Computational paradigm for dynamic logic-gates in neuronal activity

In 1943 McCulloch and Pitts suggested that the brain is composed of reliable logic-gates similar to the logic at the core of today's computers. This framework had a limited impact on neuroscience, since neurons exhibit far richer dynamics. Here we propose a new experimentally corroborated paradigm in which the truth tables of the brain's logic-gates are time dependent, i.e. dynamic logicgates (DLGs). The truth tables of the DLGs depend on the history of their activity and the stimulation frequencies of their input neurons. Our experimental results are based on a procedure where conditioned stimulations were enforced on circuits of neurons embedded within a large-scale network of cortical cells in-vitro. We demonstrate that the underlying biological mechanism is the unavoidable increase of neuronal response latencies to ongoing stimulations, which imposes a nonuniform gradual stretching of network delays. The limited experimental results are confirmed and extended by simulations and theoretical arguments based on identical neurons with a fixed increase of the neuronal response latency per evoked spike. We anticipate our results to lead to better understanding of the suitability of this computational paradigm to account for the brain's functionalities and will require the development of new systematic mathematical methods beyond the methods developed for traditional Boolean algebra.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, 1 tabl

An experimental evidence-based computational paradigm for new logic-gates in neuronal activity

We propose a new experimentally corroborated paradigm in which the functionality of the brain's logic-gates depends on the history of their activity, e.g. an OR-gate that turns into a XOR-gate over time. Our results are based on an experimental procedure where conditioned stimulations were enforced on circuits of neurons embedded within a large-scale network of cortical cells in-vitro. The underlying biological mechanism is the unavoidable increase of neuronal response latency to ongoing stimulations, which imposes a non-uniform gradual stretching of network delays.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Sudden synchrony leaps accompanied by frequency multiplications in neuronal activity

A classical view of neural coding relies on temporal firing synchrony among functional groups of neurons; however the underlying mechanism remains an enigma. Here we experimentally demonstrate a mechanism where time-lags among neuronal spiking leap from several tens of milliseconds to nearly zero-lag synchrony. It also allows sudden leaps out of synchrony, hence forming short epochs of synchrony. Our results are based on an experimental procedure where conditioned stimulations were enforced on circuits of neurons embedded within a large-scale network of cortical cells in vitro and are corroborated by simulations of neuronal populations. The underlying biological mechanisms are the unavoidable increase of the neuronal response latency to ongoing stimulations and temporal or spatial summation required to generate evoked spikes. These sudden leaps in and out of synchrony may be accompanied by multiplications of the neuronal firing frequency, hence offering reliable information-bearing indicators which may bridge between the two principal neuronal coding paradigms.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figure