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This paper proposes a three-level information-theoretic framework that reframes bioelectrical signal compression as a function of model capacity and task requirements rather than fixed waveform entropy. By distinguishing between signal, physiological, and semantic levels, the authors suggest that future brain-computer interfaces may transmit only the residual information necessary for specific downstream tasks. This theoretical shift offers a pathway to overcome bandwidth limitations in neural interfaces by discarding task-irrelevant data through causal modeling.
Source coveringarXiv

The Bioelectrical Information Theory: Investigating the theoretical compression limit of bioelectrical signals under artificial intelligence

arXiv3 min read

arXiv:2606.09922v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Bioelectrical signals are increasingly acquired at scales that challenge the bandwidth of brain-computer interfaces. However, their compression is still often framed as a problem of waveform preservation, limited by the entropy of the raw signal. Here we propose an information-theoretic framework in which the effective information of bioelectrical data is determined not only by signal fidelity, but also by physiological structure, model capacity and downstream task requirements. We formulate bioelectrical compression as a three-level hierarchy. At the signal level, noise is reduced to the information they carry about latent physiological sources. At the physiological level, parametric encoders map purified signals into compact, structured and quantized representations. At the semantic level, task-irrelevant information is discarded, while deep learning models exploit causal dependencies to replace marginal entropy with conditional entropy. This perspective reframes the compression limit of bioelectrical signals as a model- and task-conditioned quantity rather than a fixed property of the waveform. As increasingly expressive models become integrated with neural and physiological interfaces, bioelectrical compression may shift from transmitting signals to transmitting only the residual information required for task-level interpretation.

Abstract:Bioelectrical signals are increasingly acquired at scales that challenge the bandwidth of brain-computer interfaces. However, their compression is still often framed as a problem of waveform preservation, limited by the entropy of the raw signal. Here we propose an information-theoretic framework in which the effective information of bioelectrical data is determined not only by signal fidelity, but also by physiological structure, model capacity and downstream task requirements. We formulate bioelectrical compression as a three-level hierarchy. At the signal level, noise is reduced to the information they carry about latent physiological sources. At the physiological level, parametric encoders map purified signals into compact, structured and quantized representations. At the semantic level, task-irrelevant information is discarded, while deep learning models exploit causal dependencies to replace marginal entropy with conditional entropy. This perspective reframes the compression limit of bioelectrical signals as a model- and task-conditioned quantity rather than a fixed property of the waveform. As increasingly expressive models become integrated with neural and physiological interfaces, bioelectrical compression may shift from transmitting signals to transmitting only the residual information required for task-level interpretation.

Information Theory (cs.IT); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)

arXiv:2606.09922 [cs.IT]

(or arXiv:2606.09922v1 [cs.IT] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.09922 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

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Full text under the publisher's open licence · 274 words

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