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Dante R. Chialvo

Publications and source records attributed to Dante R. Chialvo.

61 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
arXiv2000

Large Scale-Invariant Fluctuations in Normal Blood Cell Counts: A sign of criticality?

All types of blood cells are formed by differentiation from a small self-maintaining population of pluri-potential stem cells in the bone marrow. Despite abundant information on the molecular aspects of division, differentiation, commitment and maturation of these cells, comparatively little is known about the dynamics of the system as a whole, and how it works to maintain this complex ``ecology'' in the observed normal ranges throughout life. Here we report unexpected large, scale-free, fluctuations detected from the first long-term analysis of the day-to-day variability of a healthy animal's blood cell counts measured over one thousand days. This scale-invariance cannot be accounted for by current theoretical models, and resembles some of the scenarios described for self-organized criticality.

physics.bio-ph↗
arXiv2000

Noise in neurons is message-dependent

Neuronal responses are conspicuously variable. We focus on one particular aspect of that variability: the precision of action potential timing. We show that for common models of noisy spike generation, elementary considerations imply that such variability is a function of the input, and can be made arbitrarily large or small by a suitable choice of inputs. Our considerations are expected to extend to virtually any mechanism of spike generation, and we illustrate them with data from the visual pathway. Thus, a simplification usually made in the application of information theory to neural processing is violated: noise {\sl is not independent of the message}. However, we also show the existence of {\sl error-correcting} topologies, which can achieve better timing reliability than their components.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗
arXiv1999

Noise-induced memory in extended excitable systems

We describe a form of memory exhibited by extended excitable systems driven by stochastic fluctuations. Under such conditions, the system self-organizes into a state characterized by power-law correlations thus retaining long-term memory of previous states. The exponents are robust and model-independent. We discuss novel implications of these results for the functioning of cortical neurons as well as for networks of neurons.

adap-org↗
arXiv1997

Learning from Mistakes

A simple model of self-organised learning with no classical (Hebbian) reinforcement is presented. Synaptic connections involved in mistakes are depressed. The model operates at a highly adaptive, probably critical, state reached by extremal dynamics similar to that of recent evolution models. Thus, one might think of the mechanism as synaptic Darwinism.

adap-org↗
arXiv1995

Pattern Formation and Functionality in Swarm Models

We explore a simplified class of models we call swarms, which are inspired by the collective behavior of social insects. We perform a mean-field stability analysis and perform numerical simulations of the model. Several interesting types of behavior emerge in the vicinity of a second-order phase transition in the model, including the formation of stable lines of traffic flow, and memory reconstitution and bootstrapping. In addition to providing an understanding of certain classes of biological behavior, these models bear a generic resemblance to a number of pattern formation processes in the physical sciences.

adap-org↗
arXiv1994

Temporally Asymmetric Fluctuations are Sufficient for the Operation of a Correlation Ratchet

It has been shown that the combination of a broken spatial symmetry in the potential (or ratchet potential) and time correlations in the driving are crucial, and enough to allow transformation of the fluctuations into work. The required broken spatial symmetry implies a specific molecular arrangement of the proteins involved. Here we show that a broken spatial symmetry is not required, and that temporally asymmetric fluctuations (with mean zero) can be used to do work, even when the ratchet potential is completely symmetric. Temporal asymmetry, defined as a lack of invariance of the statistical properties under the operation to temporal inversion, is a generic property of nonequilibrium fluctuation, and should therefore be expected to be quite common in biological systems.

cond-mat↗