Download 14. Development and Plasticity

7. Associators and synaptic
plasticity
Fundamentals of Computational Neuroscience, T. P. Trappenberg, 2002.
Lecture Notes on Brain and Computation
Byoung-Tak Zhang
Biointelligence Laboratory
School of Computer Science and Engineering
Graduate Programs in Cognitive Science, Brain Science and Bioinformatics
Brain-Mind-Behavior Concentration Program
Seoul National University
E-mail: [email protected]
This material is available online at http://bi.snu.ac.kr/
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Outline
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
Associative memory and Hebbian learning
An example of learning associations
The biochemical basis of synaptic plasticity
The temporal structure of Hebbian plasticity: LTP
and LTD
Mathematical formulation of Hebbian plasticity
Weight distributions
Neuronal response variability, gain control, and
scaling
Features of associators and Hebbian learning
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7.1 Associative memory and Hebbian
learning


To find the general principles of brain development is one of
the major scientific quests in neuroscience
Not all characteristics of the brain can be specified by a
genetic code
 The number of genes would certainly be too small to specify all
the detail of the brain networks
 Advantageous that not all the brain functions are specified
genetically
 To adapt to particular circumstances in the environment


An important adaptation mechanism that is thought to form
the basis of building associations
Adapting synaptic efficiencies (learning algorithm)
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7.1.1 Synaptic plasticity


Synaptic plasticity is a major key to adaptive mechanisms in
the brain
Artificial neural networks
 Abstract synaptic plasticity
 Learning rules are not biologically realistic
 Learn entirely from experience
 Genetic coding would be of minimal importance in the brain
development

The mechanism of a neural network for
 Self-organization
 Associative abilities
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7.1.2 Hebbian learning

Donald O. Hebb, The Organization of Behavior
 “When an axon of a cell A is near enough to excite cell B or
repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth
or metabolic change takes place in both cells such that A’s
efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased.”
 Brain mechanisms and how they can be related to behavior
 Cell assemblies
 The details of synaptic plasticity
 Experimental result and evidence
 Hebbian learning
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7.1.3 Associations

Computer memory
 Information is stored in magnetic or other physical form
 Using memory address to recalling
 Natural systems cannot work with such demanding precision

The human memory
 Recall vivid memories of events from small details
 Learn associations
 Trigger memories based on related information
 Only partial information can be sufficient to recall memories
 Association memory
 The basis for many cognitive functions
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7.1.4 The associative node
7.1.5 The associative network
Fig. 7.1 Associative node and network architecture. (A) A simplified neuron that receives a large number of
inputs riin. The synaptic efficiency is denoted by wi. the output of the neuron, rout depends on the particular
input stimulus. (B) A network of associative nodes. Each component of the input vector, riin, is distributed to
each neuron in the network. However, the effect of the input can be different for each neuron as each individual
synapse can have different efficiency values wij, where j labels the neuron in the network.
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7.2 An example of learning associations

(A)
h   wi riin  3
i
(7.1)
, threshold = 1.5
Fig. 7.2 Examples of an associative node that is trained on two feature vectors with a
Hebbian-type learning algorithm that increases the synaptic strength by δw = 0.1 each time
a presynaptic spike occurs in the same temporal window as a postsynaptic spike
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7.2.1 Hebbian learning in the conditioning
framework

The mechanisms of an associative neuron
 The first stimulus was already effective in eliciting
a response of neuron before neuron
 Unconditioned stimulus (USC)
 Based on the random initial weight distribution
 For the second input the response of the neuron
changes during learning
 Conditioned stimulus (CS)

