Brain–computer interfaces have seen extraordinary surges in developments in recent years, and a significant discrepancy now exists between the abundance of available data and the limited headway made in achieving a unified theoretical framework. This discrepancy becomes particularly pronounced when examining the collective neural activity at the micro and meso scale, where a coherent formalization that adequately describes neural interactions is still lacking. Here, we introduce a mathematical framework to analyze systems of natural neurons and interpret the related empirical observations in terms of lattice field theory, an established paradigm from theoretical particle physics and statistical mechanics. Our methods are tailored to interpret data from chronic neural interfaces, especially spike rasters from measurements of single neuron activity, and generalize the maximum entropy model for neural networks so that the time evolution of the system is also taken into account. This is obtained by bridging particle physics and neuroscience, paving the way for particle physics-inspired models of the neocortex.

Neural activity in quarks language. Lattice field theory for a network of real neurons / Bardella, Giampiero; Franchini, Simone; Pan, Liming; Balzan, Riccardo; Ramawat, Surabhi; Brunamonti, Emiliano; Pani, Pierpaolo; Ferraina, Stefano. - In: ENTROPY. - ISSN 1099-4300. - 26:6(2024), pp. 1-58. [10.3390/e26060495]

Neural activity in quarks language. Lattice field theory for a network of real neurons

Bardella, Giampiero
Primo
Conceptualization
;
Franchini, Simone
Secondo
Conceptualization
;
Ramawat, Surabhi
Data Curation
;
Brunamonti, Emiliano
Membro del Collaboration Group
;
Pani, Pierpaolo
Funding Acquisition
;
Ferraina, Stefano
Ultimo
Funding Acquisition
2024

Abstract

Brain–computer interfaces have seen extraordinary surges in developments in recent years, and a significant discrepancy now exists between the abundance of available data and the limited headway made in achieving a unified theoretical framework. This discrepancy becomes particularly pronounced when examining the collective neural activity at the micro and meso scale, where a coherent formalization that adequately describes neural interactions is still lacking. Here, we introduce a mathematical framework to analyze systems of natural neurons and interpret the related empirical observations in terms of lattice field theory, an established paradigm from theoretical particle physics and statistical mechanics. Our methods are tailored to interpret data from chronic neural interfaces, especially spike rasters from measurements of single neuron activity, and generalize the maximum entropy model for neural networks so that the time evolution of the system is also taken into account. This is obtained by bridging particle physics and neuroscience, paving the way for particle physics-inspired models of the neocortex.
2024
neural networks; statistical physics; field theory; least action; brain connectivity; neurophysiology; generative models; network inference; entropy; behavior
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
Neural activity in quarks language. Lattice field theory for a network of real neurons / Bardella, Giampiero; Franchini, Simone; Pan, Liming; Balzan, Riccardo; Ramawat, Surabhi; Brunamonti, Emiliano; Pani, Pierpaolo; Ferraina, Stefano. - In: ENTROPY. - ISSN 1099-4300. - 26:6(2024), pp. 1-58. [10.3390/e26060495]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1711968
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