Information Bottleneck Optimization and Independent Component Extraction with Spiking Neurons

The extraction of statistically independent components from high-dimensional multi-sensory input streams is assumed to be an essential component of sensory processing in the brain. Such independent component analysis (or blind source separation) could provide a less redundant representation of information about the external world. Another powerful processing strategy is to extract preferentially those components from high-dimensional input streams that are related to other information sources, such as internal predictions or proprioceptive feedback. This strategy allows the optimization of internal representation according to the infor- mation bottleneck method. However, concrete learning rules that implement these general unsupervised learning principles for spiking neurons are still missing.