Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wang, Harvey, Singh, Selena, Trappenberg, Thomas, Nunes, Abraham
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.14798
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866909263275753472
author Wang, Harvey
Singh, Selena
Trappenberg, Thomas
Nunes, Abraham
author_facet Wang, Harvey
Singh, Selena
Trappenberg, Thomas
Nunes, Abraham
contents Pattern separation is a computational process by which dissimilar neural patterns are generated from similar input patterns. We present an information-geometric formulation of pattern separation, where a pattern separator is modelled as a family of statistical distributions on a manifold. Such a manifold maps an input (i.e. coordinates) to a probability distribution that generates firing patterns. Pattern separation occurs when small coordinate changes result in large distances between samples from the corresponding distributions. Under this formulation, we implement a two-neuron system whose probability law forms a 3-dimensional manifold with mutually orthogonal coordinates representing the neurons' marginal and correlational firing rates. We use this highly controlled system to examine the behaviour of spike train similarity indices commonly used in pattern separation research. We found that all indices (except scaling factor) were sensitive to relative differences in marginal firing rates, but no index adequately captured differences in spike trains that resulted from altering the correlation in activity between the two neurons. That is, existing pattern separation metrics appear (A) sensitive to patterns that are encoded by different neurons, but (B) insensitive to patterns that differ only in relative spike timing (e.g. synchrony between neurons in the ensemble).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_14798
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Information-Geometric Formulation of Pattern Separation and Evaluation of Existing Indices
Wang, Harvey
Singh, Selena
Trappenberg, Thomas
Nunes, Abraham
Neurons and Cognition
Pattern separation is a computational process by which dissimilar neural patterns are generated from similar input patterns. We present an information-geometric formulation of pattern separation, where a pattern separator is modelled as a family of statistical distributions on a manifold. Such a manifold maps an input (i.e. coordinates) to a probability distribution that generates firing patterns. Pattern separation occurs when small coordinate changes result in large distances between samples from the corresponding distributions. Under this formulation, we implement a two-neuron system whose probability law forms a 3-dimensional manifold with mutually orthogonal coordinates representing the neurons' marginal and correlational firing rates. We use this highly controlled system to examine the behaviour of spike train similarity indices commonly used in pattern separation research. We found that all indices (except scaling factor) were sensitive to relative differences in marginal firing rates, but no index adequately captured differences in spike trains that resulted from altering the correlation in activity between the two neurons. That is, existing pattern separation metrics appear (A) sensitive to patterns that are encoded by different neurons, but (B) insensitive to patterns that differ only in relative spike timing (e.g. synchrony between neurons in the ensemble).
title An Information-Geometric Formulation of Pattern Separation and Evaluation of Existing Indices
topic Neurons and Cognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.14798