Complex associative learning in small neural networks

Spatial and temporal cognitive mapping: a neural network approach

Tolman suggested that cognitive behavior is purposive and can be described in terms of how differant goals are pursued. When pursuing these goals, animals and humans display a remarkable adaptability, which is the result of the combination of a goal-seeking mechanism and a cognitive map. Whereas the goal-seeking mechanism permits the animal to seek different goals, adopting alternative behavioral strategies that are independent of any set of responses, the cognitive map allows the integration of multiple independent pieces of knowledge. Although the concept of cognitive mapping has been mostly applied to spatial mapping, we describe how both spatial and temporal cognitive maps can be mechanistically implemented in terms of recurrent associative networks which store either the adjacency of spatial locations or the contiguity of temporal events. The reinjected predictions of spatial locations or temporal events in the network can be conceptualized as images and their sequences conceptualized as the process of imagining. The combination of goal-seeking systems and cognitive maps permits the description of problem solving tasks in terms of the sequence of subgoals (a plan) to be pursued to reach the goal. Whereas the hippocampus might play a major role in the storage of both spatial and temporal cognitive maps in association cortex, the frontal cortex might participate in goal-seeking tasks, decision making and planing.

Olfaction: Diverse Species, Conserved Principles

Olfaction is a vitally important sense for all animals. There are striking similarities between species in the organization of the olfactory pathway, from the nature of the odorant receptor proteins, to perireceptor processes, to the organization of the olfactory CNS, through odor-guided behavior and memory. These common features span a phylogenetically broad array of animals, implying that there is an optimal solution to the problem of detecting and discriminating odors.

Psychoactive drug use in evolutionary perspective

Pure psychoactive drugs and direct routes of administration are evolutionarily novel features of our environment. They are inherently pathogenic because they bypass adaptive information processing systems and act directly on ancient brain mechanisms that control emotion and behavior. Drugs that induce positive emotions give a false signal of a fitness benefit. This signal hijacks incentive mechanisms of "liking" and "wanting," and can result in continued use of drugs that no longer bring pleasure. Drugs that block negative emotions can impair useful defenses, although there are several reasons why their use is often safe nonetheless. A deeper understanding of the evolutionary origins and functions of the emotions and their neural mechanisms is needed as a basis for decisions about the use of psychoactive drugs.

Synthesizing animal and human behavior research via neural network learning theory

Animal and human research have been "divorced" since approximately 1968. Several recent articles have tried to persuade behavior therapists of the merits of animal research. Three reasons are given concerning why disinterest in animal research is so widespread: (1) functional explanations are given for animals, and cognitive explanations are given for humans; (2) serial symbol manipulating models are used to explain human behavior; and (3) human learning was assumed, thereby removing it as something to be explained. Brain-inspired connectionist neural networks, collectively referred to as neural network learning theory (NNLT), are briefly described, and a spectrum of their accomplishments from simple conditioning through speech is outlined. Five benefits that behavior therapists can derive from NNLT are described. They include (a) enhanced professional identity derived from a comprehensive learning theory, (b) improved interdisciplinary collaboration both clinically and scientifically, (c) renewed perceived relevance of animal research, (d) access to plausible proximal causal mechanisms capable of explaining operant conditioning, and (e) an inherently developmental perspective.

Preparation and execution of movement: Parallels between insect and mammalian motor systems

1. The organization of the motor systems underlying locomotion in insects and mammals is surprisingly similar. There are also parallels between the insect motor system and the system underlying reaching and the occulomotor system in primates. 2. The movements generated by all these systems are planned or prepared before their execution and there is a partial separation of circuits for preparation and execution. 3. These circuits consist of multiple descending pathways interconnected to form overlapping loops which work co-operatively to determine the motor output. Thus, both insect and mammalian motor systems can be treated as parallel distributed (PDP) systems. 4. This enables a comparison of functional levels of processing in the different systems and also provides a basis for modelling motor systems with attractor neural networks.

