Dissecting cascade computational components in spiking neural networks

PLoS Comput Biol. 2021 Nov 29;17(11):e1009640. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009640. eCollection 2021 Nov.

Abstract

Finding out the physical structure of neuronal circuits that governs neuronal responses is an important goal for brain research. With fast advances for large-scale recording techniques, identification of a neuronal circuit with multiple neurons and stages or layers becomes possible and highly demanding. Although methods for mapping the connection structure of circuits have been greatly developed in recent years, they are mostly limited to simple scenarios of a few neurons in a pairwise fashion; and dissecting dynamical circuits, particularly mapping out a complete functional circuit that converges to a single neuron, is still a challenging question. Here, we show that a recent method, termed spike-triggered non-negative matrix factorization (STNMF), can address these issues. By simulating different scenarios of spiking neural networks with various connections between neurons and stages, we demonstrate that STNMF is a persuasive method to dissect functional connections within a circuit. Using spiking activities recorded at neurons of the output layer, STNMF can obtain a complete circuit consisting of all cascade computational components of presynaptic neurons, as well as their spiking activities. For simulated simple and complex cells of the primary visual cortex, STNMF allows us to dissect the pathway of visual computation. Taken together, these results suggest that STNMF could provide a useful approach for investigating neuronal systems leveraging recorded functional neuronal activity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Action Potentials*
  • Algorithms
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Models, Neurological*
  • Nerve Net*
  • Neurons / physiology*
  • Presynaptic Terminals / physiology
  • Primary Visual Cortex / physiology

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants 62176003, 61961130392 and 62088102 (ZY) and 32171033 (DX), and Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship of UK Grant NAF-R1-191082 (JKL). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.