under different
credit assignment strategies for propagating output errors to hidden units.
Specifically, we test uniform, symmetric and random feedback, finding that
simpler tasks can be solved with any type of feedback, while more complex tasks
require symmetric feedback. In summary, our results open the door to obtaining
a better scientific understanding of learning and computation in spiking neural
networks by advancing our ability to train them to solve nonlinear problems
involving transformations between different spatiotemporal spike-time patterns
Signal Processing in Large Systems: a New Paradigm
For a long time, detection and parameter estimation methods for signal
processing have relied on asymptotic statistics as the number of
observations of a population grows large comparatively to the population size
, i.e. . Modern technological and societal advances now
demand the study of sometimes extremely large populations and simultaneously
require fast signal processing due to accelerated system dynamics. This results
in not-so-large practical ratios , sometimes even smaller than one. A
disruptive change in classical signal processing methods has therefore been
initiated in the past ten years, mostly spurred by the field of large
dimensional random matrix theory. The early works in random matrix theory for
signal processing applications are however scarce and highly technical. This
tutorial provides an accessible methodological introduction to the modern tools
of random matrix theory and to the signal processing methods derived from them,
with an emphasis on simple illustrative examples
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