Mean field theory for asymmetric neural networks

The computation of mean firing rates and correlations is intractable for large neural networks. For symmetric networks one can derive mean field approximations using the Taylor series expansion of the free energy as proposed by Plefka. In asymmetric networks, the concept of free energy is absent. Therefore, it is not immediately obvious how to extend this method to asymmetric networks. In this paper we extend Plefka's approach to asymmetric networks and in fact to arbitrary probability distributions. The method is based on an information geometric argument. The method is illustrated for asymmetric neural networks with sequential dynamics. We compare our approximate analytical results with Monte Carlo simulations for a network of 100 neurons. It is shown that the quality of the approximation for asymmetric networks is as good as for symmetric networks.