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The connections of neocortical pyramidal cells can implement the learning of new categories, attractor memory, and top–down recall and attention

Neocortical pyramidal cells have three key classes of excitatory input: forward inputs from the previous cortical area (or thalamus); recurrent collateral synapses from nearby pyramidal cells; and backprojection inputs from the following cortical area. The neocortex performs three major types of com...

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Autor principal: Rolls, Edmund T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8448704/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34347165
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02347-z
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author_facet Rolls, Edmund T.
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description Neocortical pyramidal cells have three key classes of excitatory input: forward inputs from the previous cortical area (or thalamus); recurrent collateral synapses from nearby pyramidal cells; and backprojection inputs from the following cortical area. The neocortex performs three major types of computation: (1) unsupervised learning of new categories, by allocating neurons to respond to combinations of inputs from the preceding cortical stage, which can be performed using competitive learning; (2) short-term memory, which can be performed by an attractor network using the recurrent collaterals; and (3) recall of what has been learned by top–down backprojections from the following cortical area. There is only one type of excitatory neuron involved, pyramidal cells, with these three types of input. It is proposed, and tested by simulations of a neuronal network model, that pyramidal cells can implement all three types of learning simultaneously, and can subsequently usefully categorise the forward inputs; keep them active in short-term memory; and later recall the representations using the backprojection input. This provides a new approach to understanding how one type of excitatory neuron in the neocortex can implement these three major types of computation, and provides a conceptual advance in understanding how the cerebral neocortex may work. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00429-021-02347-z.
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spelling pubmed-84487042021-10-01 The connections of neocortical pyramidal cells can implement the learning of new categories, attractor memory, and top–down recall and attention Rolls, Edmund T. Brain Struct Funct Original Article Neocortical pyramidal cells have three key classes of excitatory input: forward inputs from the previous cortical area (or thalamus); recurrent collateral synapses from nearby pyramidal cells; and backprojection inputs from the following cortical area. The neocortex performs three major types of computation: (1) unsupervised learning of new categories, by allocating neurons to respond to combinations of inputs from the preceding cortical stage, which can be performed using competitive learning; (2) short-term memory, which can be performed by an attractor network using the recurrent collaterals; and (3) recall of what has been learned by top–down backprojections from the following cortical area. There is only one type of excitatory neuron involved, pyramidal cells, with these three types of input. It is proposed, and tested by simulations of a neuronal network model, that pyramidal cells can implement all three types of learning simultaneously, and can subsequently usefully categorise the forward inputs; keep them active in short-term memory; and later recall the representations using the backprojection input. This provides a new approach to understanding how one type of excitatory neuron in the neocortex can implement these three major types of computation, and provides a conceptual advance in understanding how the cerebral neocortex may work. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00429-021-02347-z. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021-08-04 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8448704/ /pubmed/34347165 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02347-z Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Article
Rolls, Edmund T.
The connections of neocortical pyramidal cells can implement the learning of new categories, attractor memory, and top–down recall and attention
title The connections of neocortical pyramidal cells can implement the learning of new categories, attractor memory, and top–down recall and attention
title_full The connections of neocortical pyramidal cells can implement the learning of new categories, attractor memory, and top–down recall and attention
title_fullStr The connections of neocortical pyramidal cells can implement the learning of new categories, attractor memory, and top–down recall and attention
title_full_unstemmed The connections of neocortical pyramidal cells can implement the learning of new categories, attractor memory, and top–down recall and attention
title_short The connections of neocortical pyramidal cells can implement the learning of new categories, attractor memory, and top–down recall and attention
title_sort connections of neocortical pyramidal cells can implement the learning of new categories, attractor memory, and top–down recall and attention
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8448704/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34347165
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02347-z
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