From Neural Oscillators through Stochastic Dynamics to Optimal Decisions, or Does Math Matter to Gray Matter?
Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University
The sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) is optimal in that it allows one to accept or reject hypotheses, based on noisy incoming evidence, with the minumum number of observations for a given level of accuracy. There is increasing neural and behavioral evidence that primate and human brains employ a continuum analogue of SPRT: the drift-diffusion (DD) process. I will review this and also describe how a biophysical model of a pool of spiking neurons can be simplified to a phase oscillator and analysed to yield spike rates in response to stimuli. These spike rates tune DD parameters via neurotransmitter release. This study is a small step toward the construction of a series of models, at different time and space scales, linking neural spikes to human decisions. |