Spatio-temporal credit assignment in neuronal population learning.

ABSTRACT: In learning from trial and error, animals need to relate behavioral decisions to environmental reinforcement even though it may be difficult to assign credit to a particular decision when outcomes are uncertain or subject to delays. When considering the biophysical basis of learning, the credit-assignment problem is compounded because the behavioral decisions themselves result from the spatio-temporal aggregation of many synaptic releases. We present a model of plasticity induction for reinforcement learning in a population of leaky integrate and fire neurons which is based on a cascade of synaptic memory traces. Each synaptic cascade correlates presynaptic input first with postsynaptic events, next with the behavioral decisions and finally with external reinforcement. For operant conditio

SUBMITTER: Friedrich J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3127803 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature