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Computational Role of Astrocytes in Bayesian Inference and Probability Distribution Encoding

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Brain Informatics and Health (BIH 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9919))

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Abstract

The past few years have seen new research methods confirming more confidently that glia have a key information processing role in the brain, specifically in relation to learning capability. However, many details Tof glia’s role remain unknown, including a gap between cellular and behavioural level findings. Based on \(Ca^{2+}\) wave mechanics in astrocytes, we derive a theoretical capability of astrocytes to encode cognitive representations as probability distributions over synapses. The process is analogous to MCMC Bayesian inference that samples a neural network configuration from a prior in the astrocyte and then uses its performance to update to a posterior distribution. The proposed model explains recent behavioural results where obstructing astrocytes leads to deficiencies in learning new knowledge without affecting ability to recall existing knowledge. The model is also a novel Bayesian brain theory which uniquely addresses the cellular and synaptic levels.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Martin Dimkovski & Aijun An

Authors
  1. Martin Dimkovski
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  2. Aijun An
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Dimkovski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    Giorgio A. Ascoli

  2. Department of Modeling, Analysis and Theory, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Michael Hawrylycz

  3. University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska, USA

    Hesham Ali

  4. Information Science and Technology, University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska, USA

    Deepak Khazanchi

  5. College of Information Sciences and Technology, University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska, USA

    Yong Shi

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Dimkovski, M., An, A. (2016). Computational Role of Astrocytes in Bayesian Inference and Probability Distribution Encoding. In: Ascoli, G., Hawrylycz, M., Ali, H., Khazanchi, D., Shi, Y. (eds) Brain Informatics and Health. BIH 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9919. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47103-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47103-7_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47102-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47103-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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