Could it be the free pizza?
@subutai - Seriously - in the opening video sequence (time index 30 minutes) there is a twinkling pattern of firing dots.
How far apart are they in relation to the size of an SDR (dendrite span) in the cortex.
How many of those dots are needed in a 40 um section to form an SDR in the next map?
The neocortex is not fully connected - an SDR can’t exist outside of a single dendrite.
For the cells I see firing I don’t see the activity that we call brain waves. Why is this not visible in this visualization? In a different presentation with an array of probes, the wave action was clearly visible as a traveling wave pattern. (time index 4:00)
The time sparsity really can’t be useful if it is much outside of 2 alpha cycles ( about 200 ms). This is the discrete window for judging simultaneous events.
The attendee question about fire together/wire together is key to spike timing networks and this window is very well defined. For example this this article:
“When it comes to laying down memories, the relative timing of spikes seems to be as
important as the rate of firing. In particular, the synchronized firing of spikes in the cortex is
important for increasing the strengths of synapses—an important process in forming longterm memories. A synapse is said to be strengthened when the firing of a neuron on one side
of a synapse leads the neuron on the other side of the synapse to register a stronger response.
In 1997 Henry Markram and Bert Sakmann, then at the Max Plank Institute for Medical
Research in Heidelberg, discovered a strengthening process known as spike-timingdependent plasticity, in which an input at a synapse is delivered at a frequency in the gamma
range and is consistently followed within 10 milliseconds by a spike from the neuron on the
other side of the synapse, a pattern that leads to enhanced firing by the neuron receiving the
stimulation. Conversely, if the neuron on the other side fires within 10 milliseconds before
the first one, the strength of the synapse between the cells decreases.”