AUTHOR=Malagarriga Daniel , García-Vellisca Mariano A., Villa Alessandro E. P., Buldú Javier M., García-Ojalvo Jordi , Pons Antonio J.

TITLE=Synchronization-based computation through networks of coupled oscillators

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2015

YEAR=2015

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/computational-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncom.2015.00097

DOI=10.3389/fncom.2015.00097

ISSN=1662-5188

ABSTRACT=The mesoscopic activity of the brain is strongly dynamical, while at the same
time exhibiting remarkable computational capabilities. In order to examine
how these two features coexist, here we show that the patterns of synchronized
oscillations displayed by networks of neural mass models, representing cortical columns, can be used
as substrates for Boolean computation. Our results reveal that different logical
operations can be implemented by the same neural mass network at different times
following the dynamics of the input. The results are reproduced experimentally
with electronic circuits of coupled Chua oscillators, showing the robustness of this kind of computation to the intrinsic noise and parameter mismatch of the oscillators responsible for the functioning of the gates. We also show that the
information-processing capabilities of coupled oscillations go beyond the
simple juxtaposition of logic gates.