Fig. 7.3 Different models of associative nodes
resembling the principal architecture found in
biological nervous systems such as (A) cortical
neurons in mammalian cortex
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7.2.2 Alternative plasticity schemes
Fig. 7.3 Different models of associative nodes resembling the principal architecture found in
biological nervous systems such as (B) Purkinje cells in the cerebellum, which have strong input
from climbing fibers through many hundreds or thousands of synapses. In contrast, the model as
shown in (C) that utilizes specific input to a presynaptic terminal as is known to exist in
invertebrate systems, would have to supply the UCS to all synapses simultaneously in order to
achieve the same kind of result as in the previous two models. Such architectures are unlikely to
play an important role in cortical processing.
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7.2.3 Issues around synaptic plasticity

Store information with associative learning
 Imprinting an event-response pattern
 Recall the response from partial information about the event



Synaptic plasticity is thought to be the underlying principle
behind associative memory
Formulate the learning rules more precisely
Synaptic potentiation
 The synaptic efficiencies would then become too large so that
the response of the node is less specific to input pattern

Synaptic depression
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7.3 The biochemical basis of synaptic
plasticity

Activity-dependent synaptic plasticity
 The co-activation of pre- and postsynaptic neurons
 Backfiring
 The basis of signaling the postsynaptic state
 NMDA receptors
– Open when the postsynaptic membrane becomes
depolarized
– Allow influx of calcium ions
 The excess of intracellular calcium can thus indicate the coactivation of pre- and postsynaptic activity

Longlasting synaptic changes
 Lifelong memories
 The phosphorylation of proteins
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7.4 The temporal structure of Hebbian plasticity: LTP
and LTD
7.4.1 Experimental example of Hebbian plasticity


Results of experiments with varying pre- and postsynaptic
conditions
EPSC: EPSP-related current
Fig. 7.4 (A) Relative EPSC amplitudes between
glutamatergic neurons in hippocampal slices. A
strong postsynaptic stimulation was introduced at
the t =0 for 1 minute that induced spiking of the
postsynaptic neuron. The postsynaptic firing was
induced in relation to the onset of an EPSC that
resulted from the stimulation of a presynaptic
neuron at 1 Hz. The squares mark the results
when the postsynaptic firing times followed the
onset of EPSCs within a short time window of 5
ms. The enhancement of synaptic efficiencies
demonstrates LTP. The circles mark the results
when the postsynaptic neuron was fired 5 ms
before the onset of the EPSC. The reduction of
synaptic efficiencies demonstrates LTD.
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7.4.2 LTP and LTD







Long-term potentiation (LTP): The amplifications in the synaptic
efficiency
Long-term depression (LTD): The reductions in the synaptic
efficiency
Whether such synaptic changes can persist for the lifetime of an
organism is unknown
Such forms of synaptic plasticity support the basic model of
association
LTP can enforce associative response to a presynaptic firing pattern
that is temporally linked to postsynaptic firing
LTD can facilitate the unlearning of presynaptic input that is not
consistent with postsynaptic firing
The basis of mechanisms of associative memories
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7.4.3 Time window of Hebbian plasticity

The crucial temporal relation between pre- and postsynaptic
spikes by varying the time between pre- postsynaptic spikes
Fig. 7.4 (B) The relative changes in EPSC amplitudes are shown for various
time windows between the onset of an EPSC induced by presynaptic firing and
the time of induction of spikes in the postsynaptic neuron
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7.4.4 Variation of temporal Hebbian
plasticity

The asymmetric and symmetric form of Hebbian plasticity
Fig. 7.5 Several examples of the schematic dependence of synaptic efficiencies on the
temporal relations between pre- and postsynaptic spikes
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7.4.5 Dependence of synaptic changes on
initial strength



Whether the size of synaptic changes depends on the strength
of a synapse
The absolute strength of the synaptic efficiencies in LTD is
proportional to the initial synaptic efficiency
The relative changes of EPSC amplitudes for LTP are largest
for small initial EPSC amplitudes
LTD:
A
A
A
 const  A  A : multiplicative
A
(7.2)
LTP: A  1  A  const : additive
A
A
(7.3)
Fig. 7.6 Dependence of LTP and LTD on
the magnitude of the EPSCs before
synaptic plasticity is induced.
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7.5 Mathematical formulation of Hebbian
plasticity


