Connectionists: REMINDER [seminar.wwtns] World wide VVTNS series: Wednesday, November 27, 2024, at 11:00 am EST| Memming Park, Champalimaud Foundation

[David Hansel]

[image: VVTNS.png]
https://www.wwtns.online
<https://streaklinks.com/A9c7PbbpKY7PxB6PaAJWGD3-/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wwtns.online>
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on twitter: wwtns at TheoreticalWide

You are cordially invited to the lecture given by

Memming Park

Champalimaud Foundation
 on the topic of

Back to the Continuous Attractor

The lecture will be held on zoom on Wednesday, November 27, 2024, at *11:00
am EST *

> To receive the zoom link: https://www.wwtns.online/register-page
>
*Abstract: *Continuous attractors offer a unique class of solutions for
storing continuous-valued variables in recurrent system states for
indefinitely long time intervals. Unfortunately, continuous attractors
suffer from severe structural instability in general---they are destroyed
by most infinitesimal changes of the dynamical law that defines them. This
fragility limits their utility especially in biological systems as their
recurrent dynamics are subject to constant perturbations. We observe that
the bifurcations from continuous attractors in theoretical neuroscience
models display various structurally stable forms. Although their asymptotic
behaviors to maintain memory are categorically distinct, their finite-time
behaviors are similar. We build on the persistent manifold theory to
explain the commonalities between bifurcations from and approximations of
continuous attractors. Fast-slow decomposition analysis uncovers the
existence of a persistent slow manifold that survives the seemingly
destructive bifurcation, relating the flow within the manifold to the size
of the perturbation. Moreover, this allows the bounding of the memory error
of these approximations of continuous attractors. Finally, we train
recurrent neural networks on analog memory tasks to support the appearance
of these systems as solutions and their generalization capabilities.
Therefore, we conclude that continuous attractors are functionally robust
and remain useful as a universal analogy for understanding analog memory.

*About VVTNS : Launched as the World Wide  Theoretical Neuroscience Seminar
(WWTNS) in November 2020 and renamed in homage to Carl van Vreeswijk in
Memoriam (April 20, 2022), Speakers have the occasion to talk about
theoretical aspects of their work which cannot be discussed in a setting
where the majority of the audience consists of experimentalists. The
seminars, **held on Wednesdays at 11 am ET,**  are 45-50 min long followed
by a discussion. The talks are recorded with authorization of the speaker
and are available to everybody on our YouTube channel.*


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