Pairwise maximum entropy models for studying large biological systems: when they can and when they can't work

Details Pairwise maximum entropy models for studying large biological systems: when they can and when they can't work Pairwise maximum entropy models for studying large biological systems: when they can and when they can't work

2008-11-06

arxiv.org/abs/0811.0903v1

Biology

Quantitative Biology

Quantitative Methods

Scientific paper

One of the most critical problems we face in the study of biological systems is building accurate statistical descriptions of them. This problem has been particularly challenging because biological systems typically contain large numbers of interacting elements, which precludes the use of standard brute force approaches. Recently, though, several groups have reported that there may be an alternate strategy. The reports show that reliable statistical models can be built without knowledge of all the interactions in a system; instead, pairwise interactions can suffice. These findings, however, are based on the analysis of small subsystems. Here we ask whether the observations will generalize to systems of realistic size, that is, whether pairwise models will provide reliable descriptions of true biological systems. Our results show that, in most cases, they will not. The reason is that there is a crossover in the predictive power of pairwise models: If the size of the subsystem is below the crossover point, then the results have no predictive power for large systems. If the size is above the crossover point, the results do have predictive power. This work thus provides a general framework for determining the extent to which pairwise models can be used to predict the behavior of whole biological systems. Applied to neural data, the size of most systems studied so far is below the crossover point.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Pairwise maximum entropy models for studying large biological systems: when they can and when they can't work does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Pairwise maximum entropy models for studying large biological systems: when they can and when they can't work, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Pairwise maximum entropy models for studying large biological systems: when they can and when they can't work will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-630454