We are pleased to announce that the Best ECR (Early Career Researcher) Presentation Award, sponsored by Entropy (ISSN: 1099-4300) for CNS*2023 Workshop on Methods of Information Theory in Computational Neuroscience, was granted to Dr. Maria Pope from the Indiana University Bloomington, USA. Congratulations!

“Multivariate Information Theory Reveals Synergistic Subsystems of the Cerebral Cortex”

Abstract: One of the most well-established tools for modeling the brain is the functional connectivity network, which is constructed from pairs of interacting brain regions. While powerful, the network model is limited, as only pairwise dependencies are considered and potentially higher-order structures are missed. This talk will explore how multivariate information theory reveals higher-order dependencies in the human brain, presenting results obtained from applying recently introduced O-information to resting-state brain data to show that synergistic subsystems are widespread in the human brain. Highly synergistic subsystems typically sit between canonical functional networks. Maximally synergistic subsystems, found using simulated annealing to optimize for synergy dominance, typically comprise ≈10 brain regions recruited from multiple canonical brain systems. Results from partial entropy decomposition will be presented that further support the notion that canonical organizations of the brain focus largely on redundant information. Though ubiquitous, highly synergistic subsystems are invisible when considering pairwise functional connectivity, and our results suggest that highly synergistic systems do not fall along canonical system lines. In summary, it will be argued that higher-order interactions in the brain reflect an under-explored space, accessible with tools of multivariate information theory, that may offer novel scientific insights.

From left to right: Pedro Mediano (workshop organizer), Micahel Wibral (workshop organizer), Maria Pope (award winner) and Abdullah Makkeh (workshop organizer)