Abstract
Without their cerebral cortex people seem to be unable to perform the more interesting types of behavior. On the other hand the cortex is anatomically and electrophysiologically surprisingly uniform. So all the different important capabilities that have been attributed: to different cortical areas seem to be achieved by invoking almost the same machinery. How is this possible?
We propose that the cortex is merely a large memory. The organizing principle of this memory is simple and local: local correlations in cortical activity are stored by enhancing the local connectivity between the active elements. This principle (called Hebb’s law) leads to the long-term storage of “preferred” global activity patterns in the cortex (called cell assemblies). Each of these patterns can be activated by any sufficiently large part of it.
Viewed as a retrieval procedure in a memory, this process is known as self-addressing or as autoassociation in the context of associative memories. As a data storage technique, Hebb’s local rule or the corresponding global mechanism of autoassociation turn out to be indeed efficient, even for the purposes of todays large computer memories. As for the cerebral cortex, there is now experimental evidence for variable synaptic connectivities obeying Hebb’s law.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Amari S.-I. (1977): Neural theory of association and concept-formation. Biol.Cybern. 26, 175
Anderson J.A, (1972): A simple neural network generating an interactive memory. Math.Biosc. 14, 197
Baranyi A.and Feher O. (1981): Intracellular studies on cortical synaptic plasticity. Exp.Brain Res. 41, 124–134
Braitenberg V. (1978): Cell assemblies in the cerebral cortex. In: Theoretical Approaches to Complex Systems(Heim R.,Palm G.,eds.). Springer,Berlin Heidelberg New York
Braitenberg V. (1984): Vehicles. MIT Press (to appear)
Carr J. (1975): Applications of Centre Manifold Theory. Lecture Notes, Brown University,Providence
Cowan J. (1984): In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Synergetics. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York (to appear)
Fukushima K. (1975): Cognitron: a self-organizing multilayered neural network. Biol.Cybern. 20, 121
Gabor D. (1969): Associative holographic memories. IBM J.Res.Dev. 13, 156
Haken H. (1977): Synergetics. An Introduction. Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Hebb D.O. (1949): The Organization of Behaviour. John Wiley, New York
Hebb D.O. (1958): Textbook of Psychology. Saunders, Philadelphia London Tonronto
Hoffstaedter D.R. (1979): Gödel, Escher, Bach. Basic books, Plenum Press, New York
Iooss G. and Joseph D.D. (1980): Elementary Stability and Bifurcation Theory. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Katz B. (1966): Nerve, Muscle and Synapse. Mc Graw-Hill, New York
Koch C., Poggio T. and Torre V. (1982): Retinal ganglion cells: a functional interpretation of dendritic morphology. Phil.Trans.R.Soc.London Ser.B 298, 227–264
Kohonen T. (1977): Associative Memory. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Levy W.B.and Steward O. (1979): Synapses as associative memory elements in the hippocampal formation. Brain Res. 175, 233–245
Malsburg von der C. (1973): Self-organization of orientation sensitive cells in the striate cortex. Kybernetik 14, 85
Marr D. (1969): A theory of cerebellar cortex. J.Physiol. 202, 437
Marr D. (1971): Simple memory. Philos.Trans.R.Soc.London,Ser.B 262 /23
Mc Culloch W.S. and Pitts W. (1943): A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity. Bull.Math.Biophys. 5, 115
Nass M.M.and Cooper L.N. (1975): A theory for the development of feature detecting cells in visual cortex. Biol.Cybern. 19, 1
Palm G. (1980): On associative memory. Biol.Cybern. 36, 19
Palm G. (1981): Towards a theory of cell assemblies. Biol.Cybern. 39, 181
Palm G. (1981): On the storage capacity of an associative memory with randomly distributed storage elements. Biol.Cybern. 39, 125
Palm G. (1982): Rules for synaptic changes and their relevance for the storage of information in the brain. In: Cybernetics and Systems Research (Trappl R.,ed.). North-Holland Publishing Company
Palm G. (1982): Neural Assemblies.An Alternative Approach to Artificial Intelligence. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Palm G. and Braitenberg V. (1979): Tentative contributions of neuroanatomy to nerve net theories. In: Progress in cybernetics and systems research, vol. III (Trappl R.,Klir G.J., Ricciardi L. eds.). Wiley, New York
Palm G. and Schüz A. (1984): (in preparation)
Praitenberg F. (1981): Berühmte Tiroler im Ausland. Arunda 11, 70
Rauschecker J.P. and Singer W. (1981): The effects of early visual experience on the cat’s visual cortex and their possible explanation by Hebb synapses. J.Physiol. 310, 215
Steinbuch K. (1961): Die Lernmatrix. Kybernetik 1, 36
Uttley A.M. (1956): Conditional probability machines and conditioned reflexes. In: Automata studies ( Shannon L.E., Mc Carthy I.,eds.) Univ.Press,Princeton N.J.
Walter W. Gray (1953): The Living Brain. W.W. Norton and Co., New York
Wiener N. (1948): Cybernetics. Wiley, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1984 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Palm, G. (1984). Local Synaptic Modification Can Lead to Organized Connectivity Patterns in Associative Memory. In: Frehland, E. (eds) Synergetics — From Microscopic to Macroscopic Order. Springer Series in Synergetics, vol 22. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69540-7_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69540-7_22
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-69542-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-69540-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive