Degree Correlations Optimize Neuronal Network Sensitivity to Sub-Threshold Stimuli

Degree Correlations Optimize Neuronal Network Sensitivity to Sub-Threshold Stimuli

Information processing in the brain crucially depends on the topology of the neuronal connections. We investigate how the topology influences the response of a population of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons to a stimulus. We devise a method to calculate firing rates from a self-consistent system of equations taking into account the degree distribution and degree correlations in the network. We ...

Coordinating Between Medical Professions’ Tasks to Optimize Sub-Saharan Health Systems: A Response to Recent Commentaries

In search of an elusive hard threshold: a test of observer’s ability to order sub-threshold stimuli

The contrast transducer function (d' vs. contrast) for sine gratings was claimed to come up from some non-zero contrast value rather than from the origin. This implies that there is a point (a hard threshold) on the grating contrast axis below which observers could not distinguish between presentations containing gratings and those containing a homogeneous field. We studied the ability to order...

Mechanical resonance enhances the sensitivity of the vibrissa sensory system to near-threshold stimuli.

The representation of high-frequency sensory information is a crucial problem faced by the nervous system. Rodent facial vibrissae constitute a high-resolution sensory system, capable of discriminating and detecting subtle changes in tactual input. During active sensing, the mechanical properties of vibrissae may play a key role in filtering sensory information and translating it into neural ac...

Using Artificial Intelligence to Optimize Wireless Sensor Network Deployments for Sub-alpine Biogeochemical Process Studies

Researchers in the discipline of biogeochemistry face an enormous challenge as they perform carbon cycle studies related to global climate change. These include quantifying energy and element flows through the earth system and coupling these flows to the dynamic climate system with the goal of devising models that can be used to predict how these flows might change in the future. In facing this...