TY - JOUR
T1 - Inevitable evolutionary temporal elements in neural processing
T2 - A study based on evolutionary simulations
AU - Yerushalmi, Uri
AU - Teicher, Mina
PY - 2008/4/2
Y1 - 2008/4/2
N2 - Recent studies have suggested that some neural computational mechanism are based on the fine temporal structure of spiking activity. However, less effort has been devoted to investigating the evolutionary aspects of such mechanisms. In this paper we explore the issue of temporal neural computation from an evolutionary point of view, using a genetic simulation of the evolutionary development of neural systems. We evolve neural systems in an environment with selective pressure based on mate finding, and examine the temporal aspects of the evolved systems. In repeating evolutionary sessions, there was a significant increase during evolution in the mutual information between the evolved agent's temporal neural representation and the external environment. In ten different simulated evolutionary session, there was an increased effect of time-related neural ablations on the agents' fitness. These results suggest that in some fitness landscapes the emergence of temporal elements in neural computational is almost inevitable. Future research using similar evolutionary simulations may shed new light on various biological mechanisms.
AB - Recent studies have suggested that some neural computational mechanism are based on the fine temporal structure of spiking activity. However, less effort has been devoted to investigating the evolutionary aspects of such mechanisms. In this paper we explore the issue of temporal neural computation from an evolutionary point of view, using a genetic simulation of the evolutionary development of neural systems. We evolve neural systems in an environment with selective pressure based on mate finding, and examine the temporal aspects of the evolved systems. In repeating evolutionary sessions, there was a significant increase during evolution in the mutual information between the evolved agent's temporal neural representation and the external environment. In ten different simulated evolutionary session, there was an increased effect of time-related neural ablations on the agents' fitness. These results suggest that in some fitness landscapes the emergence of temporal elements in neural computational is almost inevitable. Future research using similar evolutionary simulations may shed new light on various biological mechanisms.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=44849122681&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0001863
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0001863
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C2 - 18382654
AN - SCOPUS:44849122681
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 3
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 4
M1 - e1863
ER -