Dancing Neurons

The painting Le bonheur de vivre by Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954) offers a metaphoric illustration of higher-order correlations in neural networks: Neurons can either be activated as individuals, or they form couples, or they dynamically organize (“dance”) in groups. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

How synaptic connections influence the dynamic coordination of neurons in a network

Stojan Jovanović and Prof. Dr. Stefan Rotter from the Bernstein Center Freiburg and the cluster of excellence BrainLinks-BrainTools showed in their recent computational study what synaptic connectivity does to neurons in terms of their so-called “third-order correlations” and how neurons synchronize their action potentials like dancers who coordinate their steps. Applying a mathematical model known as the Hawkes process helped to understand how the structure of connections determines the activity dynamics of brain networks, which is the basis of all brain functions including sensory processing, movement control, and abstract problem solving.

Finding out more about the coordinated activity of nodes (“dancing neurons”) in neural networks is of great importance as it helps to explain the behavior of a very complex system – our brain.

 

Original Publication:

Jovanović S, Rotter S (2016) Interplay between Graph Topology and Correlations of Third Order in Spiking Neuronal Networks. PLOS Comput Biol 12(6): e1004963. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004963