30,327 research outputs found
Transient Information Flow in a Network of Excitatory and Inhibitory Model Neurons: Role of Noise and Signal Autocorrelation
We investigate the performance of sparsely-connected networks of
integrate-and-fire neurons for ultra-short term information processing. We
exploit the fact that the population activity of networks with balanced
excitation and inhibition can switch from an oscillatory firing regime to a
state of asynchronous irregular firing or quiescence depending on the rate of
external background spikes.
We find that in terms of information buffering the network performs best for
a moderate, non-zero, amount of noise. Analogous to the phenomenon of
stochastic resonance the performance decreases for higher and lower noise
levels. The optimal amount of noise corresponds to the transition zone between
a quiescent state and a regime of stochastic dynamics. This provides a
potential explanation on the role of non-oscillatory population activity in a
simplified model of cortical micro-circuits.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, to appear in J. Physiology (Paris) Vol. 9
Inconsistent effects of stochastic resonance on human auditory processing
It has been demonstrated that, while otherwise detrimental, noise can improve sensory perception under optimal conditions. The mechanism underlying this improvement is stochastic resonance. An inverted U-shaped relationship between noise level and task performance is considered as the signature of stochastic resonance. Previous studies have proposed the existence of stochastic resonance also in the human auditory system. However, the reported beneficial effects of noise are small, based on a small sample, and do not confirm the proposed inverted U-shaped function. Here, we investigated in two separate studies whether stochastic resonance may be present in the human auditory system by applying noise of different levels, either acoustically or electrically via transcranial random noise stimulation, while participants had to detect acoustic stimuli adjusted to their individual hearing threshold. We find no evidence for behaviorally relevant effects of stochastic resonance. Although detection rate for near-threshold acoustic stimuli appears to vary in an inverted U-shaped manner for some subjects, it varies in a U-shaped manner or in other manners for other subjects. Our results show that subjects do not benefit from noise, irrespective of its modality. In conclusion, our results question the existence of stochastic resonance in the human auditory system
Emotional agents at the square lattice
We introduce and investigate by numerical simulations a number of models of
emotional agents at the square lattice. Our models describe the most general
features of emotions such as the spontaneous emotional arousal, emotional
relaxation, and transfers of emotions between different agents. Group emotions
in the considered models are periodically fluctuating between two opposite
valency levels and as result the mean value of such group emotions is zero. The
oscillations amplitude depends strongly on probability ps of the individual
spontaneous arousal. For small values of relaxation times tau we observed a
stochastic resonance, i.e. the signal to noise ratio SNR is maximal for a
non-zero ps parameter. The amplitude increases with the probability p of local
affective interactions while the mean oscillations period increases with the
relaxation time tau and is only weakly dependent on other system parameters.
Presence of emotional antenna can enhance positive or negative emotions and for
the optimal transition probability the antenna can change agents emotions at
longer distances. The stochastic resonance was also observed for the influence
of emotions on task execution efficiency.Comment: 28 pages, 19 figures, 3 table
Diversity and noise effects in a model of homeostatic regulation of the sleep-wake cycle
Recent advances in sleep neurobiology have allowed development of
physiologically based mathematical models of sleep regulation that account for
the neuronal dynamics responsible for the regulation of sleep-wake cycles and
allow detailed examination of the underlying mechanisms. Neuronal systems in
general, and those involved in sleep regulation in particular, are noisy and
heterogeneous by their nature. It has been shown in various systems that
certain levels of noise and diversity can significantly improve signal
encoding. However, these phenomena, especially the effects of diversity, are
rarely considered in the models of sleep regulation. The present paper is
focused on a neuron-based physiologically motivated model of sleep-wake cycles
that proposes a novel mechanism of the homeostatic regulation of sleep based on
the dynamics of a wake-promoting neuropeptide orexin. Here this model is
generalized by the introduction of intrinsic diversity and noise in the
orexin-producing neurons in order to study the effect of their presence on the
sleep-wake cycle. A quantitative measure of the quality of a sleep-wake cycle
is introduced and used to systematically study the generalized model for
different levels of noise and diversity. The model is shown to exhibit a clear
diversity-induced resonance: that is, the best wake-sleep cycle turns out to
correspond to an intermediate level of diversity at the synapses of the
orexin-producing neurons. On the other hand only a mild evidence of stochastic
resonance is found when the level of noise is varied. These results show that
disorder, especially in the form of quenched diversity, can be a key-element
for an efficient or optimal functioning of the homeostatic regulation of the
sleep-wake cycle. Furthermore, this study provides an example of constructive
role of diversity in a neuronal system that can be extended beyond the system
studied here.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, 1 tabl
Estimation of an Optimal Stimulus Amplitude for Using Vestibular Stochastic Stimulation to Improve Balance Function
Sensorimotor changes such as postural and gait instabilities can affect the functional performance of astronauts when they transition across different gravity environments. We are developing a method, based on stochastic resonance (SR), to enhance information transfer by applying non-zero levels of external noise on the vestibular system (vestibular stochastic resonance, VSR). The goal of this project was to determine optimal levels of stimulation for SR applications by using a defined vestibular threshold of motion detection
Experimental Observation of Coherence and Stochastic Resonances in an Electronic Chua Circuit
Stochastic and coherence resonances appear in nonlinear systems subjected to
an external source of noise and are characterized by a maximum response at the
optimal value of the noise intensity. This paper shows experimentally that it
is possible to observe them in a chaotic system. To this end we have analysed
an electronic Chua circuit running in the chaotic regime and added noise to its
dynamics. In the case of coherence resonance, we observe an optimal periodicity
for the jumps between chaotic attractors, whereas in the case of stochastic
resonance we observe a maximum in the signal-to-noise ratio at the frequency of
an external sinusoidal perturbation.Comment: 6 page
Stochastic resonance in electrical circuits—II: Nonconventional stochastic resonance.
Stochastic resonance (SR), in which a periodic signal in a nonlinear system can be amplified by added noise, is discussed. The application of circuit modeling techniques to the conventional form of SR, which occurs in static bistable potentials, was considered in a companion paper. Here, the investigation of nonconventional forms of SR in part using similar electronic techniques is described. In the small-signal limit, the results are well described in terms of linear response theory. Some other phenomena of topical interest, closely related to SR, are also treate
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