Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Spiking allows neurons to estimate their causal effect

Benjamin James Lansdell, Konrad Paul Kording
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/253351
Benjamin James Lansdell
University of Pennsylvania
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: ben.lansdell@gmail.com
Konrad Paul Kording
University of Pennsylvania
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: koerding@gmail.com
  • Abstract
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Neural plasticity can be seen as ultimately aiming at the maximization of reward. However, the world is complicated and nonlinear and so are neurons' firing properties. A neuron learning to make changes that lead to the maximization of reward is an estimation problem: would there be more reward if the neural activity had been different? Statistically, this is a causal inference problem. Here we show how the spiking discontinuity of neurons can be a tool to estimate the causal influence of a neuron's activity on reward. We show how it can be used to derive a novel learning rule that can operate in the presence of non-linearities and the confounding influence of other neurons. We establish a link between simple learning rules and an existing causal inference method from econometrics.

Footnotes

  • Added new results section and discussion on physiological plausibility.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted February 06, 2019.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Spiking allows neurons to estimate their causal effect
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Spiking allows neurons to estimate their causal effect
Benjamin James Lansdell, Konrad Paul Kording
bioRxiv 253351; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/253351
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Spiking allows neurons to estimate their causal effect
Benjamin James Lansdell, Konrad Paul Kording
bioRxiv 253351; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/253351

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4654)
  • Biochemistry (10298)
  • Bioengineering (7614)
  • Bioinformatics (26189)
  • Biophysics (13445)
  • Cancer Biology (10620)
  • Cell Biology (15333)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (8452)
  • Ecology (12754)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (16763)
  • Genetics (11356)
  • Genomics (15400)
  • Immunology (10548)
  • Microbiology (25041)
  • Molecular Biology (10152)
  • Neuroscience (54095)
  • Paleontology (398)
  • Pathology (1655)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2877)
  • Physiology (4314)
  • Plant Biology (9196)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1579)
  • Synthetic Biology (2541)
  • Systems Biology (6752)
  • Zoology (1452)