We present a hierarchical neural network model, in which subpopulations of neurons develop fixed and regularly repeating temporal chains of spikes (polychronization), which respond specifically to randomized Poisson spike trains representing the input training images. The performance is improved by including top-down and lateral synaptic connections, as well as introducing multiple synaptic contacts between each pair of pre- and postsynaptic neurons, with different synaptic contacts having different axonal delays. Spike-timing-dependent plasticity thus allows the model to select the most effective axonal transmission delay between neurons. Furthermore, neurons representing the binding relationship between low-level and high-level visual features emerge through visually guided learning. This begins to provide a way forward to solving the classic feature binding problem in visual neuroscience and leads to a new hypothesis concerning how information about visual features at every spatial scale may be projected upward through successive neuronal layers. We name this hypothetical upward projection of information the "holographic principle." (PsycINFO Database Record

The function of the neocortex is fundamentally determined by its repeating microcircuit motif, but also by its rich, hierarchical, interregional structure with a highly specific laminar architecture. The last decade has seen the emergence of extensive new data sets on anatomy and connectivity at the whole brain scale, providing promising new directions for studies of cortical function that take into account the inseparability of whole-brain and microcircuit architectures. Here, we present a data-driven computational model of the anatomy of non-barrel primary somatosensory cortex of juvenile rat, which integrates whole-brain scale data while providing cellular and subcellular specificity. This multiscale integration was achieved by building the morphologically detailed model of cortical circuitry embedded within a volumetric, digital brain atlas. The model consists of 4.2 million morphologically detailed neurons belonging to 60 different morphological types, placed in the nonbarrel subregions of the Paxinos and Watson atlas. They are connected by 13.2 billion synapses determined by axo-dendritic overlap, comprising local connectivity and long-range connectivity defined by topographic mappings between subregions and laminar axonal projection profiles, both parameterized by whole brain data sets. Additionally, we incorporated core- and matrix-type thalamocortical projection systems, associated with sensory and higher-order extrinsic inputs, respectively. An analysis of the modeled synaptic connectivity revealed a highly nonrandom topology with substantial structural differences but also synergy between local and long-range connectivity. Long-range connections featured a more divergent structure with a comparatively small group of neurons serving as hubs to distribute excitation to far away locations. Taken together with analyses at different spatial granularities, these results support the notion that local and interregional connectivity exist on a spectrum of scales, rather than as separate and distinct networks, as is commonly assumed. Finally, we predicted how the emergence of primary sensory cortical maps is constrained by the anatomy of thalamo-cortical projections. A subvolume of the model comprising 211,712 neurons in the front limb, jaw, and dysgranular zone has been made freely and openly available to the community.

Recent developments in experimental techniques have enabled simultaneous recordings from thousands of neurons, enabling the study of functional cell assemblies. However, determining the patterns of synaptic connectivity giving rise to assemblies remains challenging. To address this, we developed a complementary, simulation-based approach, using a detailed, large-scale cortical network model. Using a combination of established methods we detected functional cell assemblies from the stimulus-evoked spiking activity of 186,665 neurons. We studied how the structure of synaptic connectivity underlies assembly composition, quantifying the effects of thalamic innervation, recurrent connectivity, and the spatial arrangement of synapses on dendrites. We determined that these features reduce up to 30%, 22%, and 10% of the uncertainty of a neuron belonging to an assembly. The detected assemblies were activated in a stimulus-specific sequence and were grouped based on their position in the sequence. We found that the different groups were affected to different degrees by the structural features we considered. Additionally, connectivity was more predictive of assembly membership if its direction aligned with the temporal order of assembly activation, if it originated from strongly interconnected populations, and if synapses clustered on dendritic branches. In summary, reversing Hebb's postulate, we showed how cells that are wired together, fire together, quantifying how connectivity patterns interact to shape the emergence of assemblies. This includes a qualitative aspect of connectivity: not just the amount, but also the local structure matters; from the subcellular level in the form of dendritic clustering to the presence of specific network motifs. This connectivity-based characterization of cell assemblies creates an opportunity to study plasticity at the assembly level, and beyond strictly pairwise interactions.

We discuss a recently proposed approach to solve the classic feature-binding problem in primate vision that uses neural dynamics known to be present within the visual cortex. Broadly, the feature-binding problem in the visual context concerns not only how a hierarchy of features such as edges and objects within a scene are represented, but also the hierarchical relationships between these features at every spatial scale across the visual field. This is necessary for the visual brain to be able to make sense of its visuospatial world. Solving this problem is an important step towards the development of artificial general intelligence. In neural network simulation studies, it has been found that neurons encoding the binding relations between visual features, known as binding neurons, emerge during visual training when key properties of the visual cortex are incorporated into the models. These biological network properties include (i) bottom-up, lateral and top-down synaptic connections, (ii) spiking neuronal dynamics, (iii) spike timing-dependent plasticity, and (iv) a random distribution of axonal transmission delays (of the order of several milliseconds) in the propagation of spikes between neurons. After training the network on a set of visual stimuli, modelling studies have reported observing the gradual emergence of polychronization through successive layers of the network, in which subpopulations of neurons have learned to emit their spikes in regularly repeating spatio-temporal patterns in response to specific visual stimuli. Such a subpopulation of neurons is known as a polychronous neuronal group (PNG). Some neurons embedded within these PNGs receive convergent inputs from neurons representing lower- and higher-level visual features, and thus appear to encode the hierarchical binding relationship between features. Neural activity with this kind of spatio-temporal structure robustly emerges in the higher network layers even when neurons in the input layer represent visual stimuli with spike timings that are randomized according to a Poisson distribution. The resulting hierarchical representation of visual scenes in such models, including the representation of hierarchical binding relations between lower- and higher-level visual features, is consistent with the hierarchical phenomenology or subjective experience of primate vision and is distinct from approaches interested in segmenting a visual scene into a finite set of objects.