scholarly journals Power-Law Neuronal Fluctuations in a Recurrent Network Model of Parametric Working Memory

2006 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 1099-1114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Miller ◽  
Xiao-Jing Wang

In a working memory system, persistent activity maintains information in the absence of external stimulation, therefore the time scale and structure of correlated neural fluctuations reflect the intrinsic microcircuit dynamics rather than direct responses to sensory inputs. Here we show that a parametric working memory model capable of graded persistent activity is characterized by arbitrarily long correlation times, with Fano factors and power spectra of neural activity described by the power laws of a random walk. Collective drifts of the mnemonic firing pattern induce long-term noise correlations between pairs of cells, with the sign (positive or negative) and amplitude proportional to the product of the gradients of their tuning curves. None of the power-law behavior was observed in a variant of the model endowed with discrete bistable neural groups, where noise fluctuations were unable to cause long-term changes in rate. Therefore such behavior can serve as a probe for a quasi-continuous attractor. We propose that the unusual correlated fluctuations have important implications for neural coding in parametric working memory circuits.

1998 ◽  
Vol 53 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 670-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquin M. Fuster

Abstract One example of “emergence” is the development, as a result of neural ontogeny and living experience, of cortical networks capable of representing and retaining cognitive information. A large body of evidence from neuropsychology, electrophysiology and neuroimaging indi­cates that so-called working memory and long-term memory share the same neural substrate in the cerebral cortex. That substrate consists in a system of widespread, overlapping and hierarchically organized networks of cortical neurons. In this system, any neuron or group of neurons can be part of many networks, and thus many memories. Working memory is the temporary activation of one such network of long-term memory for the purpose of executing an action in the near future. The activation of the network may be brought about by stimuli that by virtue of prior experience are in some manner associated with the cognitive content of the network, including the response of the organism to those stimuli. The mechanisms by which the network stays activated are presumed to include the recurrent re-entry of impulses through associated neuronal assemblies of the network. Consistent with this notion is the following evidence: (1) working memory depends on the functional integrity of cortico-corti-cal connective loops; and (2) during working memory, remarkable similarities -including “attractor behavior” -have been observed between firing patterns in real cortex and in an artificial recurrent network.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 210850
Author(s):  
P. L. Ramos ◽  
L. F. Costa ◽  
F. Louzada ◽  
F. A. Rodrigues

The Roman Empire shaped western civilization, and many Roman principles are embodied in modern institutions. Although its political institutions proved both resilient and adaptable, allowing it to incorporate diverse populations, the Empire suffered from many conflicts. Indeed, most emperors died violently, from assassination, suicide or in battle. These conflicts produced patterns in the length of time that can be identified by statistical analysis. In this paper, we study the underlying patterns associated with the reign of the Roman emperors by using statistical tools of survival data analysis. We consider all the 175 Roman emperors and propose a new power-law model with change points to predict the time-to-violent-death of the Roman emperors. This model encompasses data in the presence of censoring and long-term survivors, providing more accurate predictions than previous models. Our results show that power-law distributions can also occur in survival data, as verified in other data types from natural and artificial systems, reinforcing the ubiquity of power-law distributions. The generality of our approach paves the way to further related investigations not only in other ancient civilizations but also in applications in engineering and medicine.


Author(s):  
Sudhir Jain ◽  
Takuya Yamano

The authors study the persistence phenomenon in the Japanese stock market by using a novel mapping of the time evolution of the values of shares quoted on the Nikkei Index onto Ising spins. The method is applied to historical end of day data from the Japanese financial market. By studying the time dependence of the spins, they find clear evidence for a double-power law decay of the proportion of shares that remain either above or below ‘starting' values chosen at random. The results are consistent with a recent analysis of the data from the London FTSE100 market. The slopes of the power-laws are also in agreement. The authors estimate a long time persistence exponent for the underlying Japanese financial market to be 0.5. Furthermore, they argue that the presence of a double power law in the decay of the persistence probability could be the signature of the presence of both speculative (short-term) and long-term traders in the market.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S290) ◽  
pp. 269-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Liu ◽  
J. H. Fan ◽  
H. G. Wang ◽  
G. G. Deng

AbstractIn this paper, we investigated the possible exponential decays in the long term optical light curve of the BL Lac {OJ 287}. We developed a method that can be used to decomposing a light curve into a linear combination of exponential decays. The decomposing shows that the decay time scales range from ~ 103.6 to ~ 10−4 days. The power spectra has frequency-dependent power-law with slop ~ 0.5, and the peak of power is at the time scale of decay on ~ 160 days.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary C. Potter

AbstractRapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of words or pictured scenes provides evidence for a large-capacity conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) that momentarily provides rich associated material from long-term memory, permitting rapid chunking (Potter 1993; 2009; 2012). In perception of scenes as well as language comprehension, we make use of knowledge that briefly exceeds the supposed limits of working memory.


Author(s):  
Angela A. Manginelli ◽  
Franziska Geringswald ◽  
Stefan Pollmann

When distractor configurations are repeated over time, visual search becomes more efficient, even if participants are unaware of the repetition. This contextual cueing is a form of incidental, implicit learning. One might therefore expect that contextual cueing does not (or only minimally) rely on working memory resources. This, however, is debated in the literature. We investigated contextual cueing under either a visuospatial or a nonspatial (color) visual working memory load. We found that contextual cueing was disrupted by the concurrent visuospatial, but not by the color working memory load. A control experiment ruled out that unspecific attentional factors of the dual-task situation disrupted contextual cueing. Visuospatial working memory may be needed to match current display items with long-term memory traces of previously learned displays.


Author(s):  
Ian Neath ◽  
Jean Saint-Aubin ◽  
Tamra J. Bireta ◽  
Andrew J. Gabel ◽  
Chelsea G. Hudson ◽  
...  

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan S. Rose ◽  
Joel Myerson ◽  
Henry L. Roediger ◽  
Sandra Hale

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