Estimating Memory Deterioration Rates Following Neurodegeneration and Traumatic Brain Injuries in a Hopfield Network Model

Neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are among the main causes of cognitive dysfunction in humans. At a neuronal network level, they both extensively exhibit focal axonal swellings (FAS), which in turn, compromise the information encoded in spike trains and lead to potential...

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Main Authors: Melanie Weber, Pedro D. Maia, J. Nathan Kutz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-11-01
Series:Frontiers in Neuroscience
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2017.00623/full
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author Melanie Weber
Pedro D. Maia
J. Nathan Kutz
author_facet Melanie Weber
Pedro D. Maia
J. Nathan Kutz
author_sort Melanie Weber
collection DOAJ
description Neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are among the main causes of cognitive dysfunction in humans. At a neuronal network level, they both extensively exhibit focal axonal swellings (FAS), which in turn, compromise the information encoded in spike trains and lead to potentially severe functional deficits. There are currently no satisfactory quantitative predictors of decline in memory-encoding neuronal networks based on the impact and statistics of FAS. Some of the challenges of this translational approach include our inability to access small scale injuries with non-invasive methods, the overall complexity of neuronal pathologies, and our limited knowledge of how networks process biological signals. The purpose of this computational study is three-fold: (i) to extend Hopfield's model for associative memory to account for the effects of FAS, (ii) to calibrate FAS parameters from biophysical observations of their statistical distribution and size, and (iii) to systematically evaluate deterioration rates for different memory-recall tasks as a function of FAS injury. We calculate deterioration rates for a face-recognition task to account for highly correlated memories and also for a discrimination task of random, uncorrelated memories with a size at the capacity limit of the Hopfield network. While it is expected that the performance of any injured network should decrease with injury, our results link, for the first time, the memory recall ability to observed FAS statistics. This allows for plausible estimates of cognitive decline for different stages of brain disorders within neuronal networks, bridging experimental observations following neurodegeneration and TBI with compromised memory recall. The work lends new insights to help close the gap between theory and experiment on how biological signals are processed in damaged, high-dimensional functional networks, and towards positing new diagnostic tools to measure cognitive deficits.
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spelling doaj.art-a8703ed378464f44aff5864e6bf0d5cb2022-12-22T02:30:52ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neuroscience1662-453X2017-11-011110.3389/fnins.2017.00623291999Estimating Memory Deterioration Rates Following Neurodegeneration and Traumatic Brain Injuries in a Hopfield Network ModelMelanie WeberPedro D. MaiaJ. Nathan KutzNeurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are among the main causes of cognitive dysfunction in humans. At a neuronal network level, they both extensively exhibit focal axonal swellings (FAS), which in turn, compromise the information encoded in spike trains and lead to potentially severe functional deficits. There are currently no satisfactory quantitative predictors of decline in memory-encoding neuronal networks based on the impact and statistics of FAS. Some of the challenges of this translational approach include our inability to access small scale injuries with non-invasive methods, the overall complexity of neuronal pathologies, and our limited knowledge of how networks process biological signals. The purpose of this computational study is three-fold: (i) to extend Hopfield's model for associative memory to account for the effects of FAS, (ii) to calibrate FAS parameters from biophysical observations of their statistical distribution and size, and (iii) to systematically evaluate deterioration rates for different memory-recall tasks as a function of FAS injury. We calculate deterioration rates for a face-recognition task to account for highly correlated memories and also for a discrimination task of random, uncorrelated memories with a size at the capacity limit of the Hopfield network. While it is expected that the performance of any injured network should decrease with injury, our results link, for the first time, the memory recall ability to observed FAS statistics. This allows for plausible estimates of cognitive decline for different stages of brain disorders within neuronal networks, bridging experimental observations following neurodegeneration and TBI with compromised memory recall. The work lends new insights to help close the gap between theory and experiment on how biological signals are processed in damaged, high-dimensional functional networks, and towards positing new diagnostic tools to measure cognitive deficits.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2017.00623/fullneurodegenerative diseasestraumatic brain injuriesHopfield neuronal networkassociative memory encodingmemory impairmentsaxonal swellings
spellingShingle Melanie Weber
Pedro D. Maia
J. Nathan Kutz
Estimating Memory Deterioration Rates Following Neurodegeneration and Traumatic Brain Injuries in a Hopfield Network Model
Frontiers in Neuroscience
neurodegenerative diseases
traumatic brain injuries
Hopfield neuronal network
associative memory encoding
memory impairments
axonal swellings
title Estimating Memory Deterioration Rates Following Neurodegeneration and Traumatic Brain Injuries in a Hopfield Network Model
title_full Estimating Memory Deterioration Rates Following Neurodegeneration and Traumatic Brain Injuries in a Hopfield Network Model
title_fullStr Estimating Memory Deterioration Rates Following Neurodegeneration and Traumatic Brain Injuries in a Hopfield Network Model
title_full_unstemmed Estimating Memory Deterioration Rates Following Neurodegeneration and Traumatic Brain Injuries in a Hopfield Network Model
title_short Estimating Memory Deterioration Rates Following Neurodegeneration and Traumatic Brain Injuries in a Hopfield Network Model
title_sort estimating memory deterioration rates following neurodegeneration and traumatic brain injuries in a hopfield network model
topic neurodegenerative diseases
traumatic brain injuries
Hopfield neuronal network
associative memory encoding
memory impairments
axonal swellings
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2017.00623/full
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