Network information and connected correlations

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Dec 5;91(23):238701. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.238701. Epub 2003 Dec 2.

Abstract

Entropy and information provide natural measures of correlation among elements in a network. We construct here the information theoretic analog of connected correlation functions: irreducible N-point correlation is measured by a decrease in entropy for the joint distribution of N variables relative to the maximum entropy allowed by all the observed N-1 variable distributions. We calculate the "connected information" terms for several examples and show that it also enables the decomposition of the information that is carried by a population of elements about an outside source.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Information Services*
  • Models, Genetic
  • Models, Neurological
  • Models, Theoretical*