Do sparse brain activity patterns underlie human cognition?
Iiro P. Jääskeläinen,
Enrico Glerean,
Vasily Klucharev,
Anna Shestakova,
Jyrki Ahveninen
Affiliations
Iiro P. Jääskeläinen
Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland; International Laboratory of Social Neurobiology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, HSE University, Moscow, Russian Federation; Corresponding author at: Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland.
Enrico Glerean
Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland; International Laboratory of Social Neurobiology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, HSE University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Vasily Klucharev
International Laboratory of Social Neurobiology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, HSE University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Anna Shestakova
International Laboratory of Social Neurobiology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, HSE University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Jyrki Ahveninen
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Athinoula A Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA, United States
Accumulating multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) results from fMRI studies suggest that information is represented in fingerprint patterns of activations and deactivations during perception, emotions, and cognition. We postulate that these fingerprint patterns might reflect neuronal-population level sparse code documented in two-photon calcium imaging studies in animal models, i.e., information represented in specific and reproducible ensembles of a few percent of active neurons amidst widespread inhibition in neural populations. We suggest that such representations constitute a fundamental organizational principle via interacting across multiple levels of brain hierarchy, thus giving rise to perception, emotions, and cognition.
