title: Hierarchical neuronal modeling of cognitive functions: from synaptic transmission to the Tower of London.
abstract: Recent progress in the molecular biology of synaptic transmission, in particular of neurotransmitter receptors, offers novel information relevant to 'realistic' modeling of neural processes at the single cell and network level. Sophisticated computer analyses of two-dimensional crystals by high resolution electron microscopy yield images of single neurotransmitter receptor molecules with tentative identifications of ligand binding sites and of conformational transitions. The dynamics of conformational changes can be accounted for by a 'multistate allosteric network' model. Allosteric receptors also possess the structural and functional properties required to serve as coincidence detectors between pre- and post-synaptic signals and, therefore, can be used as building blocks for a chemical Hebb synapse. These properties were introduced into networks of formal neurons capable of producing and detecting temporal sequences. In more elaborate models of pre-frontal cortex functions, allosteric receptors control the selection of transient 'pre-representations' and their stabilization by external or internal reward signals. We apply this scheme to Shallice's Tower of London test, and we show how a hierarchical neuronal architecture can implement executive or planning functions associated with frontal areas. (Académie des sciences/Elsevier, Paris.)
authors.affiliation: Neurobiologie moleculaire, Institu Pasteur, 25 rue du Dr Roux, 75015, Paris, France.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Changeux
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dehaene
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*