title: Impact of active dendrites and structural plasticity on the memory capacity of neural tissue.
abstract: We consider the combined effects of active dendrites and structural plasticity on the storage capacity of neural tissue. We compare capacity for two different modes of dendritic integration: (1) linear, where synaptic inputs are summed across the entire dendritic arbor, and (2) nonlinear, where each dendritic compartment functions as a separately thresholded neuron-like summing unit. We calculate much larger storage capacities for cells with nonlinear subunits and show that this capacity is accessible to a structural learning rule that combines random synapse formation with activity-dependent stabilization/elimination. In a departure from the common view that memories are encoded in the overall connection strengths between neurons, our results suggest that long-term information storage in neural tissue could reside primarily in the selective addressing of synaptic contacts onto dendritic subunits.
authors: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Poirazi
authors: B W
authors: BW
authors: Mel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003712:Dendrites / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008433:Mathematics; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology