<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dear colleagues,<br><br>We invite you to submit to the special issue on "<span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Mathematical</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Understanding</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>of<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Information</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Storage</span></span></span>,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Compression</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Prediction</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>in<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Neural</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Networks</span></span></span>" (more details can be found here:<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/59300" target="_blank">https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/59300</a>).<br><br><br><b>- The journal(s) -</b><br><br>The special issue is hosted by (alternatively):<br>- Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience (Impact Factor - 2.3, CiteScore - 5.0), or<br>- Frontiers in Neuroinformatics (Impact Factor - 2.5, CiteScore - 5.5).<br><br><br><b>- Research Topic -</b><br><br>Regardless of their success, today, deep<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">neural</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">networks</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>(NNs) are still used as a "black box", meaning the inner workings or detailed explanations of how they arrive at their output are not revealed. Currently, we still do not have the<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">mathematical</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>tools to fully understand the formal properties of these<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">networks</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>and their limitations. Improving our theoretical<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">understanding</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>of NNs is particularly important today, as these tools are being deployed in an increasing number of safety-critical scenarios, necessitating constant scrutiny of their behavior.<br><br>The goal of the special issue is to investigate the<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">mathematical</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>frameworks that enable a better<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">understanding</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>of how<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">information</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>is learned and represented within a<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">neural</span></span></span>network, including the study of existing approaches that go in this direction.<br><br><br><b>- Call for Papers -</b><br><br>We invite researchers to present manuscripts focusing on the<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">mathematical</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>analysis of deep<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">neural</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">networks</span></span></span>, including their<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">information</span></span></span>-theoretic interpretation and their statistical limits. The areas relevant to this special issue include, but are not limited to:<br><br>- Theory of Deep Feed-forward and Recurrent NNs<br>-<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Information</span></span></span>-theoretic principles and interpretation of NNs<br>- The<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Information</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Bottleneck and deep learning<br>-<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Compression</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>in Deep<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Neural</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Networks</span></span></span><br>- The analysis of pattern and memory<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">storage</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>in NNs<br>- Deep NNs for brain-inspired machine learning and biological modeling<br>- Statistical Physics of deep<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">neural</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">networks</span></span></span><br>- Dynamical Systems Modeling of NNs<br>-<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Neural</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Network Dynamics and Stability<br>- Generalization and Regularization in NNs<br>- Learning Theory and<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Neural</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Networks</span></span></span><br>-<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Mathematical</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Models of Learning and Plasticity<br>-<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Neural</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Network Interpretability and Explainability<br>- Energy-Based Models in Deep Learning<br>-<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Neural</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Network<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Compression</span></span></span>, Pruning, Sparsity and Efficient Computing<br>- Mathematics of Self-Supervised Deep Learning<br>- Optimization Landscapes and Loss Surface Analysis<br>-<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Neural</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Network Generalization and Overparameterization<br>-<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Mathematical</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Theories of Transformers and Attention Mechanisms<br>- Theoretical Foundations of Transfer Learning and Domain Adaptation<br><br>Manuscript Submission Deadline: 15 March 2026.<br><br><br><b>- Topic Editors -</b><br><br>Giorgio Gosti, Italian National Research Council (CNR), Italy (<a href="mailto:giorgio.gosti@cnr.it" target="_blank">giorgio.gosti@cnr.it</a>)<br>Nicola Catenacci Volpi, University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom (<a href="mailto:n.catenacci-volpi@herts.ac.uk" target="_blank">n.catenacci-volpi@herts.ac.uk</a>)<br>Nilesh Goel, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, United Arab Emirates<br><br><br><br><br><u></u><u></u></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)">-----------------------------------</span></b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal;min-height:15px"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)">Dr. Nicola Catenacci Volpi, PhD<u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal;min-height:15px"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal;min-height:15px"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)">Research Fellow in<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il"><span class="gmail-il">Information</span></span></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Theory for AI & Robotics<u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)">Adaptive Systems Research Group<u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)">The University of Hertfordshire<u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)">Department of Computer Science<u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)">College Lane<u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)">Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB<u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)">United Kingdom<u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-stretch:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-feature-settings:normal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(26,26,26)">E-mail:<span class="m_7387721198451723787gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:n.catenacci-volpi@herts.ac.uk" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(16,60,192)">n.catenacci-volpi@herts.ac.uk</span></a></span></p></div>