Kalimános BT, 4028 Debrecen, Hungary.
Department of Neurology, Semmelweis University, 1085 Budapest, Hungary.
Math Biosci Eng. 2023 May 22;20(7):12380-12403. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2023551.
Neural information theory represents a fundamental method to model dynamic relations in biological systems. However, the notion of information, its representation, its content and how it is processed are the subject of fierce debates. Since the limiting capacity of neuronal links strongly depends on how neurons are hypothesized to work, their operating modes are revisited by analyzing the differences between the results of the communication models published during the past seven decades and those of the recently developed generalization of the classical information theory. It is pointed out that the operating mode of neurons is in resemblance with an appropriate combination of the formerly hypothesized analog and digital working modes; furthermore that not only the notion of neural information and its processing must be reinterpreted. Given that the transmission channel is passive in Shannon's model, the active role of the transfer channels (the axons) may introduce further transmission limits in addition to the limits concluded from the information theory. The time-aware operating model enables us to explain why (depending on the researcher's point of view) the operation can be considered either purely analog or purely digital.
神经信息论代表了一种对生物系统中动态关系进行建模的基本方法。然而，信息的概念、它的表示、它的内容以及它是如何被处理的，这些都是激烈争论的主题。由于神经元连接的极限容量强烈依赖于神经元被假设的工作方式，因此通过分析过去七十年间发布的通信模型的结果与最近发展的经典信息论的推广之间的差异，重新审视神经元的工作模式。结果表明，神经元的工作模式类似于以前假设的模拟和数字工作模式的适当组合；此外，不仅需要重新解释神经信息的概念及其处理方式。由于香农模型中的传输通道是被动的，因此除了从信息论中得出的限制之外，传输通道（轴突）的主动作用可能会引入进一步的传输限制。具有时间意识的工作模式使我们能够解释为什么（取决于研究人员的观点）操作可以被认为是纯粹的模拟或纯粹的数字。
