Generative neural networks can produce data samples according to the statistical properties of their training distribution. This feature can be used to test modern computational neuroscience hypotheses suggesting that spontaneous brain activity is partially supported by top-down generative processing. A widely studied class of generative models is that of Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs), which can be used as building blocks for unsupervised deep learning architectures. In this work, we systematically explore the generative dynamics of RBMs, characterizing the number of states visited during top-down sampling and investigating whether the heterogeneity of visited attractors could be increased by starting the generation process from biased hidden states. By considering an RBM trained on a classic dataset of handwritten digits, we show that the capacity to produce diverse data prototypes can be increased by initiating top-down sampling from chimera states, which encode high-level visual features of multiple digits. We also found that the model is not capable of transitioning between all possible digit states within a single generation trajectory, suggesting that the top-down dynamics is heavily constrained by the shape of the energy function.

Coupled dynamics on the network models have been tremendously helpful in getting insight into complex spatiotemporal dynamical patterns of a wide variety of large-scale real-world complex systems. Chimera, a state of coexistence of incoherence and coherence, is one of such patterns arising in identically coupled oscillators, which has recently drawn tremendous attention due to its peculiar nature and wide applicability, specially in neuroscience. The identification of chimera is a challenging problem due to ambiguity in its appearance. We present a distinctive approach to identify and characterize the chimera state using machine learning techniques, namely random forest, oblique random forests via multi-surface proximal support vector machines (MPRaF-T, P, N) and sparse pre-trained / auto-encoder based random vector functional link neural network (RVFL-AE). We demonstrate high accuracy in identifying the coherent, incoherent and chimera states from given spatial profiles. We validate this approach for different time-continuous and time discrete coupled dynamics on networks. This work provides a direction for employing machine learning techniques to identify dynamical patterns arising due to the interaction among non-linear units on large-scale, and for characterizing complex spatio-temporal phenomena in real-world systems for various applications.