A brand-new theory recommends the energy of a memory for future circumstances determines its place in the brain, either in the hippocampus or the neocortex. This challenges the classical view by highlighting that memories combine to the neocortex based upon their generalizability, not age.
According to a brand-new theory provided by scientists at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus and their associates at University College London, how beneficial a memory is for future circumstances figures out where it lives in the brain.
The theory provides a brand-new method of comprehending systems debt consolidation, a procedure that moves specific memories from the hippocampus– where they are at first kept– to the neocortex– where they live long term.
Under the classical view of systems debt consolidation, all memories move from the hippocampus to the neocortex gradually. But this view does not constantly hold up; research study reveals some memories completely live in the hippocampus and are never ever moved to the neocortex.
In current years, psychologists proposed theories to discuss this more complex view of systems debt consolidation, however nobody has actually yet found out mathematically what figures out whether a memory remains in the hippocampus or whether it is combined in the neocortex.
Now, Janelia scientists are advancing a brand-new, quantitative view of systems debt consolidation to assist solve this longstanding issue, proposing a mathematical neural network theory in which memories combine to the neocortex just if they enhance generalization.
Generalizations are built from the trusted and foreseeable elements of memories, allowing us to use them to other circumstances. We can generalize specific functions of memories to assist us comprehend the world, like the reality that canyons forecast the existence of water.
This is various from episodic memories– in-depth recollections of the past that have distinct functions like a private memory we have of treking to a specific canyon and encountering a body of water.
Under this view, debt consolidation does not copy memories from one location of the brain to another however rather produces a brand-new memory that is a generalization of previous memories. The quantity that a memory can be generalized– not its age– figures out whether it is combined or stays in the hippocampus.
The scientists utilized neural networks to demonstrate how the quantity of debt consolidation differs based upon just how much of a memory is generalizable. They had the ability to recreate previous speculative patterns that could not be discussed by the classical view of systems debt consolidation.
The next action is to evaluate the theory with experiments to see if it can forecast just how much a memory will be combined. Another essential instructions will be to evaluate the authors’ designs of how the brain may compare foreseeable and unforeseeable elements of memories to control debt consolidation. Uncovering how memory works can assist scientists much better comprehend an essential part of cognition, possibly benefitting human health and expert system.
Reference: “Organizing memories for generalization in complementary learning systems” by Weinan Sun, Madhu Advani, Nelson Spruston, Andrew Saxe and James E. Fitzgerald, 20 July 2023, Nature Neuroscience
DOI: 10.1038/ s41593-023-01382 -9
