Mind-to-mind heteroclinic coordination: Model of sequential episodic memory initiation.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Dynamical Systems Theory
• Computational Psychiatry

Background:

• Episodic memory retrieval is a complex dynamical process within large-scale brain networks.
• In social groups, shared experiences lead to encoded, recalled, and shared neural patterns among participants.

Purpose of the Study:

• To construct and analyze a dynamical model for the formation and maintenance of episodic memory in interacting individuals.
• To investigate the stability and characteristics of the underlying neural dynamics.

Main Methods:

• Development of a dynamical model for episodic memory in small ensembles of interacting minds.
• Analysis of the model using Lotka-Volterra-like equations to identify attractors.
• Characterization of dynamics using length-related Lyapunov exponents.

Main Results:

• Identification of a structurally stable, unconventional dynamical attractor: a nonsmooth heteroclinic torus.
• Demonstration that dynamics on this torus exhibit an absence of chaos but asymptotic instability of individual trajectories.
• Observation of sequential switching between metastable states, dependent on coupling strength, interpreted as memory formation stages.

Conclusions:

• The nonsmooth heteroclinic torus provides a robust mechanism for the formation and modification of shared episodic memories in social groups.
• Coupling strength critically influences the dynamics, leading to distinct phases of memory development.
• This model offers insights into the collective neural processes underlying social memory.