Effect of putative neuromodulators on rhythmic buccal motor output in Lymnaea stagnalis

The effects of a variety of neuromodulator substances on rhythmic motor output and activity in neurons in the feeding circuitry of Lymnaea stagnalis were examined. Each neuromodulator produced a unique combination of effects at different levels in the network: i.e., pattern-generating interneurons (N1, N2, and N3), an identified higher-order interneuron (cerebral giant cell, CGC), and buccal motoneurons. 5-Hydroxytryptamine, acetylcholine, and FMRFamide all inhibited rhythmic motor activity. However, this was achieved in different ways. Dopamine changed the nature of rhythmic activity from one in which N2 interneuronal activity was predominant ("N2 rhythm") to a feeding rhythm. Dopamine was the only substance capable of activating the feeding rhythm. Activity in the CGC was increased by 5-hydroxytryptamine, dopamine, and acetylcholine and reduced by FMRFamide. Differential responses in buccal motoneurons were also observed. The results are discussed in relation to previous work on other species and also in terms of the selection of different patterns of motor output by neuromodulators.

Acetylcholine activates cerebral interneurons and feeding motor program in Limax maximus

The cellular and network effects of acetylcholine (ACh) on the control system for feeding in Limax maximus were measured by intracellular recordings from feeding command-like interneurons and whole nerve recordings from buccal ganglion motor nerve roots that normally innervate the ingestive feeding muscles. The buccal ganglion motor nerve root discharge pattern that causes rhythmic feeding movements, termed the feeding motor program (FMP), was elicited either by attractive taste solutions applied to the lip chemoreceptors or by ACh applied to the cerebral ganglia. The ability of exogenous ACh applied to the cerebral ganglia to trigger FMP was blocked by the cholinergic antagonists curare and atropine. If the strength of the lip-applied taste stimulus was in the range of 1-2 times threshold, cerebral application of the cholinergic antagonists blocked or greatly decreased the ability of lip-applied taste solutions to trigger FMP (5 of 8 trials). The cerebral feeding interneurons, some of which activate FMP when stimulated intracellularly, are excited by small pulses of ACh applied directly to the cell body from an ACh-filled micropipette. A pulse of ACh that activates several of the feeding interneurons simultaneously triggers FMP. The data suggest that under certain stimulus conditions an obligatory set of cholinergic synapses onto the feedininterneurons must be activated for taste inputs to trigger ingestion. The determination of ACh's action within the feeding control system is necessary for understanding how enhanced cholinergic transmission leads to prolonged associative memory retention (Sahley, et al., 1986).

Compartmentalization of cyclic AMP elevation in neurons of Aplysia californica

We have measured by radioimmunoassay the amount of total, free, and bound forms of cyclic AMP (cAMP) within the abdominal ganglion and in five identified cell bodies of neurons from Aplysia californica. In the abdominal ganglion the unbound (free) cAMP levels comprised approximately 25-30% of the total cAMP content under the unstimulated condition, i.e., bathed in high-magnesium saline. Under pharmacological conditions that blocked endogenous phosphodiesterase and activated adenylate cyclase, ganglionic free cAMP levels were elevated more than fourfold, while bound cAMP levels more than doubled. Freeze-substitution techniques were employed to facilitate isolation of individual cell bodies either before or after pharmacological manipulation of cAMP levels. The basal, free cAMP content of cells R2, LP1, R15, L11, and L2-L6 was in the range of 10-40 pmol/mg of cell protein, which accounted for approximately one-half of the total cAMP content per cell body. Determinations of individual cell volumes indicated that the basal, free cAMP concentrations ranged from 1 to 6 microM. Under the same pharmacological conditions that elevated ganglionic cAMP in levels, no changes were measured in either the free or the bound forms of cAMP in isolated cell bodies. Our results indicate that the cAMP elevation was compartmentalized within the neuropilar region of the ganglion, most likely within the processes of the nerve cells. Previous results demonstrated that cAMP injections into the same Aplysia neurons studied here induced a cAMP-activated sodium current, INa (cAMP). In this report we discuss the possibility that pharmacological elevation of cAMP within neuronal processes may reach concentrations similar to those produced by cAMP injections into somata.