Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Roed, L.
Relevance of Rhythmic Depolarizations for Cortical Information Processing - Energetic Considerations
Humanmedizin; [ Diplomarbeit ] Medizinische Universität Graz; 2024. pp. 70
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- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Betreuer*innen:
- Zatloukal Kurt
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- Abstract:
- Rhythmic depolarizations are observed in the human brain at a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Given the evolutionary pressure to optimize energy requirements, it is hypothesized that these oscillations are indeed exploited to enhance its metabolic demand. Investigating this phenomenon from an energetic perspective provides a new outlook on the topic and contributes to the understanding of neural coding. Based on an extensive literature review and the simulation of a simple probabilistic network, energy costs for specific tasks are evaluated. Phase coding of individual neurons is a compelling possible explanation for oscillatory background activity. At the network level, distributed representation of a stimulus over multiple neurons proves highly efficient for probabilistic low-cost neurons, and for the optimization of the representational capacity of a network. An additional role for oscillatory activity was proposed in the temporal segmentation of computations and highly efficient clustered processing. The identification of mechanisms at work in biological neural networks seems to be highly relevant for the development of artificial neural networks. Current neuromorphic approaches are discussed. This thesis links fundamental oscillation-based calculations in biological and artificial networks.