The study of neuronal interactions is currently at the center of several
neuroscience big collaborative projects (including the Human Connectome, the
Blue Brain, the Brainome, etc.) which attempt to obtain a detailed map of the
entire brain matrix. Under certain constraints, mathematical theory can advance
predictions of the expected neural dynamics based solely on the statistical
properties of such synaptic interaction matrix. This work explores the
application of free random variables (FRV) to the study of large synaptic
interaction matrices. Besides recovering in a straightforward way known results
on eigenspectra of neural networks, we extend them to heavy-tailed
distributions of interactions. More importantly, we derive analytically the
behavior of eigenvector overlaps, which determine stability of the spectra. We
observe that upon imposing the neuronal excitation/inhibition balance, although
the eigenvalues remain unchanged, their stability dramatically decreases due to
strong non-orthogonality of associated eigenvectors. It leads us to the
conclusion that the understanding of the temporal evolution of asymmetric
neural networks requires considering the entangled dynamics of both
eigenvectors and eigenvalues, which might bear consequences for learning and
memory processes in these models. Considering the success of FRV analysis in a
wide variety of branches disciplines, we hope that the results presented here
foster additional application of these ideas in the area of brain sciences.Comment: 24 pages + 4 pages of refs, 8 figure
