A geometric and dynamical theory of latent computations in biological neural networks

Many neural recordings have revealed low-dimensional sets of behaviorally relevant variables encoded within large-scale neural activity patterns. However, dimensionality reduction analyses alone cannot yield causal explanations for how networks stably implement computations that are resilient to the substantial variability of single neuron dynamics. Further, existing methods for dimensionality reduction often rely on simplifying assumptions about network structure that limit their applicability and explanatory power. To provide a theoretical framework describing the dynamics of low-dimensional computation in high-dimensional neural networks, here we introduce the concept of latent processing units (LPUs), which are architecture-agnostic computational elements operating within biological neural circuitry. Six theorems governing coding and computation by LPUs collectively provide explanations for a range of common biological findings: low-dimensional sets of coding variables can generate high-dimensional neural dynamics; many neurons have activity patterns that represent behaviorally relevant variables but exert little influence on downstream circuits; linear readouts of neural population activity commonly permit near-optimal decoding; the drift of neural representations is often substantial even while network computations remain intact. Overall, our treatment of LPUs, as enacted in network dynamics, unifies the geometric and dynamical views of neural computation under a joint framework and provides systems neuroscience with a causal account of how the brain executes reliable computations.