SISSA limbo CÉREBRO, VIDA e CULTURA We can easily describe the brain; but can we understand, focusing on one of its parts, one of its multiple functions, how does it work? SISSA limbo CÉREBRO, VIDA e CULTURA 18 de Dezembro de 2008 Alessandro Treves
THE HIPPOCAMPUS a structure which remains stable and self-similar across mammalian species H opossum human DG H monkey
reptiles ≠ mammals ≠ birds but… has it always been like that? human cat rat platypus lizard DG reptiles ≠ mammals ≠ birds CA1 CA3 The medial pallium has been with us for over 300 million years… hippocampus or over 200 million years…
Is the hippocampus what we use to navigate? …or is it used to recollect from the past salient episodes of our lives?
A B C ’global remapping’ Consider what happens in the hippocampus when changing context A B C ’global remapping’ CA3 charts can be described as a (discrete?) number of continuous attractors, with minimal overlap among them
Discrete attractors, with units arranged in a cortical network + position context ..use multiple charts to code environments... CA1 CA3 DG Visual Olfactory Auditory Vestibular Touch Taste EC Object 2 in position 1 Object 1 in position 2 Object 1 in position 1 ..use the sheet to code position... Discrete attractors, with units arranged in a cortical network
recurrent collaterals Neural Computation The full model perforant path The starters’ model DG mossy fibers CA3 recurrent collaterals noise σ2
CA3 and CA1 show similar activity although they differ at coding similar contexts, quantitatively
? ≠ 1 chart ≈ 1/a patterns fewer sparser charts
a fraction of a bit synapse (as for any associative memory model so far) Can we reach this limit? Karel’s movie