A Unified Framework for Information Coding: Oscillations, Memory, and Zombie Modes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified neural coding framework based on pulse gating that enables exact information propagation, memory, and dynamic processing, potentially explaining neural 'zombie modes' as stereotyped control circuits.

Contribution

It presents a novel pulse gating mechanism for neural information transfer and a unified framework for coding, processing, and routing in neural circuits.

Findings

Demonstrates exact graded information propagation in feedforward networks.

Constructs neural circuits for short-term memory, Fourier transforms, and spatial rotations.

Proposes neural 'zombie modes' as stereotyped control circuits.

Abstract

Synchronous neural activity can improve neural processing and is believed to mediate neuronal interaction by providing temporal windows during which information is more easily transferred. We demonstrate a pulse gating mechanism in a feedforward network that can exactly propagate graded information through a multilayer circuit. Based on this mechanism, we present a unified framework wherein neural information coding and processing can be considered as a product of linear maps under the active control of a pulse generator. Distinct control and processing components combine to form the basis for the binding, propagation, and processing of dynamically routed information within neural pathways. Using our framework, we construct example neural circuits to 1) maintain a short-term memory, 2) compute time-windowed Fourier transforms, and 3) perform spatial rotations. We postulate that such circuits, with stereotyped control and processing of information, are the neural correlates of Crick and Koch's zombie modes.