Synaptic plasticity by a change of weight values
The weight values are not static but can change over time
The variation of weight values after time steps Δt in a discrete
fashion as
wij (t  t )  wij (t )  wij (tif , t jf , t; wij ) (7.4)

The dependence of the weight changes on various factors

 Activity-dependent synaptic plasticity
 Depend on the firing times of the pre- and postsynaptic
neuron
 The strength of synapse can vary within some interval
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7.5.1 Hebbian learning with spiking
neurons

The dependence of the synaptic changes (LTP: “+” LTD: “-”)
  wij  f  K  (t post  t pre )  f decay

(7.5)
Kernel function: exponential form

K (t
post
t
pre
)e

t postt pre

([t post  t pre ]) (7.6)
 (x )

: Threshold function that restricts LTP and LTD to the
correct domains
Amplitude factor f±
1. Additive rule with absorbing boundaries,


a
f 
0
for wijmin  wij  wijmax
otherwise
(7.7)
2. Multiplicative rule with more graded nonlinearity when
approaching the boundaries, 
f  a  ( wmax  wij ) (7.8)
f   a  ( wmin  wij ) z
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(7.9)
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7.5.2 Hebbian learning in rate models

The average behavior of neurons or cell assemblies (rate models)
 Cannot incorporate the spike timing

The plasticity depends on the average correlation of pre- and postsynaptic
firing
wij  f1[( ri  f 2 )( r j  f 3 )  f 4 ]
wij  k ri  ri
r
wij  k ri  ri






j
 rj
r
j

 rj
(7.11) :

(7.10)
: Hebbian plasticity rule
Hebbian rule without decay term

 k ri rj  ri
rj

: Covariance of ri and rj
(7.12)
ri: firing rate of a postsynaptic node i
rj : firing rate of a presynaptic node i
f1: learning rate
f2 and f3: plasticity thresholds
f4: weight decay
The average change of synaptic weights is proportional to the covariance
of the pre- and postsynaptic firing (cross-correlation function)
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7.6 Weight distributions

Synaptic efficiencies are continuously changing as long as learning rules are
applied
 Problem
 Rapid changes of weight can lead to instabilities in the system
 The neuron should adapt to rapid changes
 A neuron should roughly maintain its main firing rate
 Solution
 The overall weight distribution stays relatively constant
 Hebbian models depend on the form of the weight distribution
Fig. 7.7 Distribution of fluorescence
intensities of synapses from a spinal
neuron that were labeled with fluorescence
antibodies, which can be regarded as an
estimate of the synaptic efficiencies.
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7.6.1 Example of weight distribution in a
rate model

Rate models of recurrent networks trained with the Hebbian
training rule on random patterns have Gaussian distribution
weight component
Fig. 7.8 Normalized histograms of
weight values from simulations of a
simplified neuron (sigma node)
simulating average firing rates after
training with the basic Hebbian
learning rules 7.11 on exponentially
distributed random patterns. A fit of
a Gaussian distribution to the data
is shown as a solid line.
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7.6.2 Change of synaptic characteristics

Dale’s principle: Neurons make either excitatory or inhibitory
synapses
 The synapses from a presynaptic neuron cannot change its
specific characteristics

The simulations above we did not restrict the synapses to be
either inhibitory or excitatory
 Weight values can be set to cross the boundaries between
positive and negative values, which is physiologically
unrealistic


But, simulations with such constraints produce similar results
for the distribution of the weight matrix component
Therefore, it is common to relax this biological detail(Dale’s
principle) in the simulation
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7.6.3 Examples with spiking neurons

