An experimental evidence-based computational paradigm for new logic-gates in neuronal activity

TL;DR

This paper introduces an experimental paradigm demonstrating that neuronal logic-gates can change their functionality over time based on activity history, driven by increased neuronal response latency affecting network delays.

Contribution

It presents a novel experimentally validated approach showing how neuronal logic-gates evolve their functions dynamically due to activity-dependent latency changes.

Findings

Neuronal response latency increases with ongoing stimulation.

Logic-gate functionality in neuronal circuits can change over time.

Network delays are non-uniform and gradually stretch due to activity.

Abstract

We propose a new experimentally corroborated paradigm in which the functionality of the brain's logic-gates depends on the history of their activity, e.g. an OR-gate that turns into a XOR-gate over time. Our results are based on an experimental procedure where conditioned stimulations were enforced on circuits of neurons embedded within a large-scale network of cortical cells in-vitro. The underlying biological mechanism is the unavoidable increase of neuronal response latency to ongoing stimulations, which imposes a non-uniform gradual stretching of network delays.