Local brain processor distinguishes signal integration from modulation
Modulation and Integration in a local processor having input from two distinct sources
Information Theory
Summary
The paper looks at how a part of the brain receives and processes two different input signals together. The authors use a special way of analyzing information to better understand when signals are combined or when one signal changes how the other works. They test this with mathematical functions and realistic brain cell simulations. Their findings show clear examples of how different inputs can drive or modulate each other and how these inputs integrate.
What this means in practice
- •For computational neuroscientists: Analyze neuron input-output relationships to distinguish modulation from integration in brain circuits.
- •For neural network modelers: Incorporate signal integration and modulation mechanisms informed by information decomposition into artificial neural models.
Tested on simulated data.
Authors
Jim W. Kay, Bruce P. Graham
Abstract
By making use of partial information decomposition, we analyse information transmission through a local processor which receives two streams of integrated inputs. We revise previously stated conditions for contextual modulation that are based on the components of partial information decomposition, and introduce a condition for the presence of signal integration. Exact results are obtained for information-theoretic measures and the components of partial information decomposition using the Ibroja method. A general class of activation functions is considered along with a particular divisive normalisation transfer function. These results are applied with several activation functions, of additive, multiplicative, subtractive and divisive forms, with graphical illustration, and the conditions for modulation and integration are tested in each case. The revised information-theoretic conditions are also applied to noisy data obtained from a realistic simulation of a model layer 5b pyramidal cell in three distinct regimes defined by experimental design and characterised by the values of the input basal and apical amplitudes. Evidence for driving basal input with modulating apical input, driving apical input with modulating basal input, and of apical-basal signal integration is presented.