Learning compositional sequences with multiple time scales through a hierarchical network of spiking neurons

Long- and short-term history effects in a spiking network model of statistical learning

The statistical structure of the environment is often important when making decisions. There are multiple theories of how the brain represents statistical structure. One such theory states that neural activity spontaneously samples from probability distributions. In other words, the network spends more time in states which encode high-probability stimuli. Starting from the neural assembly, increasingly thought of to be the building block for computation in the brain, we focus on how arbitrary prior knowledge about the external world can both be learned and spontaneously recollected. We present a model based upon learning the inverse of the cumulative distribution function. Learning is entirely unsupervised using biophysical neurons and biologically plausible learning rules. We show how this prior knowledge can then be accessed to compute expectations and signal surprise in downstream networks. Sensory history effects emerge from the model as a consequence of ongoing learning.

Toward reproducible models of sequence learning: replication and analysis of a modular spiking network with reward-based learning

To acquire statistical regularities from the world, the brain must reliably process, and learn from, spatio-temporally structured information. Although an increasing number of computational models have attempted to explain how such sequence learning may be implemented in the neural hardware, many remain limited in functionality or lack biophysical plausibility. If we are to harvest the knowledge within these models and arrive at a deeper mechanistic understanding of sequential processing in cortical circuits, it is critical that the models and their findings are accessible, reproducible, and quantitatively comparable. Here we illustrate the importance of these aspects by providing a thorough investigation of a recently proposed sequence learning model. We re-implement the modular columnar architecture and reward-based learning rule in the open-source NEST simulator, and successfully replicate the main findings of the original study. Building on these, we perform an in-depth analysis of the model's robustness to parameter settings and underlying assumptions, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. We demonstrate a limitation of the model consisting in the hard-wiring of the sequence order in the connectivity patterns, and suggest possible solutions. Finally, we show that the core functionality of the model is retained under more biologically-plausible constraints.

Voltage-dependent synaptic plasticity: Unsupervised probabilistic Hebbian plasticity rule based on neurons membrane potential

This study proposes voltage-dependent-synaptic plasticity (VDSP), a novel brain-inspired unsupervised local learning rule for the online implementation of Hebb’s plasticity mechanism on neuromorphic hardware. The proposed VDSP learning rule updates the synaptic conductance on the spike of the postsynaptic neuron only, which reduces by a factor of two the number of updates with respect to standard spike timing dependent plasticity (STDP). This update is dependent on the membrane potential of the presynaptic neuron, which is readily available as part of neuron implementation and hence does not require additional memory for storage. Moreover, the update is also regularized on synaptic weight and prevents explosion or vanishing of weights on repeated stimulation. Rigorous mathematical analysis is performed to draw an equivalence between VDSP and STDP. To validate the system-level performance of VDSP, we train a single-layer spiking neural network (SNN) for the recognition of handwritten digits. We report 85.01 ± 0.76% (Mean ± SD) accuracy for a network of 100 output neurons on the MNIST dataset. The performance improves when scaling the network size (89.93 ± 0.41% for 400 output neurons, 90.56 ± 0.27 for 500 neurons), which validates the applicability of the proposed learning rule for spatial pattern recognition tasks. Future work will consider more complicated tasks. Interestingly, the learning rule better adapts than STDP to the frequency of input signal and does not require hand-tuning of hyperparameters.

Formation and computational implications of assemblies in neural circuits

In the brain, patterns of neural activity represent sensory information and store it in non-random synaptic connectivity. A prominent theoretical hypothesis states that assemblies, groups of neurons that are strongly connected to each other, are the key computational units underlying perception and memory formation. Compatible with these hypothesised assemblies, experiments have revealed groups of neurons that display synchronous activity, either spontaneously or upon stimulus presentation, and exhibit behavioural relevance. While it remains unclear how assemblies form in the brain, theoretical work has vastly contributed to the understanding of various interacting mechanisms in this process. Here, we review the recent theoretical literature on assembly formation by categorising the involved mechanisms into four components: synaptic plasticity, symmetry breaking, competition and stability. We highlight different approaches and assumptions behind assembly formation and discuss recent ideas of assemblies as the key computational unit in the brain. Abstract figure legend Assembly Formation. Assemblies are groups of strongly connected neurons formed by the interaction of multiple mechanisms and with vast computational implications. Four interacting components are thought to drive assembly formation: synaptic plasticity, symmetry breaking, competition and stability. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.