An Extensive Study of Two-Node McCulloch-Pitts Networks

Abstract

Networks with two nodes are previously grouped into either two classes (mutually interactive, master-slave) or five classes (mutualism, competition, predator-prey, commensalism, amensalism). By allowing self-loops, the number of signed regulatory graphs increases to 39. We provide a complete summary of dynamical behaviors of the 39 two-node McCulloch-Pitts models when the link weights are constrained to three values [$-1$,0,$+1$] and Boolean node variables. Depending on whether the Boolean values are [$-1,1$] (bipolar) or [0,1] (binary), we show that the dynamics could also be different with the same signed regulatory graphs. We demonstrate that slight variations in the McCulloch-Pitts model (called variants) may lead to fundamentally different dynamics. We study the full model space and three kinds of robustness or stability: a) of a rule against parameter change on its overall dynamics, b) for a given state against parameter change on its final state, and c) against an initial state change on its final state. All these stability properties are loosely related to a model's limiting dynamics, with the fixed-point rules to be more stable in the first two types of robustness, but less stable in the third robustness type. These analyses pave the way towards a better understanding of a minimum complex system.