Biological CyberneticsPub Date : 2023-04-01Epub Date: 2023-04-08DOI: 10.1007/s00422-023-00961-0
Fabrizio Gabbiani, Thomas Preuss, Richard B Dewell
{"title":"Approaching object acceleration differentially affects the predictions of neuronal collision avoidance models.","authors":"Fabrizio Gabbiani, Thomas Preuss, Richard B Dewell","doi":"10.1007/s00422-023-00961-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00422-023-00961-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The processing of visual information for collision avoidance has been investigated at the biophysical level in several model systems. In grasshoppers, the (so-called) [Formula: see text] model captures reasonably well the visual processing performed by an identified neuron called the lobular giant movement detector as it tracks approaching objects. Similar phenomenological models have been used to describe either the firing rate or the membrane potential of neurons responsible for visually guided collision avoidance in other animals. Specifically, in goldfish, the [Formula: see text] model has been proposed to describe the Mauthner cell, an identified neuron involved in startle escape responses. In the vinegar fly, a third model was developed for the giant fiber neuron, which triggers last resort escapes immediately before an impending collision. One key property of these models is their prediction that peak neuronal responses occur at a fixed delay after the simulated approaching object reaches a threshold angular size on the retina. This prediction is valid for simulated objects approaching at a constant speed. We tested whether it remains valid when approaching objects accelerate. After characterizing and comparing the models' responses to accelerating and constant speed stimuli, we find that the prediction holds true for the [Formula: see text] and the giant fiber model, but not for the [Formula: see text] model. These results suggest that acceleration in the approach trajectory of an object may help distinguish and further constrain the neuronal computations required for collision avoidance in grasshoppers, fish and vinegar flies.</p>","PeriodicalId":55374,"journal":{"name":"Biological Cybernetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10314993/pdf/nihms-1907108.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9741244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comparison between an exact and a heuristic neural mass model with second-order synapses.","authors":"Pau Clusella, Elif Köksal-Ersöz, Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo, Giulio Ruffini","doi":"10.1007/s00422-022-00952-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-022-00952-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Neural mass models (NMMs) are designed to reproduce the collective dynamics of neuronal populations. A common framework for NMMs assumes heuristically that the output firing rate of a neural population can be described by a static nonlinear transfer function (NMM1). However, a recent exact mean-field theory for quadratic integrate-and-fire (QIF) neurons challenges this view by showing that the mean firing rate is not a static function of the neuronal state but follows two coupled nonlinear differential equations (NMM2). Here we analyze and compare these two descriptions in the presence of second-order synaptic dynamics. First, we derive the mathematical equivalence between the two models in the infinitely slow synapse limit, i.e., we show that NMM1 is an approximation of NMM2 in this regime. Next, we evaluate the applicability of this limit in the context of realistic physiological parameter values by analyzing the dynamics of models with inhibitory or excitatory synapses. We show that NMM1 fails to reproduce important dynamical features of the exact model, such as the self-sustained oscillations of an inhibitory interneuron QIF network. Furthermore, in the exact model but not in the limit one, stimulation of a pyramidal cell population induces resonant oscillatory activity whose peak frequency and amplitude increase with the self-coupling gain and the external excitatory input. This may play a role in the enhanced response of densely connected networks to weak uniform inputs, such as the electric fields produced by noninvasive brain stimulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":55374,"journal":{"name":"Biological Cybernetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10160168/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9559448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Controlling stick balancing on a linear track: Delayed state feedback or delay-compensating predictor feedback?","authors":"Dalma J Nagy, John G Milton, Tamas Insperger","doi":"10.1007/s00422-023-00957-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-023-00957-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A planar stick balancing task was investigated using stabilometry parameters (SP); a concept initially developed to assess the stability of human postural sway. Two subject groups were investigated: 6 subjects (MD) with many days of balancing a 90 cm stick on a linear track and 25 subjects (OD) with only one day of balancing experience. The underlying mechanical model is a pendulum-cart system. Two control force models were investigated by means of numerical