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Biomedical subjects

F Corbacho

Publications and source records attributed to F Corbacho.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Fast response and temporal coherent oscillations in small-world networks.

We have investigated the role that different connectivity regimes play in the dynamics of a network of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons by computer simulations. The different connectivity topologies exhibit the following features: random topologies give rise to fast system response yet are unable to produce coherent oscillations in the average activity of the network; on the other hand, regular topologies give rise to coherent oscillations, but in a temporal scale that is not in accordance with fast signal processing. Finally, small-world topologies, which fall between random and regular ones, take advantage of the best features of both, giving rise to fast system response with coherent oscillations.

Animals↗

A central pattern generator to control a pyloric-based system.

A central pattern generator (CPG) is built to control a mechanical device (plant) inspired by the pyloric chamber of the lobster. Conductance-based models are used to construct the neurons of the CPG. The plant has an associated function that measures the amount of food flowing through it per unit of time. We search for the best set of solutions that give a high positive flow of food in the maximization function. The plant is symmetric and the model neurons are identical to avoid any bias in the space of solutions. We find that the solution is not unique and that three neurons are sufficient to produce positive flow. We propose an effective principle for CPGs (effective on-off connectivity) and a few predictions to be corroborated in the pyloric system of the lobster.

Animals↗

Reclassification as supervised clustering.

In some branches of science, such as molecular biology, classes may be defined but not completely trusted. Sometimes posterior analysis proves them to be partially incorrect. Despite its relevance, this phenomenon has not received much attention within the neural computation community. We define reclassification as the task of redefining some given classes by maximum likelihood learning in a model that contains both supervised and unsupervised information. This approach leads to supervised clustering with an additional complexity penalizing term on the number of new classes. As a proof of concept, a simple reclassification algorithm is designed and applied to a data set of gene sequences. To test the performance of the algorithm, two of the original classes are merged. The algorithm is capable of unraveling the original three-class hidden structure, in contrast to the unsupervised version (K-means); moreover, it predicts the subdivision of one of the original classes into two different ones.

Algorithms↗

Quantitative modeling of responses of anuran retina: stimulus shape and size dependency.

Teeters and Arbib presented a model of the anuran retina which qualitatively accounts for the characteristic response properties used to distinguish ganglion cell type in anurans. In this paper we test the model's ability to reproduce quantitatively tabulated data on the dependency on stimulus shape and size, with a new implementation of the model in the neural simulation language NSL. Data of Ewert and Hock relating toad R2, R3, and R4 ganglion cell responses to moving worm, antiworm, and square-shaped stimuli of various edge lengths are used to test stimulus shape and size dependency. A close match to the data can be achieved by tuning some of the model parameters while still retaining the characteristic responses to the typical stimulus types. We stress here the importance of a populational approach to the models. We place more emphasis on the variation of response properties in a population of neurons of the same class, rather than questing for the neuron of a given type. As an example of the populational approach we offer a model for the respiratory R3 response following researchers who argue that a subclass of R3 neurons are activated by stationary boundaries owing to the anuran's self induced respiratory eye movement.

Algorithms↗