ROLE of NETWORK ARCHITECTURE in DETERMINING NEURAL SYSTEM DYNAMICS
Abstract
The objective of this proposal is to reverse engineer the brain in order to discover novel design principles for physical systems providing enhanced information-processing capabilities for Navy/DoD and homeland security needs. Specifically, we are mathematically modeling and computer simulating, fundamental signal processing principles of neurons and neural systems ofthe hippocampus for the purposes of designing and testing systems that rapidly code information for memory storage. Previous studies have focused on the first subsystem of the hippocampus, namely, the entorhinal cortical projections to the dentate gyrus, including inhibitory/excitatory interneurons and associational connections throughout the dentate. The proposed studies will incorporate the next subsystem of the hippocampus, the CA3/4 pyramidal region, including the associational network believed to be important for first-stage long-term memory formation. Particular issues to be investigated include the role of feedforward and feedback local interneuron connectivity, hierarchical structuring of connection pathways between subfields, and the interaction between feedforward and cascade pathways connecting entorhinal and CA3/4, among others. Simulations of the signal processing properties provided by these architectural features will be used to understand their role in feature orthogonalization for pattern separation, the capacity of networks for memory storage, and the role of synaptic mechanisms in optimizing memory coding.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 03, 2017
- Source ID
- N000141712314
Entities
People
- Theodore Berger
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Southern California