simulations: (1) delayed state feedback (DSF); and (2) delay-compensating predictor feedback (PF). Both models require an internal model and are subject to certainty thresholds with delayed switching. Measured and simulated time histories were compared quantitatively using a cost function in terms of some essential SPs for all subjects. Minimization of the cost function showed that the control strategy of both OD and MD subjects can better be described by DSF. The control mechanism for the MD subjects was superior in two aspects: (1) they devoted less energy to controlling the cart's position; and (2) their perception threshold for the stick's angular velocity was found to be smaller. Findings support the concept that when sufficient sensory information is readily available, a delay-compensating PF strategy is not necessary.</p>","PeriodicalId":55374,"journal":{"name":"Biological Cybernetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10160210/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9501139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Structure and dynamics that specialize neurons for high-frequency coincidence detection in the barn owl nucleus laminaris.","authors":"Ben Drucker, Joshua H Goldwyn","doi":"10.1007/s00422-023-00962-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-023-00962-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A principal cue for sound source localization is the difference in arrival times of sounds at an animal's two ears (interaural time difference, ITD). Neurons that process ITDs are specialized to compare the timing of inputs with submillisecond precision. In the barn owl, ITD processing begins in the nucleus laminaris (NL) region of the auditory brain stem. Remarkably, NL neurons are sensitive to ITDs in high-frequency sounds (kilohertz-range). This contrasts with ITD-based sound localization in analogous regions in mammals where ITD sensitivity is typically restricted to lower-frequency sounds. Guided by previous experiments and modeling studies of tone-evoked responses of NL neurons, we propose NL neurons achieve high-frequency ITD sensitivity if they respond selectively to the small-amplitude, high-frequency oscillations in their inputs, and remain relatively non-responsive to mean input level. We use a biophysically based model to study the effects of soma-axon coupling on dynamics and function in NL neurons. First, we show that electrical separation of the soma from the axon region in the neuron enhances high-frequency ITD sensitivity. This soma-axon coupling configuration promotes linear subthreshold dynamics and rapid spike initiation, making the model more responsive to input oscillations, rather than mean input level. Second, we provide new evidence for the essential role of phasic dynamics for high-frequency neural coincidence detection. Transforming our model to the phasic firing mode further tunes the model to respond selectively to the oscillating inputs that carry ITD information. Similar structural and dynamical mechanisms specialize mammalian auditory brain stem neurons for ITD sensitivity, and thus, our work identifies common principles of ITD processing and neural coincidence detection across species and for sounds at widely different frequencies.</p>","PeriodicalId":55374,"journal":{"name":"Biological Cybernetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9781870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Melani Sanchez-Garcia, Tushar Chauhan, Benoit R Cottereau, Michael Beyeler
{"title":"Efficient multi-scale representation of visual objects using a biologically plausible spike-latency code and winner-take-all inhibition.","authors":"Melani Sanchez-Garcia, Tushar Chauhan, Benoit R Cottereau, Michael Beyeler","doi":"10.1007/s00422-023-00956-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-023-00956-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Deep neural networks have surpassed human performance in key visual challenges such as object recognition, but require a large amount of energy, computation, and memory. In contrast, spiking neural networks (SNNs) have the potential to improve both the efficiency and biological plausibility of object recognition systems. Here we present a SNN model that uses spike-latency coding and winner-take-all inhibition (WTA-I) to efficiently represent visual stimuli using multi-scale parallel processing. Mimicking neuronal response properties in early visual cortex, images were preprocessed with three different spatial frequency (SF) channels, before they were fed to a layer of spiking neurons whose synaptic weights were updated using spike-timing-dependent-plasticity. We investigate how the quality of the represented objects changes under different SF bands and WTA-I schemes. We demonstrate that a network of 200 spiking neurons tuned to three SFs can efficiently represent objects with as little as 15 spikes per neuron. Studying how core object recognition may be implemented using biologically plausible learning rules in SNNs may not only further our understanding of the brain, but also lead to novel and efficient artificial vision systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":55374,"journal":{"name":"Biological Cybernetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9483110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A time-causal