arrow
Return

Quantifying Synergistic Information Using Intermediate Stochastic Variables

delete2017-02-22
delete0
delete
OA
AI
DOI:10.3390/e19020085delete
deleteOriginal
deleteShare
deleteSave
View PDF
Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Quantifying synergy among stochastic variables is an important open problem in information theory. Information synergy occurs when multiple sources together predict an outcome variable better than the sum of single-source predictions. It is an essential phenomenon in biology such as in neuronal networks and cellular regulatory processes, where different information flows integrate to produce a single response, but also in social cooperation processes as well as in statistical inference tasks in machine learning. Here we propose a metric of synergistic entropy and synergistic information from first principles. The proposed measure relies on so-called synergistic random variables (SRVs) which are constructed to have zero mutual information about individual source variables but non-zero mutual information about the complete set of source variables. We prove several basic and desired properties of our measure, including bounds and additivity properties. In addition, we prove several important consequences of our measure, including the fact that different types of synergistic information may co-exist between the same sets of variables. A numerical implementation is provided, which we use to demonstrate that synergy is associated with resilience to noise. Our measure may be a marked step forward in the study of multivariate information theory and its numerous applications.
AI Summary

AI Summary

Key information extracted from the uploaded paper, including a brief overview, abstract, background, key highlights, visual analysis, and future outlook.

Journal

No journal information available

Organization

No organization information available
Cited Papers

Cited Papers

No cited papers available