Parallel processing in immune networks

Graphical Classification in Multi-Centrality-Index Diagrams for Complex Chemical Networks

Various sizes of chemical reaction network exist, from small graphs of linear networks with several inorganic species to huge complex networks composed of protein reactions or metabolic systems. Huge complex networks of organic substrates have been well studied using statistical properties such as degree distributions. However, when the size is relatively small, statistical data suffers from significant errors coming from irregular effects by species, and a macroscopic analysis is frequently unsuccessful. In this study, we demonstrate a graphical classification method for chemical networks that contain tens of species. Betweenness and closeness centrality indices of a graph can create a two-dimensional diagram with information of node distribution for a complex chemical network. This diagram successfully reveals systematic sharing of roles among species as a semi-statistical property in chemical reactions, and distinguishes it from the ones in random networks, which has no functional node distributions. This analytical approach is applicable for rapid and approximate understanding of complex chemical network systems such as plasma-enhanced reactions as well as visualization and classification of other graphs.

Effect of similarity between patterns in associative memory

We study the stability of patterns in Hopfield networks in which a part of memorized patterns are similar. The similarity between patterns impacts the stability of these patterns, but the stability of other independent patterns is only changed slightly. We show that the stability of patterns is affected in different ways by similarity. For networks storing a number of patterns, the similarity between patterns enhances the pattern stability. However, the stability of patterns can be weakened by the similarity when networks store fewer patterns, and the relation between the stability of patterns and similarity is nonmonotonic. We present a theoretical explanation of the effect of similarity on stability using signal-to-noise-ratio analysis.

Hierarchical neural networks perform both serial and parallel processing

In this work we study a Hebbian neural network, where neurons are arranged according to a hierarchical architecture such that their couplings scale with their reciprocal distance. As a full statistical mechanics solution is not yet available, after a streamlined introduction to the state of the art via that route, the problem is consistently approached through signal-to-noise technique and extensive numerical simulations. Focusing on the low-storage regime, where the amount of stored patterns grows at most logarithmical with the system size, we prove that these non-mean-field Hopfield-like networks display a richer phase diagram than their classical counterparts. In particular, these networks are able to perform serial processing (i.e. retrieve one pattern at a time through a complete rearrangement of the whole ensemble of neurons) as well as parallel processing (i.e. retrieve several patterns simultaneously, delegating the management of different patterns to diverse communities that build network). The tune between the two regimes is given by the rate of the coupling decay and by the level of noise affecting the system. The price to pay for those remarkable capabilities lies in a network's capacity smaller than the mean field counterpart, thus yielding a new budget principle: the wider the multitasking capabilities, the lower the network load and vice versa. This may have important implications in our understanding of biological complexity.

Anergy in self-directed B lymphocytes: A statistical mechanics perspective

Self-directed lymphocytes may evade clonal deletion at ontogenesis but still remain harmless due to a mechanism called clonal anergy. For B-lymphocytes, two major explanations for anergy developed over the last decades: according to Varela theory, anergy stems from a proper orchestration of the whole B-repertoire, such that self-reactive clones, due to intensive feed-back from other clones, display strong inertia when mounting a response. Conversely, according to the model of cognate response, self-reacting cells are not stimulated by helper lymphocytes and the absence of such signaling yields anergy. Through statistical mechanics we show that helpers do not prompt activation of a sub-group of B-cells: remarkably, the latter are just those broadly interacting in the idiotypic network. Hence Varela theory can finally be reabsorbed into the prevailing framework of the cognate response model. Further, we show how the B-repertoire architecture may emerge, where highly connected clones are self-directed as a natural consequence of ontogenetic learning.