2005/05/04 by Julien Mayor, Wulfram Gerstner, Mayor, Julien +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Computer Science · Neuroscience · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Biological sciences #Neural Networks and Reservoir Computing #Neural dynamics and brain function #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #q-bio.NC #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.q-bio/0505008
arxiv created 2005/05/04 · openalex publication_date 2005/05/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Varied sensory systems use noise in order to enhance detection of weak signals. It has been conjectured in the literature that this effect, known as stochastic resonance, may take place in central cognitive processes such as the memory retrieval of arithmetical multiplication. We show in a simplified model of cortical tissue, that complex arithmetical calculations can be carried out and are enhanced in the presence of a stochastic background. The performance is shown to be positively correlated to the susceptibility of the network, defined as its sensitivity to a variation of the mean of its inputs. For nontrivial arithmetic tasks such as multiplication, stochastic resonance is an emergent property of the microcircuitry of the model network.