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Category: Neuroscience – General

Brain Networks and the Cluster Variation Method: Testing a Scale-Free Model

Brain Networks and the Cluster Variation Method: Testing a Scale-Free Model

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Surprising Result Modeling a Simple Scale-Free Brain Network Using the Cluster Variation Method One of the primary research thrusts that I suggested in my recent paper, The Cluster Variation Method: A Primer for Neuroscientists, was that we could use the 2-D Cluster Variation Method (CVM) to model distribution of configuration variables in different brain network topologies. Specifically, I was expecting that the h-value (which measures the interaction enthalpy strength between nodes in a 2-D CVM grid) would change in a…

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The Cluster Variation Method: A Primer for Neuroscientists

The Cluster Variation Method: A Primer for Neuroscientists

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Single-Parameter Analytic Solution for Modeling Local Pattern Distributions The cluster variation method (CVM) offers a means for the characterization of both 1-D and 2-D local pattern distributions. The paper referenced at the end of this post provides neuroscientists and BCI researchers with a CVM tutorial that will help them to understand how the CVM statistical thermodynamics formulation can model 1-D and 2-D pattern distributions expressing structural and functional dynamics in the brain. The equilibrium distribution of local patterns, or configuration…

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Statistical Mechanics – Neural Ensembles

Statistical Mechanics – Neural Ensembles

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Statistical Mechanics and Equilibrium Properties – Small Neural Ensembles Statistical Mechanics of Small Neural Ensembles – Commentary on Tkačik et al. In a series of related articles, Gašper Tkačik et al. (see references below) investigated small (10-120) groups of neurons in the salamander retina, with the purpose of estimating entropy and other statistical mechanics properties. They provide the following interesting results: Simple scheme for entropy estimation in undersampled region (1), given that only a small fraction of possible states can…

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Statistical Mechanics, Neural Domains, and Big Data

Statistical Mechanics, Neural Domains, and Big Data

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How Neural Domain Activation and Statistical Mechanics Model Interactions in Large Data Corpora (Big Data) I was enthralled. I could read for only a few pages at a time, I was so overwhelmed with the insights that this book provided. And I was about twenty-five years old at the time. I had just discovered this book while browsing the stacks as a graduate student at Arizona State (ASU). The book was The Mindful Brain: Cortical Organization and the Group-Selective Theory…

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