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Inferring computational dynamics from neural measurements using deep recurrent neural networks

Subject Area Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
Term from 2018 to 2024
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 406070939
 
Final Report Year 2025

Final Report Abstract

The present, mainly methodological project developed a novel class of deep learning algorithms for learning generative surrogate models from time series data, neurophysiological recordings in particular, an area called dynamical systems reconstruction. Such models are trained on data to mimic the dynamical properties of a system that has been empirically observed. After successful training, these models can then be used to generate predictions, or to analyse certain formal or computational properties of the system they have been trained on. At the time this research was originally conceived, this was still a nascent field, in which there was no established or well working approach. This project, in our minds, contributed to hugely advancing the field by identifying crucial challenges in training recurrent neural networks (RNNs), a class of deep learning models, on dynamical systems reconstruction problems. By identifying crucial mathematical issues in the training process, training algorithms and model architectures could be strongly improved. The developed methods were thoroughly tested and benchmarked on a variety of simulated systems and real-world datasets, exemplifying their universal applicability in many areas of science beyond neuroscience, for instance also in medical domains or in climate science. In neuroscience in particular, they can serve to dissect the computational processes by which the brain solves behavioural problems. While we did not progress as far as we originally intended in using these new AI tools for analysing neuronal recordings, we performed a number of other analyses that gave insight into the role of different brain regions in the dynamical mechanisms supporting working memory and decision making. Overall, this project established a new toolbox for the dynamical and computational analyses of neuronal systems.

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