Asymmetric Hebbian rules for spiking neuron
Fig. 7.9 (A) Average firing rate (decreasing curve) and Cv, the coefficient of variation (increasing
and fluctuating curve), of an IF-neuron that is driven by 1000 excitatory Poisson spike trains
while the synaptic efficiencies are changed according to an additive Hebbian rule with
asymmetric Gaussian plasticity windows. (B) Distribution of weight values after 5 minutes of
simulated training time (which is similar to the distribution after 3 minutes). The weights were
limited to be in the range of 0-0.015. The distribution has two maxima, one at each boundary of
the allowed interval.
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7.7 Neuronal response variability, gain control, and
scaling
7.7.1 Variability and gain control


The firing time of the IF-neuron is mainly determined by the
average firing input current
Measure this statement using cross-correlation function
C (n)  s pre (t ) s post t  nt   s pre s post
(7.13)
Fig. 7.10 Average cross-correlation function between pre-synaptic
Poisson spike trains and the postsynaptic spike train (averaged over
all presynaptic spike trains) in simulation of an IF-neuron with 1000
input channels. The spike trains that lead to the results shown by
stars were generated with each weight value fixed to value 0.015.
The cross-correlations are consistent with zero when considered
within the variance indicated by the error bars. The squares
represent the simulation results from simulations of the IF-neuron
driven by the same presynaptic spike trains as before, but with the
weight matrix after Hebbian learning shown in Fig. 7.9. Some
presynaptic spike trains caused postsynaptic spiking with a positive
peak in the average cross-correlation functions when the presynaptic
spikes precede the postsynaptic spike. No error bars are shown for
this curve for clarity.
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7.7.2 Synaptic scaling

The dependence of overall synaptic efficiencies on the
average postsynaptic firing rate
 Crucial to keep the neurons in the regime of high variability
 Keep neurons sensitive for information processing in the
nervous systems

Many experiments have demonstrated
 Synaptic efficiencies are scaled by the average postsynaptic
activity



The threshold where LTP is induced can depend on the timeaveraged recent activity of the neuron
Weight normalization
Weight decay
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7.7.3 Oja’s rule and principal component

Weight normalization through heterosynaptic depression
wij  ri postrjpre  (ri post )2 wij
(7.14)
Fig. 7.11 Simulation of a linear node trained with Oja’s rule on training examples (indicated
by the dots) drawn from a two-dimensional probability distribution with mean zero. The
weight vector with initial conditions indicated by the cross converges to the weight vector
(thick arrow), which has length |w| = 1 and points in the direction of the first principal
component.
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7.7.4 Short-term synaptic plasticity and
neuronal gain control


Short-term synaptic plasticity
Cortical neurons typically have a transient response with a
decreasing firing rate to a constant input current
 Short-term synaptic depression (STD)

The computational consequences of short-term depression can
be manifold
 Allows a neuron to respond strongly to input that has not been
influencing the neuron recently and therefore has a strong
novelty value
 Rapid spike trains that would exhaust the neuron can be
weakened
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7.8 Features of associators and Hebbian
learning

Pattern completion and generalization
 Recall from partial input
 The output node responds to all patterns with a certain similarity
to the trained pattern

Prototypes and extraction of central tendencies
 The ability to extract central tendencies
 Noise reduction

Graceful degradation
 The loss of some components of system should not make the
system fail completely.
 Fault tolerance
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7.8.4 Biologically faithful learning rules

The associative Hebbian learning rules
 Biologically faithful models:
1.
Unsupervised



2.
Local


3.
No specific learning signal
Self-organization rule
Reinforcement learning
Only presynaptic and postsynaptic observable are required to change
the synaptic weight values
Benefit from true parallel distributed processing
Online

The learning rule does not require storage of firing patterns or
network parameters
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Conclusion



What is the associative memory?
Biochemical mechanisms of synaptic plasticity
Hebbian learning rule
 Synaptic plasticity
 Temporal structure of Hebbian plasticity
 LTP and LTD

Weight distribution
 Gain control, synaptic scaling, Oja’s rule and PCA
 Associators and Hebbian learning
 Hebbian learning rule is bilogically faithful learning rules
 Unsupervised, local, online
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