Finite size effects in the correlation structure of stochastic neural networks: analysis of different connectivity matrices and failure of the mean-field theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates finite size effects and correlation structures in stochastic neural networks with various connectivity matrices, revealing limitations of mean-field theory and introducing a perturbative approach to analyze neuron correlations and synchronization phenomena.

Contribution

It develops a perturbative expansion method to quantify correlations in neural networks, demonstrating the failure of mean-field theory due to finite size effects and synchronization.

Findings

Strong external inputs reduce neuron correlations.

Propagation of chaos does not hold even in large networks.

Neurons can become perfectly correlated under certain conditions.

Abstract

We quantify the finite size effects in a stochastic network made up of rate neurons, for several kinds of recurrent connectivity matrices. This analysis is performed by means of a perturbative expansion of the neural equations, where the perturbative parameters are the intensities of the sources of randomness in the system. In detail, these parameters are the variances of the background or input noise, of the initial conditions and of the distribution of the synaptic weights. The technique developed in this article can be used to study systems which are invariant under the exchange of the neural indices and it allows us to quantify the correlation structure of the network, in terms of pairwise and higher order correlations between the neurons. We also determine the relation between the correlation and the external input of the network, showing that strong signals coming from the environment reduce significantly the amount of correlation between the neurons. Moreover we prove that in general the phenomenon of propagation of chaos does not occur, even in the thermodynamic limit, due to the correlation structure of the 3 sources of randomness considered in the model. Furthermore, we show that the propagation of chaos does not depend only on the number of neurons in the network, but also and mainly on the number of incoming connections per neuron. To conclude, we prove that for special values of the parameters of the system the neurons become perfectly correlated, a phenomenon that we have called stochastic synchronization. These discoveries clearly prevent the use of the mean-field theory in the description of the neural network.