and time-recursive scale-covariant scale-space representation of temporal signals and past time.","authors":"Tony Lindeberg","doi":"10.1007/s00422-022-00953-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-022-00953-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article presents an overview of a theory for performing temporal smoothing on temporal signals in such a way that: (i) temporally smoothed signals at coarser temporal scales are guaranteed to constitute simplifications of corresponding temporally smoothed signals at any finer temporal scale (including the original signal) and (ii) the temporal smoothing process is both time-causal and time-recursive, in the sense that it does not require access to future information and can be performed with no other temporal memory buffer of the past than the resulting smoothed temporal scale-space representations themselves. For specific subsets of parameter settings for the classes of linear and shift-invariant temporal smoothing operators that obey this property, it is shown how temporal scale covariance can be additionally obtained, guaranteeing that if the temporal input signal is rescaled by a uniform temporal scaling factor, then also the resulting temporal scale-space representations of the rescaled temporal signal will constitute mere rescalings of the temporal scale-space representations of the original input signal, complemented by a shift along the temporal scale dimension. The resulting time-causal limit kernel that obeys this property constitutes a canonical temporal kernel for processing temporal signals in real-time scenarios when the regular Gaussian kernel cannot be used, because of its non-causal access to information from the future, and we cannot additionally require the temporal smoothing process to comprise a complementary memory of the past beyond the information contained in the temporal smoothing process itself, which in this way also serves as a multi-scale temporal memory of the past. We describe how the time-causal limit kernel relates to previously used temporal models, such as Koenderink's scale-time kernels and the ex-Gaussian kernel. We do also give an overview of how the time-causal limit kernel can be used for modelling the temporal processing in models for spatio-temporal and spectro-temporal receptive fields, and how it more generally has a high potential for modelling neural temporal response functions in a purely time-causal and time-recursive way, that can also handle phenomena at multiple temporal scales in a theoretically well-founded manner. We detail how this theory can be efficiently implemented for discrete data, in terms of a set of recursive filters coupled in cascade. Hence, the theory is generally applicable for both: (i) modelling continuous temporal phenomena over multiple temporal scales and (ii) digital processing of measured temporal signals in real time. We conclude by stating implications of the theory for modelling temporal phenomena in biological, perceptual, neural and memory processes by mathematical models, as well as implications regarding the philosophy of time and perceptual agents. Specifically, we propose that for A-type theories of time, as well as for perceptual agents, the notion of","PeriodicalId":55374,"journal":{"name":"Biological Cybernetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10160219/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9877841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bistability at the onset of neuronal oscillations.","authors":"Yiqing Lu, Xiu Xin, John Rinzel","doi":"10.1007/s00422-022-00954-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-022-00954-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model and squid axon (bathed in reduced Ca<sup>2+</sup>) fire repetitively for steady current injection. Moreover, for a current-range just suprathreshold, repetitive firing coexists with a stable steady state. Neuronal excitability, as such, shows bistability and hysteresis providing the opportunity for the system to perform as switchable between firing and non-firing states with transient input and providing the backbone as a dynamical mechanism for bursting oscillations. Some conditions for bistability can be derived by intricate analysis (bifurcation theory) and characterized by simulation, but conditions for emergence and robustness of such bistability do not typically follow from intuition. Here, we demonstrate with a semi-quantitative two-variable, V-w, reduction of the HH model features that promote/reduce bistability. Visualization of flow and trajectories in the V-w phase plane provides an intuitive grasp for bistability. The geometry of action potential recovery involves a late phase during which the dynamic negative feedback of [Formula: see text] inactivation and [Formula: see text] activation over/undershoot, respectively, their resting values, thereby leading to hyperexcitabilty and an intrinsically generated opportunity to by-pass the spiral-like stable rest state and initiate the next spike upstroke. We illustrate control of bistability and dependence of the degree of hysteresis on recovery timescales and gating properties. Our dynamical dissection reveals the strongly attracting depolarized phase of the spike, enabling approximations like the resetting feature of adapting integrate-and-fire models. We extend our insights and show that the Morris-Lecar model can also exhibit robust bistability.</p>","PeriodicalId":55374,"journal":{"name":"Biological Cybernetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9507329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biological CyberneticsPub Date : 2023-04-01Epub Date: 2023-01-19DOI: 10.1007/s00422-023-00955-y
