Theory Lunch Seminar - Mirabel Reid March 26, 2025 12:00pm — 1:00pm Location: In Person - Gates Hillman 8102 Speaker: MIRABEL REID, Ph.D. Student in Computer Science, School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology https://mirabelreid.github.io/ On k-Winners-Take-All as a Model of Neuron Communication Understanding how low-level neuron dynamics give rise to high-level emergent capabilities is one of the key open questions in neuroscience. In this talk, I will investigate discrete-time, weighted digraph models of the connectome, which not only provide insight into biological neural networks, but also form the backbone of modern artificial neural networks. In particular, I focus on recurrent neural networks employing the k-winners-take-all (k-WTA) function as a nonlinear gating function, a mechanism which models firing rate regulation via inhibition. The process proceeds as follows: at each time step, a subset of k neurons are assigned the value 1 (said to be active at t). At the next time step, the active set consists of the k neurons with the largest weighted degree to the previous active set. By exploring the computational properties arising from this model, this talk aims to offer insights into the emergence of structures in the connectome. About the Speaker Event Website: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~theorylunch/ Add event to Google Add event to iCal
