Connectionists: New on the VVTNS YouTube channel: Continuous representations in small, discrete circuits | Marcella Noorman University of ChicagoMarcella Noorman University of Chicago

[David Hansel]

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New on the VVTNS YouTube Channel
https://www.wwtns.online/past-seminars-2025-2026

*Continuous representations in small, discrete circuits*

lecture delivered on February 4,  2026  by

Marcella Noorman

University of Chicago


*Abstract: *Many animals rely on persistent internal representations of
continuous angular variables for working memory, motor control, and
navigation. Theories have proposed that such representations are maintained
by a class of recurrently connected networks called ring attractor
networks. These networks rely on large numbers of neurons to maintain
continuous and stable representations and to accurately integrate incoming
signals. The head direction system of the fruit fly, however, seems to
achieve these properties with a remarkably small network. These findings
challenge our understanding of ring attractors and their putative
implementation in neural circuits. In this talk, I will show analytically
how small networks can overcome the constraints of their size to generate a
ring attractor and are hence capable of stably maintaining an internal
representation of a continuous, periodic variable. Further, I will show how
ring attractors emerge in small threshold linear networks through the
coordination of a discrete set of line attractors. More broadly, this work
informs our understanding of the functional capabilities of small, discrete
systems.

*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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