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bioRxiv · 10.1101/253351

Spiking allows neurons to estimate their causal effect

Lansdell, B.·Kording, K.
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Abstract

When a neuron is driven beyond its threshold it spikes, and the fact that it does not communicate its continuous membrane potential is usually seen as a computational liability. Here we show that this spiking mechanism allows neurons to produce an unbiased estimate of their causal influence, and a way of approximating gradient descent learning. Importantly, neither activity of upstream neurons, which act as confounders, nor downstream non-linearities bias the results. By introducing a local discontinuity with respect to their input drive, we show how spiking enables neurons to solve causal estimation and learning problems.

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Lansdell, B., Kording, K.. 2018-01-25. Spiking allows neurons to estimate their causal effect. https://doi.org/10.1101/253351

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