Publications
Recorded talks: COSYNE 2023 · WCCI 2020
Modelling of synaptic interactions between two brainstem half-centre oscillators that coordinate breathing and swallowing
Authors: P. Tolmachev, R. R. Dhingra, J. H. Manton, M. Dutschmann
Biological Cybernetics (accepted, to appear) • 2026
A model of the synaptic interactions between the respiratory and swallowing half-centre oscillators in the brainstem, producing testable predictions for breathing–swallowing coordination.
Single-unit activations confer inductive biases for emergent circuit solutions to cognitive tasks
Authors: P. Tolmachev, T. A. Engel
Nature Machine Intelligence, 7, 1742–1754 • 2025
The choice of single-unit nonlinearity determines which computational primitives a network builds with: RNNs trained on identical tasks and matched on in-distribution performance arrive at structurally distinct circuits and diverge behaviorally under previously unseen stimuli.
Linking neural dynamics and circuits: selection vector re-orientation via node inhibition
Authors: P. Tolmachev, C. Langdon, T. A. Engel
In preparation — contributed talk, COSYNE 2023 • 2023
In ReLU networks the selection vector’s support can change only through suppression of units receiving irrelevant stimuli — a concrete circuit implementation of a mechanism previously described only at the population level. The resulting connectivity rule predicted rank-one perturbations that realigned selection vectors and selectively degraded behavior in one context while sparing the other. Equal contribution with C. Langdon.
New Insights on Learning Rules for Hopfield Networks: Memory and Objective Function Minimisation
Authors: P. Tolmachev, J. H. Manton
International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), 1–8 — talk at WCCI 2020 • 2020
A unified normative perspective on local learning rules for pattern memorization in Hopfield networks, yielding new rules that raise pattern-storage capacity over the standard Hebbian rule.
A Distributed Transmission Scheduling Algorithm for Wireless Networks Based on the Ising Model
Authors: X. Li, P. Tolmachev, M. Pauley, J. H. Manton
IEEE Statistical Signal Processing Workshop (SSP), 6–10 • 2018
A distributed scheduling algorithm for wireless transmission derived from the Ising model.
Modeling the Respiratory Central Pattern Generator with Resonate-and-Fire Izhikevich Neurons
Authors: P. Tolmachev, R. R. Dhingra, M. Pauley, M. Dutschmann, J. H. Manton
International Conference on Neural Information Processing (ICONIP), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 603–615 • 2018
A spiking model of the respiratory central pattern generator built from simplified Izhikevich neurons, reproducing the three-phase breathing rhythm with greater clarity and at lower computational cost.