Evolution of neural activity in circuits bridging sensory and abstract knowledge.

ABSTRACT: The ability to associate sensory stimuli with abstract classes is critical for survival. How are these associations implemented in brain circuits? And what governs how neural activity evolves during abstract knowledge acquisition? To investigate these questions, we consider a circuit model that learns to map sensory input to abstract classes via gradient-descent synaptic plasticity. We focus on typical neuroscience tasks (simple, and context-dependent, categorization), and study how both synaptic connectivity and neural activity evolve during learning. To make contact with the current generation of experiments, we analyze activity via standard measures such as selectivity, correlations, and tuning symmetry. We find that the model is able to recapitulate experimental observations, including

SUBMITTER: Mastrogiuseppe F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9991064 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature