  Living systems implement and execute an extraordinary plethora of
computational tasks. The inherent degree of large scale coordination emerges as
a global property, from the intricate sea of microscopic interactions. The
brain, with its structural and functional architecture, represents an
emblematic example of hierarchic self-organization: elementary units, the
neurons, act much like instruments of an orchestra, which combine diverse
timbres to create harmonious symphonies. Neurons come indeed in different
types, varying in shapes, connections and electrical properties. They all team
up to process external stimuli from a number of sources and integrate the
information to yield, from neurons to mind, different cognitive faculties.
Identifying the coarse grained modules that exert, from bottom to up, pivotal
neuronal functions constitutes a goal of paramount importance. On the other
hand, the brain and its unraveled secrets could inspire novel biomimetics
technologies to adaptively handle complex problems. Here, we investigate the
intertwined stochastic dynamics of two populations of excitatory and inhibitory
units, arranged in a directed lattice. The endogenous noise seeds a coherent
amplification across the chain generating giant oscillations with tunable
frequencies, a process that the brain could exploit to enhance, and eventually
encode, different signals. The system works as an out-equilibrium thermal
device under stationary operating conditions, the associated entropy production
rate being analytically quantified. The same scheme could be invoked to design
a novel family of manmade detectors capable of reacting to spatially
distributed low intensity alerts.
