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Theory of Connectivity: Nature and Nurture of Cell Assemblies and Cognitive Computation
Richard Semon and Donald Hebb are among the firsts to put forth the notion of cell assembly—a group of coherently or sequentially-activated neurons—to represent percept, memory, or concept. Despite the rekindled interest in this century-old idea, the concept of cell assembly still remains ill-define...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2016
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4850152/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27199674 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2016.00034 |
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author | Li, Meng Liu, Jun Tsien, Joe Z. |
author_facet | Li, Meng Liu, Jun Tsien, Joe Z. |
author_sort | Li, Meng |
collection | PubMed |
description | Richard Semon and Donald Hebb are among the firsts to put forth the notion of cell assembly—a group of coherently or sequentially-activated neurons—to represent percept, memory, or concept. Despite the rekindled interest in this century-old idea, the concept of cell assembly still remains ill-defined and its operational principle is poorly understood. What is the size of a cell assembly? How should a cell assembly be organized? What is the computational logic underlying Hebbian cell assemblies? How might Nature vs. Nurture interact at the level of a cell assembly? In contrast to the widely assumed randomness within the mature but naïve cell assembly, the Theory of Connectivity postulates that the brain consists of the developmentally pre-programmed cell assemblies known as the functional connectivity motif (FCM). Principal cells within such FCM is organized by the power-of-two-based mathematical principle that guides the construction of specific-to-general combinatorial connectivity patterns in neuronal circuits, giving rise to a full range of specific features, various relational patterns, and generalized knowledge. This pre-configured canonical computation is predicted to be evolutionarily conserved across many circuits, ranging from these encoding memory engrams and imagination to decision-making and motor control. Although the power-of-two-based wiring and computational logic places a mathematical boundary on an individual’s cognitive capacity, the fullest intellectual potential can be brought about by optimized nature and nurture. This theory may also open up a new avenue to examining how genetic mutations and various drugs might impair or improve the computational logic of brain circuits. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4850152 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-48501522016-05-19 Theory of Connectivity: Nature and Nurture of Cell Assemblies and Cognitive Computation Li, Meng Liu, Jun Tsien, Joe Z. Front Neural Circuits Neuroscience Richard Semon and Donald Hebb are among the firsts to put forth the notion of cell assembly—a group of coherently or sequentially-activated neurons—to represent percept, memory, or concept. Despite the rekindled interest in this century-old idea, the concept of cell assembly still remains ill-defined and its operational principle is poorly understood. What is the size of a cell assembly? How should a cell assembly be organized? What is the computational logic underlying Hebbian cell assemblies? How might Nature vs. Nurture interact at the level of a cell assembly? In contrast to the widely assumed randomness within the mature but naïve cell assembly, the Theory of Connectivity postulates that the brain consists of the developmentally pre-programmed cell assemblies known as the functional connectivity motif (FCM). Principal cells within such FCM is organized by the power-of-two-based mathematical principle that guides the construction of specific-to-general combinatorial connectivity patterns in neuronal circuits, giving rise to a full range of specific features, various relational patterns, and generalized knowledge. This pre-configured canonical computation is predicted to be evolutionarily conserved across many circuits, ranging from these encoding memory engrams and imagination to decision-making and motor control. Although the power-of-two-based wiring and computational logic places a mathematical boundary on an individual’s cognitive capacity, the fullest intellectual potential can be brought about by optimized nature and nurture. This theory may also open up a new avenue to examining how genetic mutations and various drugs might impair or improve the computational logic of brain circuits. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-04-29 /pmc/articles/PMC4850152/ /pubmed/27199674 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2016.00034 Text en Copyright © 2016 Li, Liu and Tsien. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Neuroscience Li, Meng Liu, Jun Tsien, Joe Z. Theory of Connectivity: Nature and Nurture of Cell Assemblies and Cognitive Computation |
title | Theory of Connectivity: Nature and Nurture of Cell Assemblies and Cognitive Computation |
title_full | Theory of Connectivity: Nature and Nurture of Cell Assemblies and Cognitive Computation |
title_fullStr | Theory of Connectivity: Nature and Nurture of Cell Assemblies and Cognitive Computation |
title_full_unstemmed | Theory of Connectivity: Nature and Nurture of Cell Assemblies and Cognitive Computation |
title_short | Theory of Connectivity: Nature and Nurture of Cell Assemblies and Cognitive Computation |
title_sort | theory of connectivity: nature and nurture of cell assemblies and cognitive computation |
topic | Neuroscience |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4850152/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27199674 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2016.00034 |
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