Ryo Fujihira, Gentaro Taga
{"title":"Dynamical systems model of development of the action differentiation in early infancy: a requisite of physical agency.","authors":"Ryo Fujihira, Gentaro Taga","doi":"10.1007/s00422-023-00955-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00422-023-00955-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Young infants are sensitive to whether their body movements cause subsequent events or not during the interaction with the environment. This ability has been revealed by empirical studies on the reinforcement of limb movements when a string is attached between an infant limb and a mobile toy suspended overhead. A previous study reproduced the experimental observation by modeling both the infant's limb and a mobile toy as a system of coupled oscillators. The authors then argued that emergence of agency could be explained by a phase transition in the dynamical system: from a weakly coupled state to a state where the both movements of the limb and the toy are highly coordinated. However, what remains unexplained is the following experimental observation: When the limb is connected to the mobile toy by a string, the infant increases the average velocity of the arm's movement. On the other hand, when the toy is controlled externally, the average arm's velocity is greatly reduced. Since young infants produce exuberant spontaneous movements even with no external stimuli, the inhibition of motor action to suppress the formation of spurious action-perception coupling should be also a crucial sign for the emergence of agency. Thus, we present a dynamical system model for the development of action differentiation, to move or not to move, in the mobile task. In addition to the pair of limb and mobile oscillators for providing positive feedback for reinforcement in the previous model, bifurcation dynamics are incorporated to enhance or inhibit self-movements in response to detecting contingencies between the limb and mobile movements. The results from computer simulations reproduce experimental observations on the developmental emergence of action differentiation between 2 and 3 months of age in the form of a bifurcation diagram. We infer that the emergence of physical agency entails young infants' ability not only to enhance a specific action-perception coupling, but also to decouple it and create a new mode of action-perception coupling based on the internal state dynamics with contingency detection between self-generated actions and environmental events.</p>","PeriodicalId":55374,"journal":{"name":"Biological Cybernetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10160167/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9511748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Francesco Lassig, Pau Vilimelis Aceituno, M. Sorbaro, B. Grewe
{"title":"Bio-Inspired, Task-Free Continual Learning through Activity Regularization","authors":"Francesco Lassig, Pau Vilimelis Aceituno, M. Sorbaro, B. Grewe","doi":"10.48550/arXiv.2212.04316","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2212.04316","url":null,"abstract":"The ability to sequentially learn multiple tasks without forgetting is a key skill of biological brains, whereas it represents a major challenge to the field of deep learning. To avoid catastrophic forgetting, various continual learning (CL) approaches have been devised. However, these usually require discrete task boundaries. This requirement seems biologically implausible and often limits the application of CL methods in the real world where tasks are not always well defined. Here, we take inspiration from neuroscience, where sparse, non-overlapping neuronal representations have been suggested to prevent catastrophic forgetting. As in the brain, we argue that these sparse representations should be chosen on the basis of feed forward (stimulus-specific) as well as top-down (context-specific) information. To implement such selective sparsity, we use a bio-plausible form of hierarchical credit assignment known as Deep Feedback Control (DFC) and combine it with a winner-take-all sparsity mechanism. In addition to sparsity, we introduce lateral recurrent connections within each layer to further protect previously learned representations. We evaluate the new sparse-recurrent version of DFC on the split-MNIST computer vision benchmark and show that only the combination of sparsity and intra-layer recurrent connections improves CL performance with respect to standard backpropagation. Our method achieves similar performance to well-known CL methods, such as Elastic Weight Consolidation and Synaptic Intelligence, without requiring information about task boundaries. Overall, we showcase the idea of adopting computational principles from the brain to derive new, task-free learning algorithms for CL.","PeriodicalId":55374,"journal":{"name":"Biological Cybernetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48756773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}