Tensor-powered insights into neural dynamics

Abstract

The complex spatiotemporal dynamics of neurons encompass a wealth of information relevant to perception and decision-making, making the decoding of neural activity a central focus in neuroscience research. Traditional machine learning or deep learning-based neural information modeling approaches have achieved significant results in decoding. Nevertheless, such methodologies require the vectorization of data, a process that disrupts the intrinsic relationships inherent in high-dimensional spaces, consequently impeding their capability to effectively process information in high-order tensor domains. In this paper, we introduce a novel decoding approach, namely the Least Squares Sport Tensor Machine (LS-STM), which is based on tensor space and represents a tensorized improvement over traditional vector learning frameworks. In extensive evaluations using human and mouse data, our results demonstrate that LS-STM exhibits superior performance in neural signal decoding tasks compared to traditional vectorization-based decoding methods. Furthermore, LS-STM demonstrates better performance in decoding neural signals with limited samples and the tensor weights of the LS-STM decoder enable the retrospective identification of key neurons during the neural encoding process. This study introduces a novel tensor computing approach and perspective for decoding high-dimensional neural information in the field.